It was difficult to believe that this is the second Tuesday of August considering the weather for this evening’s Fireball race in Dublin Bay writes Cormac Bradley. What started out as a bright day and was still in reasonable shape for a lunch-time walk along the Dun Laoghaire seafront turned into a very cool evening with grey skies over Dublin Bay in a WNW blustery breeze that saw this correspondent almost shivering in the lee of the East Pier wall to bring you this account of the racing. So grey was the scene that the flashing light of the Kish lighthouse, some eight miles offshore was conspicuous in the gloom. The Windfinder app was suggesting 13 knots of breeze, rising to gusts of 18knots and an air temperature of 14˚. With no racing last Tuesday, due to the Bank Holiday Monday, this was a last chance for a race before the Fireball Nationals in Howth this coming weekend.

With high tide just short of 17:00 and a start area that was situated to the east of the 40-foot bathing spot, the furthest east I can recall seeing a start area for a Tuesday night, the right approach seemed to be to get out of the tide and go inshore. The four-boat fleet seemed to concur as they all favoured the pin end half of the line. So far east were they that as they approached the rocks at the 40-foot they disappeared from view relative to the East Pier.

Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) and Louise McKenna and Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) were closest inshore while Conor Clancy and Teddy Byrne (14807) seemed to abandon this tack first and headed significantly offshore. Frank Miller and Grattan Donnelly (14713) looked to be a little off the pace, languishing a short distance behind the others. Heading for a windward mark (with spreader) located in the middle of Scotsman’s Bay, Butler & Oram proved that going inshore was the way to go when they rounded with a comfortable lead. Clancy & Byrne were second, followed by McKenna/O’Keeffe and Miller/Donnelly.

After rounding the spreader mark, Butler & Oram continued inshore before adopting a further two tack- three gybe approach to the leeward mark. Clancy & Byrne followed suit, but fouled up the second gybe under spinnaker and went for a long swim. Long enough for both McKenna/O’Keeffe and Miller/Donnelly to pass them out on the water!

All three upright boats adopted an offshore tack first for their second upwind leg with Butler/Oram so comfortably ahead that they could sail whatever course they wanted. The committee boat was soon on the move and flew a shortened course signal for all classes in just about enough time to get into position for Butler & Oram to go through the finish line. Downwind of them, Miller & Donnelly were gradually reeling in their female competition and passed them out on a starboard tack hitch going offshore. Shortly thereafter they were able to tack onto port to go through the finish line ahead of the ladies. Clancy & Byrne also got a finish after a lengthy swim.

The Nationals will be sailed over Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Howth, with a nine-race programme scheduled for the participants.

On the third day of the Irish summer, DBSC Fireballs had their first seasonal race of the Tuesday night series and the warm weather enticed a fleet of eight boats onto the water writes Cormac Bradley. The projected forecast, using my favoured website was for 6-9 knots of SE and 21˚ at 19:00 becoming 8 – 11 knots Southerly and 19˚ by 22:00.

However, on-site rigging beforehand there was a quietness about the breeze which was quite surprising given the heat of the day, a sea-breeze was the least I was expecting.

An errant rudder downhaul delayed this correspondent’s arrival at the start, but given that the racing took place inside the harbour, the damage was not as bad as it might have been. Our tardy arrival meant that we were able to assess the fortunes of our classmates who had started on time. Those who had started on the pin – and No, contrary to recent practices Frank Miller and Ed Butler (14713) weren’t one of them – found themselves sailing very high relative to the windward mark of the W/L X1 designated course. And the further they went up the “beat” the more they had to bear off to approach the weather mark. Indeed on their port lay-line approach to the weather mark, Louis Smyth & Glenn Fisher (15007) were sailing a parallel course to that between the windward mark and the spreader mark.

A cluster of Fireballs rounded together with Daragh McDonagh & crew (15058) leading the bunch. Also “in there” was Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865), Team Clancy – Conor & James (14807) and Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854). Stephen Oram with Olympian Phil Lawton helming (15061) was hovering as well. On the downwind leg the fleet sailed marginally high and then bore off over the latter stages of the leg to get to the leeward mark, just upwind of the committee boat.

For the second beat nobody went to the left hand side of the course, rather the trick was to try and maintain height, or climb just a marginal amount to defend one’s weather. It was a bit processional!

The only real piece of excitement took place between the second weather mark and the spreader when Smyth and Power had a coming together. Glenn Fisher seemed keen to let the girls know what was happening as he struggled with a spinnaker that had gone between jib and mast! Even though Smyth was in the windward berth, the girls took a turn in the melee of the spreader mark and this allowed your correspondent, crewing for Louise McKenna (14691) to get out of last place. The downwind leg to the finish didn’t generate any place changes that I could see, but there was a tight finish between Chambers & McGuire (14865) and McDonagh & crew (15058/Boat #14330) with information on the water suggesting Mary & Brenda had taken 3rd place confirmed in the DBSC results on-line this morning. Team Clancy took the win with Lawton & Oram 2nd. While Power & Barry took a turn on the water, Smyth & Fisher were recorded as a DNF, so this may be a declaration of fault for the incident between them. In fairness to the Race Committee, it appears the race was victim to a last wind shift just before the start which made it the soldier’s course it became.

For the second race, the Race Committee relocated to a position close to the ferry terminal which is in the throes of being dismantled. A weather mark was initially located towards the end of the East Pier in the harbour mouth, but then relocated to a new position about midway between the East Pier weather station and the memorial on the upper wall. X2 was the designated course length.

The recommendation on our boat was to go for a committee boat start and it seemed we weren’t the only ones thinking that way as Lawton & Oram were immediately below us and Daragh McDonagh and Team Clancy were to weather though Clancy was a little further back. Twenty metres off the start line and Team Clancy were going hard right in isolation while the rest of the fleet headed towards the harbour mouth. The Clancys hit the jackpot by taking a lead that they never relinquished and they were never threatened thereafter. Lawton & Oram rounded second followed by McKenna & Bradley who had a slight gap on the chasing pack, headed by Smyth & Fisher and Power & Barry. A short hitch on starboard after the spreader mark was followed by a gybe under spinnaker to sail in to the leeward mark. McKenna & Bradley seemed to close a short bit on Lawton & Oram and that sensation was confirmed when on the second beat, a starboard/port meeting of the pair caused Lawton & Oram to tack. Smyth too was closing the gap, sailing to weather of McKenna but slightly further astern. The top three stayed as was at the second weather mark and for most the recipe for the downwind leg was the same. Power & Barry broke the trend by going further right than everyone else and at one stage gave all the appearance of being able to sail round most of us on the outside. Smyth too was showing signs of closing the gap on McKenna.

Up the third beat and Lawton & Oram broke free. McKenna & Smyth got into starboard/port territory before, on the final approach to the weather mark, McKenna was able to get back into the third slot. Again, McKenna found herself with attackers inside and out with the wind in the middle seeming to ease. However, there was still enough for her to get over the line in third, followed by Chambers & McGuire.

A smaller than usual fleet of Fireballs travelled from Dun Laoghaire and Skerries to that part of Ireland which makes the claim to being the “sunny South –East”, Wexford writes Cormac Bradley. As the Race Officer for the weekend, Michael Conway, advised at the prize-giving, there would be many a Frostbite weekend at the club that would be less inhospitable weather-wise than the weekend we had just experienced. The warmth of the welcome and hospitality from Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club can’t be disputed and fortunately was in human hands, so complaining about the weather was all we could do! In truth, the various websites used by the Fireball community to get an indication of the weather were all very pessimistic in the week leading up to the event so nobody could have been under any illusion as to what we were going to get – very strong winds, drizzle, if not rain and grey skies the entire weekend. XCWeather, Windguru and Windfinder were all consistent – expect the worst. We weren’t short-changed!!
The Fireball fleet was joined by the Mermaids, a class combination that we haven’t enjoyed at any event that this scribe can recall and while it appeared that the Mermaids haven’t been in Wexford to race for quite some time, the Fireballs were there as recently as two years ago.
At the race briefing the Race Officer advised that due to the impending forecast – for the significant wind to build as the day wore on – he wouldn’t be taking the combined fleets out to sea, even though as things stood the sea area race-course was sailable. There was an audible sigh of relief as the fleet realised that trying to get under the bridge between the club and the outer sea area canted over with 18 knots blowing wasn’t going to have to be the first exercise of the day. The recommendation was that the racing would take place in the inner harbour where there was enough water provided you didn’t try sailing in the fringes! The Olympic course was prescribed as the course of choice.
The fleet launched in partially sheltered waters as the wind was offshore in direction at the club slipway, but the race area was shrouded in mist and as the lead boats went further offshore it became very apparent that the wind conditions were a lot more robust further out. In particular the “funnel” from Ferrycarrig was very active. A sole Fireball flew spinnaker on the way out to the start area and was very glad of the sea-room that existed to the lee of the start area to get it back down.
In these conditions it wasn’t difficult to understand why the start line wasn’t more vigorously contested; combinations were struggling to get onto the start line just to be competitive. Capsizing is an occupational hazard anyway but a silty/muddy bottom for masts to get stuck in was an additional, though redundant incentive not to fall over in the conditions.
Only two Fireballs managed the race though they did not sail the same configuration, the problem being that while the RO had spoken at the briefing of using the Olympic configuration, the flag flying on the committee boat was for a Windward-Leeward course. And in the mist that only lifted after the start only two yellow marks could be seen. Thus “Boat A” sailed to what it thought was a weather mark, only to find it was a gybe mark and claimed to unwind itself to sail around the right configuration of an Olympic course while “Boat B” went to what it thought was a weather mark, rounded every white mark that might have been a spreader mark, as described in the briefing, in the vicinity of the “weather mark” only to realise it was a gybe mark and stopped racing. The rest of us meantime weren’t trying to distinguish between weather/gybe/spreader/yellow or white marks but rather were trying to pull masts out of the mud/silt, being towed home, or were sailing home under our own steam. Even one of the Mermaids capsized which is something I didn’t think happened. Racing was curtailed and the fleet adjourned prematurely to the clubhouse to debate the merits of what was intended/described versus what had happened on the water with Boats “A” and “B” having opposing views on the fate of the episode on the water. Ultimately the race was abandoned and with more wind forecast for the Sunday, the prospect of a “non-event” raised its head.
An excellent meal was had in “The Yard” restaurant in town on Saturday evening with two wives joining the racing numbers and one helmsman leaving to take advantage of the early finish to proceedings to give attention to his “brownie-points” account. At the dinner table a new all-female Irish Fireball combination was announced with individual coaches appointed to helm and crew respectively combined with a shore based support team. This new team have declared their intention to relocate to a warm weather base for the initial phase of their training and the only clue they would give as to this “away” location is that it has a burgeoning reputation for excellent red wine!!
During Saturday night the breeze appeared to drop but the drizzle/rain feature remained – could we get racing in on Sunday? Yes, we could, but only three boats took to the water. As they sailed off, the rest of us wondered if we had made the wrong call as they seemed to be in control. That is until they had to cross the downwind end of the “Ferrycarrig funnel”. Also, under binocular viewing, the start area was well populated with “white-horses. Again, one spinnaker was flown on the way out.
Two races were completed for the three-boat fleet and the finishing order in both races was the same. Olympic courses were sailed and on the first reach of the first triangle the lead two boats flew spinnaker. One boat carried the bag through the gybe to the second reach while the other dropped before the gybe mark. On the downwind leg of the sausage, the lead two again flew bags, but on the second triangle, spinnakers were not a pre-requisite. Again, viewing under binoculars, crews were high wiring off a very aft position with lots of spray and white water in evidence. In the second race, spinnakers were conspicuous by their absence on the triangles.
Despite the high winds, none of the three boats capsized during the races, but two of the three had a capsize each, one before the racing started and another between races. Coming ashore afterwards, Noel Butler and Stephen Oram reckoned it was the fastest they had “flown” in a Fireball under two sails. Ed Butler described it as “hairy……….very hairy”! The most challenging part of the day was the sail home where there were some vicious gusts with jibs flogging violently simply to avoid being blown over!

Irish Fireball Open Championships
Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club R1 R2 Tot.
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram NYC 15061 1 1 2
2 Conor Clancy & Teddy Byrne RStGYC 14807 2 2 4
3 Frank Miller & Ed Butler DMYC 14713 3 3 6

The next event on the Irish circuit is the Nationals which are due to be hosted by Howth Yacht Club on the weekend of 12 – 14th August. All Irish Fireballers are encouraged to make this event. DBSC Tuesday night racing is ongoing.

A sextet of Fireballs enjoyed an evening of close racing in sunshine last night and had the additional attraction of two course configurations in the two races writes Cormac Bradley. By mid-afternoon the XCWeather website was suggesting that winds of 7 – 10 knots from the NW would be the order of the evening and with low water scheduled for 18:36, there would be the usual debate as to which way to go relative to the tide. With it being holiday season, a number of regulars were missing and a work commitment took another crew away leaving Noel Butler with a “novice” crew in the form of World GP14 Champion, Shane McCarthy. Frank Miller had this scribe on board but everyone else was sailing with their regular combinations.

A windward-leeward with a downwind finish was signalled for the first race with the weather mark in the lee of the East Pier. An early reconnaissance of the inshore route to the mark by Miller & Bradley (14713) suggested there might be better breeze on the inside of the course. 50m off the start line that didn’t appear to be the case as Miller had the pin to himself, in contrast to the previous Tuesday, but found himself sailing a completely different angle to those who had started towards the committee boat end. Immediately to weather of Miller was Smyth & Fisher (15007) while Butler & McCarthy (15061), Conor & James Clancy (14807) were further to weather again. That meant that Cariosa Power & Marie Barr (14854) and Darragh McDonagh& crew (15058) must have been on the sea side of the beat. The further the fleet went inshore the bigger the divergence between the line being sailed by Miller and the rest of the fleet.

Power & Barry continued the vein of form they found in the first race of the previous Tuesday by rounding in first place followed by Butler, Clancy, Smyth, Miller and McDonagh, with Miller able to stage a semi-recovery over the latter half of the beat.  With the flood starting to influence the course, the challenge going downwind was to stay on a line that permitted rounding of the leeward mark as the tide was pushing boats to the left of the mark.

While the girls were comfortable in front, invariably Butler and Clancy got into closer company and Miller got engaged with Smyth and McDonagh who had closed the gap to Smyth. A two gybe approach to the leeward mark was the common approach but rounding became rather congested when the fleet caught up with the PY fleet (IDRAs, Mermaids & a RS Venture) in the final approach to the leeward mark. There were exchanges of opinion between Butler & Clancy in this manoeuvre but there was nothing to suggest contact. Miller who had squeaked ahead of Smyth was able to utilise a gap that evolved to sneak onto the beat into fourth place.

Up the next beat the fleet went their separate ways and not much happened by way of place changing but the excitement would evolve at the next leeward mark. With a downwind finish and different course lengths set for PY and Fireball, the two of the leading Fireballs, Clancy and Power found themselves on the wrong side of the PY-ers going for a finish line finish while Butler who was on the other side of the PY fleet rounded the leeward mark into first place. Smyth rounded into second followed by Miller and McDonagh while Clancy and Power were left fighting a rear-guard action to get back into the race.

Rounding just behind Smyth at the weather mark, Miller managed to sail through Smyth’s weather on the spinnaker hoist and early stage of the leg. Behind the pair of them the Clancys had closed the gap promoting a three boat competition to the line. Of these three, Miller was in the inshore slot with Smyth “piggy-in-the-middle”. Problem was that Miller would have to gybe to get across to the finish – could he eke out enough room to clear the other two. With each keeping a wary eye on the other two, they sailed in close company towards the finish. Clancy gybed first, followed immediately by Smyth and then Miller who gained enough of a gap and momentum from the gybe to cross the line ahead of Clancy who sneaked it ahead of Smyth.

With the wind still healthy but starting to drop off a little in strength, an Olympic course was set for the second race with the weather mark staying where it was. An adjusted line facilitated a port tack start by Butler & McCarthy, Miller & Bradley went inshore and the others did the same to varying degrees. This time the inshore route did pay as Miller rounded first, albeit with Clancy and Butler in very, very close company. At the gybe mark, Clancy got to weather of Miller and shortly thereafter Butler too went through his weather. However, the new front two didn’t get overly far away and indeed at the leeward mark Butler was having to call for an inside boat advantage on Miller who, in turn, was asking the same of an outside IDRA.

With Clancy now watching Butler, the pair of them went inshore leaving Miller to go offshore - surely there must be a beneficial tide out there! It may have been as Miller closed the gap on the front two, crossing transoms as he made his final approach to the weather mark. The order was still Clancy, Butler and Miller but now Power was closing the gap and not far behind her was Smyth.

For the remainder of the race, the order didn’t change despite different approaches to the final beat. But, fifty metres from the finish…………….there was an incident that changed one boat’s fortune for the evening!

The swim! As the fleet closed out on the second reach of the second triangle, the tide was pushing the it the wrong side of the leeward mark which was now a limit mark for the finish line with the committee boat flying a shortened course signal – at least that was our interpretation as we contemplated the gybe to get to the right hand-side of the mark and defend our position from the ever-advancing Power. Easy downwind gybe, nice roll…………but as Bradley went for the pole at the mast, the mast itself became the horizon rather than the waterline. A windward roll and capsize in 7/8 knots of breeze was further compounded as the centre board dropped back into the case as the boat turtled.  3^rd place gone! The post mortem suggested that there hadn’t been enough board down. At least the water wasn’t too cold!

In overall terms Series 2 stands as follows;

Last night’s edition of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club’s Fireball racing was, to use the football parlance, a game of two halves. In the first half a reasonable breeze out of the SE (approximately) gave the 8-boat Fireball fleet an interesting time on the water writes Cormac Bradley. By my reckoning high tide was close to race start time but from the east pier, the committee boat appear to be swinging to a combination of tide and wind giving a very curious angle of the start line relative to the weather mark, which was situated in the direction of the 40-foot bathing spot.

Three boats fought to secure the pin-end of the start line – Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), the Clancy brothers, Conor & James (14807) and Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713). A second sound signal immediately after the start prompted all three to go back and restart. Thereafter, Power & Barry headed inshore while the balance of the fleet went offshore, before Louis Smyth & Glenn Fisher (15007) became the first boat in the offshore pack to peel off and follow Power & Barry.

After a clean star and good first half of the beat, Darragh McDonagh & crew (15058) were well placed in the pecking order. At the top mark the running order was, rather surprisingly, Team Clancy, Smyth & Fisher and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691). It says a lot about the vagaries of the first beat that one of the three boats that went back at the start was leading! McKenna & O’Keeffe quickly went through Smyth & Fisher and the remainder of the fleet gybed inside these front three…………with the exception of Power & Barry who headed offshore. Given that the tide may just have turned, this did not appear to be the way to go.

Halfway down the run, with gybes aplenty for everyone except the two girls on the offshore track, the fleet was spread across 200m with Power on the outside and Noel Butler & Peter Doherty (15061) on the inside of the course.

At the leeward mark rounding, Power & Barry rounded clear ahead, followed by Team Clancy and McKenna & O’Keeffe rounding simultaneously but hampered by an IDRA 14. Mary Chambers, breaking in a new crew, Ian (14865) rounded fourth, while another IDRA 14 slowed the rounding of Miller & Butler, followed by Butler & Doherty, Smyth & Fisher and McDonagh. All went offshore with the exception of Miller & Butler who went hard inshore. Halfway up the beat Team Clancy appeared to take a penalty on the water.

By the second windward mark Power & Barry were comfortably ahead and again adopted their offshore approach to the downwind leg. McKenna & O’Keeffe rounded second and followed them. Team Clancy were third, followed by Miller, Chambers, Smyth, McDonagh and Butler. Again, the chasing pack used a number of variants to get to the leeward mark, but Power’s simpler approach was still paying dividends. Behind her, the pecking order was altered again when Butler went from 8th to 5th but McKenna & Clancy were unchallenged in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

At the final weather mark, Butler & Doherty had gained another place, to fourth and they would go on to gain another place in the downwind leg. Initially Power & Barry looked very comfortable on the downwind leg, but McKenna & O’Keeffe had a powerful run to close the gap considerably and the leaders may have nibbling at fingernails as their lead was being eroded. They held on to win by a few boat-lengths with McKenna & O’Keeffe second, Butler & Doherty third, Team Clancy fourth and Miller & Butler 5th.

At this stage the ominous grey cloud that had been hovering in the area delivered on its promise of rain and for a short period the wind strength went up as well. It the space of 5-10 minutes a semi-pleasant evening, in terms of temperature, turned blustery, cold and a mist descended over Scotsman’s Bay. It also introduced a 180˚ change in the wind direction with the breeze coming over the east pier wall from the west.

The committee boat relocated itself halfway down the original course and re-set for another windward-leeward. The rain squall cost the fleet two boats, so only six came under starter’s orders for the second race of the evening.

Yet again there was a three-way fight for the pin, with serial combatants Miller and Clancy joined by McDonagh this time. However, as there was a “normal” start line, they kept their noses clean this time. McKenna & O’Keeffe were keeping out of trouble at the committee boat end. In between, Butler & Doherty also negotiated safe passage away from the start-line but the winners of the first race, Power & Barry seemed to be in trouble early on in this race as they headed offshore in the opposite direction to everyone else. From early on Butler & Doherty set the pace working the port hand side of the course, seeming to keep a loose cover on Team Clancy, their closest opposition. At the top weather mark in what seemed to be a “conventional” beat, Butler led from Clancy, Miller, McDonagh, McKenna and Power. At the spreader mark, Clancy gybed and went offshore while the others held an inshore line initially before they too went offshore.

At the leeward mark Butler had a slow drop but got off lightly as Clancy’s rounding was hindered by an IDRA 14. For the following beat, Butler applied a loose cover on Clancy while behind them McKenna and Miller were sailing in close company with Miller having the upper hand at the leeward mark, an advantage he would lose by the second weather mark as McKenna adopted an offshore approach to the second beat.

The second downwind leg saw Butler & Clancy stay within relatively close quarters of each other, nothing aggressive but following similar general directions towards the leeward mark. McDonagh broke the trend of going offshore for the second run, but it didn’t gain him any places. With the fleet running away from my vantage point, it was difficult to see the relative positions of the boats as they worked their way downwind but at the finish it appeared that Team Clancy had out-manoeuvred Butler & Doherty to take the win (subsequently confirmed by Butler) with McKenna & O’Keeffe holding off Miller & Butler and McDonagh & crew being comfortable relative to Power & Barry.

The Fireball “action” this weekend is the Royal St George one-day regatta with two races scheduled on Saturday. The following weekend we travel to Wexford for the Open Championships which will be sailed in conjunction with a Mermaid regatta. If you haven’t already committed to going to Wexford, we would like to hear from you to see if we can help you to get you there.

Four Fireballs contested the RIYC regatta on Saturday. While the number was low the competition was excellent and no other dinghy class had more boats, surely an indication of the extent to which all dinghy classes are struggling to compete with the attractions of marathons, ironmen, cycling, kite surfing and other challenging sports which appear more attractive and less expensive to the current generation.

Anyway the conditions on Saturday were terrific; a stiff, gusty Northwesterly meant that all boats were tuned to heavy or super heavy and planing upwind and down was the order of the day. In race one the fleet went for the committee end at the start, as much to allow an early tack out into the favourable flooding tide as anything else. Frank Miller and Ed Butler carved out an early lead up the beat but Louis Smyth, sailing with Francis Rowan slipped inside by the weather mark from the port layline. The pair sped away and displayed great speed on the reaches and run while the chasing Miller/Butler were faster upwind. Ultimately although Miller/Butler caught them on some beats their downwind speed won out, especially as Miller/Butler misjudged a gybe and found themselves soaking slowly down to the leeward in an attempt to get inside berth while Smyth/Rowan carved out a fast route with a couple of neat gybes. Not far behind at all were Louise McKenna and Hermine O'Keeffe displaying impressive speed and height despite their much lighter weight. Behind them were Cariosa Power and Marie Barry who sailed solidly throughout but never really threatened to break through to the lead.

In race two the pin was favoured and Smyth/Rowan decided to make it their own. In their enthusiasm they were OCS however and flag X was quickly displayed so they went back round the end. The others shot off on a tack inshore with Miller/Butler faster and in control watching the ladies and discounting the OCS pair. How wrong they were for by the weather mark Smyth/Rowan, having gone straight out to sea, had a solid 15 boat length lead. Again the pair tore off down the reaches with Miller/Butler et al in pursuit. On the beats however Miller/Butler closed the gap and on the second beat in particular judged the layline better and with a lifting tide squeezed up to the weather mark just ahead of Smyth/Rowan. On the subsequent run Smyth/Rowan again looked dangerous and sailed a higher faster angle. This time however they may have overcooked it and Miller gybed inside, picked up a strong vein of wind and sailed fast and low down to the leeward carving out a decent lead. This they consolidated on the next round increasing their lead with a loose cover up the beat and sailing conservatively on the reaches to take the gun, and as winners of the last race, the regatta prize.

Full regatta results here

At last a breeze! Although not quite up to the forecasted gusts of 25 knots plus last night's DBSC racing was held in fantastic conditions with peaks of 20 knots in Scotsmans Bay while further out the Dublin Bay Buoy recorded gusts of 28 knots. A beautiful warm evening greeted the five Fireballers which made it to the start line, just beyond the harbour entrance in a filling tide. Tidal strategy would dictate a committee boat end start and Miller/Donnelly fought with Teddy /Oram for that spot with the former edging out a lead off the line and then tacking inshore out of the tide. Tactics were far from simple however - with huge occillations it was at times worth staying out in the tide in a strong lifting wind. While this pair of boats led up the beat Louise McKenna and Hermine O’Keeffe were very close behind with excellent speed and height showing just how well the boat can perform for all weights with a few tweaks to the rig. Behind them Cariosa Power and Marie Barry held off Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire. While Miller led round the windward he lost out to Teddy Byrne on the run with the latter better judging the timing of the gybe. Miller clawed his way back into the lead on the beat only to lose it at the weather mark by leaving a few extra feet for the tide before tacking while Teddy put in a very neat tack underneath regaining the lead which they never lost on the downwind leg through the finish line.

For race two race officer Ben Mulligan set a triangular course adding the pleasure of a gybe into the equation. Again Teddy and Miller were the main contenders playing nip and tuck up the beat in a reducing breeze with Miller getting to the weather first and leading downwind but losing out with a messy drop at the leeward, giving Teddy/Oram the gap they needed. The latter led to the next windward set beside the finish line but Miller in confusion went through the finish before setting off downwind again giving Teddy an unassailable lead. On the next windward leg the breeze fell off considerably and Miller/Donnelly stalled allowing the lighter, now faster ladies through. Their luck was in however and McKenna /O'Keeffe were knocked down by a sudden gust just yards from the finish allowing Miller/Donnelly through. All in all another great nights DBSC racing in perfect conditions, on the brightest Tuesday of the year.

DBSC results

Seven Fireballs headed out last night for the ongoing Tuesday DBSC series. The meagre wind faded as the boats reached the start area, wisely set inside the harbour by the race committee. A triangular course was set and in due course a start sequence got underway for the first "Slow PY" fleet. These boats struggled to get off the line in the zephyr however and the Fireball fleet, next in the queue, found a raft of slower boats spread out along the line. As the bias had shifted to the pin Frank Miller/Grattan Donnelly went for a port approach, sailing down the line of rafted boats and found a gap and slipped through. Barry McCartin /Teddy Byrne, sailing the good ship Clancy, started on starboard but found enough space to put in an energetic roll tack and also got cleanly away. Noel Butler/Stephen Oram got pinned by Dara McDonagh and had to bail out, and the rest of the fleet struggled to disentangle from the raft.

Thus Miller/Donnelly led till halfway up the beat, when McCartin/Byrne tacked towards the harbour mouth and somehow found an improvement in pressure. They rounded the windward first and were never caught. Miller/Donnelly held their lead on the chasing pack to retain second in a race which was shortened to a downwind finish at the line.

Butler/Oram closed the gap but a quick gybe rather than a bear away at the gybe mark, which initially looked promising, ultimately failed to produce results. To add to their woes veteran Fireballer Louis Smyth, sailing with Joe O'Reilly slipped through them by the finish to take third place. Although this kind of racing leaves a lot to be desired it was still an entertaining evening's competition and full marks to DBSC for getting the race away and finished in the conditions.

DBSC Results

What looked like a hopeless case all day morphed into a decent night's Fireball racing. All day Dun Laoghaire was enveloped in a mild airless haze but when Fireballers arrived to hope against hope that there might be racing flags were weakly fluttering in the harbour area. Seven boats made it outside the harbour where the committee set up a W-L course with the start line quite close to the cruiser Harbour mark. The start took place at low water with a very mild flooding tide just starting. The line being slightly boat end biased the bigger group tustled for that end and the prize of first tack in out of the tide. But was it out of the tide? The course configuration was further out than a typical DBSC Tuesday race and in all likelihood the tide was fairly even over the course. The wind however was not, there were signs that the better breeze was offshore. Thus the Clancys and Noel Butler Stephen Oram got cleanly away and took an initial hitch inshore, while Frank Miller/Grattan Donnelly had a messy start and headed out to sea to clear their wind. The latter went from last place to third by this punt and the places remained more or less constant to the finish where the Clancys took the gun from Butler/Oram. Those who went inshore attempting to avoid the strengthening tide found only less wind and woe.

The second race followed a similar pattern but this time Miller/Donnelly put their money where their instincts lay and headed straight out to sea off the unfavoured pin end, got their breeze and led to the windward mark , and maintained a reasonable lead to the finish, chased down by Butler/Oram, the Clancys, and Louise McKenna/Hermine O'Keeffe. The breeze held up to the extent that the fleet were able to carry spinnakers all the way home. All in all this was another good evening of racing stolen from what had all day looked like a hopeless case.

Results here 

The seven Fireballs who raced in the DBSC Tuesday series last night were treated to near champagne sailing conditions. Boats launched in a good breeze in warm balmy conditions with the first sightings of shortie wetsuits evident. Wind was a very solid NNE reinforced by a sea breeze established over the course of a beautiful sunny day. After a bit of hopping around the race committee set a W-L course with three rounds of the "X3"-course, a teaser course really as that X effectively adds an extra round with a downwind finish. By the time the race was set up the wind had softened somewhat but was still a decent 8knots gusting up to 15. The boats got cleanly away off the line with Butler/Oram, the Clancys and Smyth/Fischer opting to head in initially for a short hitch towards the harbour wall before taking the longer port tackup towards the windward with a filling tide helping them towards the mark. This paid off against those who went out immediately off the start line. The tricky bit out to sea was judging the starboard layline as the tide was pushing boats below the layline ever so slightly. Miller/Donnelly fell victim to this, having to gybe away at the mark behind the chasing boats losing several places. The placings of Butler/Oram, Clancys, Smyth/Fischer didn't appear to change through the legs. On subsequent beats the majority went straight out to sea and although there sometimes appeared to be better wind in towards the harbour those who went out always retained their lead.

Race 2 was set in similar conditions, a bonus of the long summer evenings. In fact if anything the wind improved for the first part of the race. By now the tidal flow was slack or even starting to ebb and there was little difference evident between those who went in our out to see. The Clancys took the former course as did Miller/Donnelly while Butler/Oram and most of the pack went straight out to sea. The three boats were very close together by the windward mark with Butler leading the Clancys and Miller, with the rest of the bunch close enough behind. The order remained the same almost throughout the 2X (ie really three round) race. The main tactical decision was the timing of the gybe on the downwind, not an easy call in the lightening breeze and on a leg with other classes sailing different angles. Several times boats found themselves blushing and sailing by the lee in the slop as they approached the leeward mark, clinging on to the all important inside berth. It was not a soldiers race however as the Clancys managed to punch through Butler's lead on the final beat and held him off to take the race. This was a most pleasant evening's racing.

See DBSC Results