A very special Golden Jubilee coming up in May provides links to an Irish Olympic Sailing Silver Medal, the Fireball World Championship, and the America’s Cup. W M Nixon finds the widest connections go even further than that to include a pioneering world voyage.

It was in May 1967 that the irrepressible Carmel Winkelmann oversaw the first results of a junior sailing initiative at the National Yacht Cub, her home club in Dun Laoghaire. It became a movement which went on which to have nationwide and worldwide ramifications, so much so that within Ireland we’re looking at an unbroken line in Irish sailing which is continued through the club which currently holds the title of ISA Training Centre of the Year, which for 2017 is Foynes Yacht Club on the Shannon Estuary.

That a successful club at the heart of the Atlantic seaboard can trace an almost magic thread back to something which happened at a club on Dublin Bay a long time ago is quite a story in itself. Particularly when the Atlantic seaboard club itself is imbued, as Foynes is, with the spirit of legendary circumnavigator Conor O’Brien. However, when the story is shaping up to continue with the Golden Jubilee as the latest chapter, it gives us an opportunity both to celebrate, and take stock of what it has all meant.

Foynes Yacht Club, heirs to an Irish tradition of junior sail training which was first formalized by the National Yacht Club 50 years ago. At the Irish Sailing Awards ceremony when Foynes were announced as winners of the ISA Training Centre of the Year Award were (left to right) Simon McGibney (Foynes Senior Instructor), Sailor of the year and Olympic Silver Medallist Annalise Murphy of the National Yacht Club, Elaine O’Mahoney (Foynes Sailing Academy Manager), Pat Finucane (Sailing Academy Principal) and Conor Dillon (Instructor). In a club which is imbued with the spirit of world-girdling Foynes sailor Conor O’Brien, it’s particularly appropriate that Conor Dillon’s sailing CV includes winning the Two-Handed division in the Round Ireland Race, sailing with his father Derek Dillon on a 34-footer. Photo: Inpho
But business first. Anyone who has ever taken part in the Junior Training Programme at the National Yacht Club is hereby alerted – if you don’t know already – that on the evening and night of Saturday May 20th, there will be a very special celebration at the clubhouse. The organisers Carmel Winkelmann and Ann Kirwan are particularly keen to trace those who have moved away, but would find much nostalgic pleasure with the meeting of old friends by returning on this day of days. So if that applies to you, or you know anyone to whom it does, please make contact with the key club administrator whom everyone refers to as “Oonagh at the National”, the proper line of contact being [email protected], tel 01-280 5725.

Bright morning of Optimism. The National Yacht Club slipway in 1967, long before the days of an extensive front-of-club platform, with the new dinghies of the Optimist Class being launched out of the cramped boathouse under the club, and down a steep and often very crowded slipway

To grasp the significance of what is being celebrated, please try to visualize the National Yacht Club as it was fifty years ago. The building itself, standing directly in the harbour, has the air of a fishing lodge in the West of Ireland on its seaward side, and a hint of neo-classicism when seen from the town. But in the early 1960s it was very limited in its shoreside facilites for sailing dinghies. There was a boathouse entered through fine granite arches under the clubhouse itself, but to use it, masts needed to be lowered. It was served by a very steep and easily-crowded slip, while there was access to another slip on the east side of the cub which served a small area where dinghies could be stored. But while there was space for the established classes of Fireflies and some IDRA 14s, some room was also needed for the small tenders for larger yachts moored in the harbour, while the racing keelboats were served by club launches which might be substantial dinghies driven by vintage Seagull outboards.

The concept of a proper dinghy park was still only in its infancy, relatively speaking, for craft such as Dun Laoghaire’s Firefly and IDRA fleets which had been active since the late 1940s. Thus if anyone had a centreboard boat which could reasonably be expected to lie to moorings, she was obliged to do so, and the fleet of small craft lying off the club included the 17ft Mermaids and the 14ft Water Wags.

It could get very crowded on that steep slipway. Paddy Kirwan at the centre of a group making do with limited facilities

To compound the space problems afloat and ashore, during the 1960s the area in the southeast part of Dun Laoghaire Harbour off the National Yacht Club was the focal point for the cross-channel ferry berths. The railway-system serving Mailboat with its emphasis on foot passengers continued to use the Carlisle Pier to the west of the club, but the East Pier was known for a period as the Car Ferry Pier as a busy new roll-on roll-off terminal, which admittedly always had a temporary look about it, had been constructed there to accommodate the new trend in cross-channel travel.

Thus not only was anyone sailing a dinghy from shore at the National YC dong so out of decidedly limited facilities, but they immediately sailed into an area cluttered with a collection of moored boats of all shapes and sizes, and that in turn was set in an area which might have ferry ships berthed close by, or manoeuvring on either side.

Learning curve. Gina Duffy and John Lavery on a close run in 1967. The latter has won many major championships, including the Fireball Worlds in 1995

The comparisons with today’s National Yacht Club with its spacious platform facing out over a much clearer harbour area, and beside it an installation of convenient berthing pontoons, could not be greater. But back in the 1960s, an equally important change was happening – there was a complete re-appraisal of what the most junior sailors really needed in boats and instruction to get the best from the sport.

For sure there were the Fireflies, but in terms of lower age limit they were really aimed at adolescents on the cusp of rapidly growing youth. The other available classes were even more adult-oriented. In fact, the underlying problem was that children going sailing were treated as miniature adults who would somehow pick up the skills of the game through a sort of osmosis, whereas for a crucial period of their lives they would have most benefitted from being treated as a different species, with different boats to meet their needs.

Yet even here, adult views dominated. The grown-ups thought that young people’s boats should at least look like small yachts. Thus a dinghy which was promoted for children by several clubs was the 11ft Yachting World Cartop Heron, which had originally been conceived as a DIY-build which could fit on the roof-rack of the average family car, and was designed with a gunter rig such that all its spars could be stowed within the boat.

It had some good ideas, and with a pretty sheer it fulfilled the adult expectation of what a miniature yacht should look like. But it was surprisingly heavy for its avowed rooftop requirement – you’d have needed a weight-trained family to get it on the car roof. And anyway, it was too large for really small kids who genuinely had the sailing bug.

The southeast corner of Dun Laoghaire Harbour was very different in 1967, with the East Pier re-designated as the Car Ferry Pier. Yet despite the limitations, the Optimist class quickly caught on after its introduction in 1967

So a revolutionary approach was needed, and it came thanks to one of the National YC’s international sailing stars, Johnny Hooper. He had achieved Ireland’s first Olympic Race win with Peter Gray in the Flying Dutchman in the 1960 Rome Olympics when the sailing was at Naples. But as an FD campaign towards the 1984 Olympics was prohibitively expensive with the venue in Japan, he returned to his first love of International 505 Racing, and it was at a big 505 championship in Scandinavia in 1965 or thereabouts that he first became aware of the game-changing possibilities of the Optimist for junior sailing.

Scandinavia being rightly renowned for the elegance of its yacht, it speaks volume for the versatility of the Florida-originating Optimist, the “simple little boxboat that sails surprisingly well”, that Scandinavia should lead the movement towards a world body for a boat which, whatever the traditionalists might think, the kids were clearly loving. Founded 1965, the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) had Viggo Jacobsen of Denmark as its first President with his wife Edith as Secretary, and in that same year Johnny Hooper set about introducing the idea of the Optimist to Ireland.

Now if some ordinary Joe had happened to by impressed by an Optimist at some foreign location, and had even brought one home to persuade his fellow sailors that they were looking at the future, the idea probably would have fallen very flat indeed.

But that’s not the Hooper way. Instead, from his highly respected position he quietly targeted fellow National Yacht Club members who were themselves active sailors, but also had children who would benefit from the Optimist experience, and in time a group emerged which was to include initially Johnny Hooper with his wife Bernie giving the longterm involvement, Peter Gray, Paddy & Barbara Kirwan , Don Douglas, Franz & Carmel Winkelmann, Michael McGrath, Arthur Lavery and several others, many of whom had reasonable DIY skills and could see the possibility of building an Optimist in the basement of their Dun Laoghaire homes without too much disruption of the household. By the Autumn of 1966, the project was under way.

The first of the new fleet sails. Paddy Boyd (left) Ann Kirwan (centre) and Vivienne Lavery right) getting to know their boats

While Johnny Hooper had introduced the idea, he stood back from its continuing implementation, for the Hooper modus operandi was to give an idea enough strength to soon have wings of its own. That certainly happened in the National Yacht Club, for very quickly a manageably small committee was in being, and the formidable Carmel Winkelmann became its secretary. The NYC Junior Programme became her baby, and it always has since been seen as such, even though the number of people involved in administering the programme over the fifty years, as the NYC facilities have expanded and developed to meet the needs of a modern membership, will now run into the hundreds.

In fact, properly organized junior sailing with boats specifically designed for young people’s needs is now so central to Irish sailing that it takes a huge leap of the imagination to visualize the scene as the first small group of National Yacht Club Optimist Dinghies – most of them locally-built either by amateurs or professonals – began to emerge in May 1967 with numbers increasing as each weekend passed. New they may have been, but they reflected their era, with a public Blessing of the Boats outside the Brindley household as a new batch of boats appeared.

Olympic sailor Johnny Hooper speaking at the Blessing of the Boats as a new batch of home-built Optimists awaits transfer to the National’s limited space.

Dun Laoghaire was a different place in those days, with Water Wags and Mermaids expected to lie to mooring. Vivienne Lavery and Ann Kirwan testing their skills with the new Optimists – Ann’s boat (476) was one of the few professionally-built in the first batch of Optimists, she was created by the legendary Skee Gray
But though most young sailors in theory had his or her own boat, before anything approaching full fleet numbers was approached they’d a habit of letting anyone sail some boat or other in the early stages, so much so that although Ann Kirwan was part of it from a very early stage, she admits that even she can’t claim total accuracy when identifying the helm of a known boat.

Going abroad......the new Dun Laoghaire Optimists make their debut at Bray Regatta: Paul, Adam and Lucy Winkelmann with Paddy Kirwan putting in his renowned act as a South American Air Marshall at Bray Sailing Club.

This habit of inter-changing sailors became even more marked in that first year when the early class discovered that the most useful base for their day-time sailing was the little-used Irish Lights service barge moored in the western part of the harbour. Over there, NYC Optimist sailors found much clearer sailing water, and they were well away from the comings and goings of the two cross-channel ferries off their home club, not to mention excessive parental control. In effect, the barge became their day-time base, and they ate their packed lunches aboard it while deciding who would take which boat for the first stage of the afternoon’s sailing. Fifty years down the line, we might well wonder if the Commissioners of Irish Lights are aware of the key role their humble barge played in launching Ireland’s Junior Training Programme.....

Vivienne Lavery and David Ryan getting away from the slip.

Once launched in its viable form in 1967, there was no stopping it, and the names which have emerged just from the National’s junior programme alone (for virtually all clubs now have one) take us over an extraordinary range, and up to the heights of Olympic participation, the winning of major world dinghy championships and associations with the America’s Cup.

It’s Johnny Smullen who provides the latter. The California-based Johnny Smullen in San Diego is now of world stature in anything to do with yacht and boat-building or indeed in marine construction generally, and his talent has been recognized at the highest level as he has worked on major projects for the very demanding Dennis Conner, aka Mr America’s Cup.

Johnny will have inherited his feeling for classics from his father Cass, a great sailor who was such an enthusiast for the Dublin Bay 21s in their original rather spectacular gaff-rigged form that when the class contemplated changing to a more easily-handled and convenient Bermudan rig in 1963, Cass claimed that he could easily rig a gaff-rigged DB 21 in 15 minutes flat. And that included setting the jackyard topsail to perfection. So he brought a DB 21 close into the clubhouse (as you could in those days), and in front of a drink-sipping crowd of observers on the verandah, he did the job within 15 minutes. But they still went ahead and converted to Bermudan rig.

Son Johnny meanwhile was enlisted in the NYC Junior Programme as soon as he reached he lower age limit, and when the 40th Anniversary was being celebrated back in 2007, he sent on his memoirs which well capture the flavour of it all:

San Diego, 17th May 2007

The way I saw it.

I am eight years old and my parents are wondering what to do with me for the summer, it went something like this: “Get him out from under our feet”. I was equally happy to stay at home and play in the back garden, invent stuff and dream up ways to frighten my sisters. Chasing them with worms was a good one.

I was enrolled in the adventure of my life.

At first I was lead to believe it was going to be a fun thing with the opportunity to meet new people and friends, maybe making me more sociable as I was quiet child in a world of my own. I bought into this and showed up for the first day. It was great, lots of people all different shapes and sizes, so there we were all sitting around playing with stuff and one-upping on how my father is better than yours, especially at snooker. The chatter fell silent when along came this very tall white-haired lady with an incredibly loud voice. It was at this point I became suspicious as I had just watched Paths of Glory and A Bridge Too Far, I had seen how the enemy rounded up people and put them in trucks and brought to places, unfriendly places.....

We arrived at Sandycove harbour where we were lined up on the pier. I though this was it, we were then forced to line up at the steps and walk down into the freezing water fully clothed and flail around, there were guards (instructors we were led to believe) everywhere, and just to make sure the torture was effective they made us hold our heads under water for 30 minutes, well 30 seconds, but it felt like minutes. Then we were all forced to walk back to the NYC where our fate was to be determined. Freezing and scared, I was cursing my family and wondering what I had done to them.

He survived.....eventually Johnny Smullen became a keen Mirror dinghy sailor, but he was pessimistic enough to call his boat Splinter

We arrived back at Camp NYC and were lined up and made to wear large cumbersome protective coats, some were yellow, purple, some orange, I guessed they were labelling us, something to do with our religion. Some of these jackets had large protective collars probably to help protect us from the beatings to come, I thought. Our names were branded onto the “Life Jackets” as I started to call them, knowing they would play a key role in our protection.

We were divided into groups and lead away by the guards into this large damp room with arches and a dank smell of cotton, hemp and mould. This was where we were to remain for all the rainy days to be brain-washed, they started by teaching us knots. I was convinced this was going to be how to tie the very knot that would be the doom of us, I compared it to carrying the cross of Calvary. I decided then to be really bad at it in the hopes that one of my knots would slip open and I could dash to my freedom. We also had to jump up, and hand-over-hand along the light blue steel beam that ran across the dark room, this was to make our arms really strong, they had a plan for strong arms – I will tell you about that a little later.

Food consisted of a march up to Wimpeys for a spice burger and chips all drowned in vinegar to disguise the taste, if there was good behaviour we got to go to the Miami Café. The day was long (except Thursdays when we had to get out early) and after a week in Boot Camp we were all tired and weary. What had I done to my family to deserve this?

The second week came along and we were introduced to the ships, rather large wooden craft resembling a landing craft with the flat bow (I was always looking for the hinges). This is where the strong arms came into. We were grouped into six per team, and the guards waited until low tide when we had to carry the ship down a rickety wooden slip (there’s a reason for calling it a slip). Upon its surface there were large wooden rollers but we were forbidden to use those rollers, and to make sure they filed a fat spot on the rollers, deeming them useless. We picked up the incredible heavy boat, all six of us, one on each corner holding a knee, and two in the middle by the oar locks. Later I was to learn the place to be was up at the bow (by the door), it was lightest. I was adapting to this cruel camp. As we descended down to the icy water again fully clothed, we came across a bright green pungent slime. I had what I thought were special sailing shoes, but as soon as I touched the slime I was down. Down hard. The guards started yelling, I knew I had to get up quickly....remember Calvary!....We reached the bottom and stopped, the guards yelled again and made us wade right into the icy deep, still fully clothed. With the landing craft now floating, we had to master manoeuvring, the craft were lined up alongside the slippy slip, that’s the reason they call it a..................

I stepped on the gunwhale. Now at this point I did not understand the physics like I do today, and when you apply a load to any point of the gunwhale of a flat-bottomed craft two things will happen (once only). The opposing gunwhale will come up as you travel down, and because I am as tall as the craft is wide, somewhere in the middle he two surfaces will meet, your face and the opposing gunwhale. After the initial shock, the second shock comes from the icy cold water. Then I found out what the large collar was for as the guards hauled me out of the abyss semi-conscious. Once inside the craft, we were grouped into two and handed oars. Let the games begin.....

After a week of rowing and shipping oars and coming alongside we were all adapting well to boating, there’s nothing to it. Just as we are enjoying ourselves, we are reminded that this is a work camp with launch and retrieval exercise twice a day. The launch and retrieval is carefully timed at 6 and 12 hours intervals to make sure it was low tide and we’d the longest slimiest walk up the rickety slips, observed closely by the guards from the window of the snooker room glaring down at us. Boating is turning out to be challenging but fun, and the new friends are all pitching together to eventually plan an assault on the guards to free ourselves.

The third week came along and there were large wooden poles with white canvas and a stick with notches cut out of it, why on earth did they have to make it harder? It was perfectly simple with the clean decks and oars and oar locks, now the boats are so heavy with this rig up, my bow lifting position is not that smart as we carry down the slip with the sail pressed hard against my face. After countless days of theory brainwashing in the damp room, we have to pass a few tests to prove worthy to sail, if called upon, out to the US Aircraft Carrier John F Kennedy anchored out in Dublin Bay. The first test was to take the stick with the notches and stretch out the canvas and hook onto a rope loop, without falling over this was harder than carrying the feckin’ boat, the second was to line up two pins while hanging over the transom full of chips and spice burgers. If it had hair....

Most of us mastered that task after a few tries, and it wasn’t long before we were sailing out to the sterns of the ferry Hibernia or Cambria, whichever was in port at the time. This went on for a few weeks and as we settled into the routine it got easier as we went on.

During the time in the damp boathouse, usually when it was blowing dogs off chains outside and while I was trying to get the batteries out of the loudhailer, I noticed a beautiful varnished clinker planked boat, it was almost new, and a very wise man was looking after it. This Man was tough as the rivets holding it together and knew everything about the seas. I knew if I paid attention he would help get me through the summer, he did and he is almost responsible for what I do today. Thank you Jack!

The discipline of Boot Camp had turned us into great sailors, great card players, snooker players....it wasn’t until the third stage we found flagons. But not on the night of May 17th 1975, I was at home doing my homework that night....

Ah.....the memories, I hope I have stirred a few, it was the most wonderful time of my life and I wish I was there to get drunk with all of you and play cards till the wee hours, but meanwhile thanks

To Carmel, thank you very much; I always have my lifejacket.

To Jack Brennan, I am always thinking of you up there, and thanks for teaching me how to tie my shoelaces.

To all the instructors Paul, Ann, Jimmy, I never believed the story of the rabbit and the tree, but thanks anyway

And to all my dear family and friends

Lots of love, Johnny Smullen

PS It was me that stuck the coke bottle in the cannon at the front of the club....

Johnny Smullen and Dennis Conner inspect the hull of the 1925-built Cotton Blossom

Cotton Blossom II after restoration by Johnny Smullen

Inspired by Jack Brennan and other master craftsmen, Johnny has gone on to become a shipwright of such skill from his base in San Diego, California, that he in turn inspires others, one of his most famous projects being the complete restoration of the 49ft Q Class sloop Cotton Blossom II of 1925 vintage.

When a complete restoration is contemplated, Johnny doesn’t mess about. The word is that when he and Dennis turned up to finalise the deal on Cotton Blossom and bring her back to San Diego, they found the previous owners sorry enough to see her go, and rather proud of the style in which they’d maintained her. But after they’d gone to sort the details with the new owner, they went to take a last look at the boat. It’s said they found that Johnny had already delivered his opinion on the existing rig by cutting the shrouds and stays at the deck with bolt-croppers, and cutting the old mast off at deck level with a chainsaw.

Maybe that’s an apocryphal Johnny Smullen from taking delivery of another boat. Yet when you see Cotton Blossom in her restored form, it’s clear what Johnny says should indeed be Holy Writ. This is a project of world standard. But what’s even more remarkable is that despite everything the Sailing Boot Camp at the NYC might have inflicted on him all those year ago, Johnny’s love of boats and sailing is such that he has his own personal sweet classic, the lovely 36ft International One Design Altair. She’s sailed as often as possible, and though he can’t make it back to Dun Laoghaire next month for the Golden Jubilee as there’s very major project under way, Altair will be racing with the San Diego classics under the National Yacht Club burgee.

Johnny Smullen’s own pet boat Altair reveals his abiding love of sailing.
John Lavery’s father Arthur was another of those pioneering Optimist dads back in the late 1960s, and John and his sister Vivienne were both in that first batch of trainee sailors. He ended up winning championships in more classes then you could quickly count, but the peak of it all came in September 1995 when he and David O’Brien of this parish won the Fireball Worlds in Dublin Bay.

In fact, the graduates from 50 years of a junior training programme at the National YC can be found in successful positions in many boat classes in many places, but it is the club’s outgoing attitude to those who wish to learn to sail which deservedly provided its most outstanding success. A long time ago a Mrs MacAleavey, a widow with no sailing connections, was looking for a club which would make her increasingly boat-mad daughter Cathy – who had recently bought a clapped-out 420 – feel encouraged in any way to learn to sail. Despite the fact that it was still in process of recovering from a fire in the clubhouse, the NYC showed itself the most welcoming along the Dun Laoghaire waterfront, so much so that Mrs McAleavey felt sufficiently encouraged to buy her daughter a new 420, and that in turn led on eventually to Cathy representing Ireland in the women’s 470 in the 1988 Olympics.

The three children she had with husband Con Murphy went on to get their introduction to sailing through the National YC’s junior programme, and daughter Annalise emerged with the talent and the burning ambition which resulted in a heart-breaking fourth at the 2012 Olympics in the Women’s Laser Radial when a medal had seemid almost certainly within her grasp. But memories of that were entirely laid to rest with the Silver Medal in the 2016 Olympics Rio after a difficult final race in which the lone sailor seemed to stay as cool as you please, while the nation at home watched with bated breath.

The medal-winning moment as Annalise Murphy crosses the finish line in Rio to win Silver.

That it was ultimately a very personal achievement is something respected by her club, and they claim to have done nothing more than provide the first steps on the pathway, and a general spirit of encouragement. But nevertheless the success is all of a piece with the Golden Jubilee which will be celebrated on May 20th, and Carmel Winkelmann continues in her mission of providing a background of training for young sailors of all types, whether they aim only to be a competitive club sailor, or whether they aim for the ultimate heights.

Thus one of her projects in recent years was to find real support for young Finn Lynch, who had reached that difficult stage of being a top junior sailor, yet still had to find his feet as an adult. Thanks to support raised by Carmel, he became Ireland’s representative in the Men’s Lasers at Rio despite going through the final stages of the selection with a training injury recovery problem which may have had an adverse effect on his performance in as the youngest sailor in Rio, aged just 20.

Whether or not he would have been better off not being in Rio at all is neither here nor there. When you’re 20, four years can seem an appallingly long time. The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 must have seeemed aeons away for a young sailor who had shown many flashes of real talent. It was better for him to be in Rio while learning a lot, rather than kicking his heels in frustration in some dead end. And when he needed material help to see through the campaign, it was Carmel Winkelmann who was there to make to ensure that support was available. That will be something else for celebration on May 20th.

Carmel Winkelmann and Finn Lynch at the National Yacht Club, June 2016. Photo W M Nixon

The Dun Laoghaire Frostbite fleet had enjoyed a sunny Saturday in advance of the last day of racing in the 2016/17 Series and early on the Sunday morning there was a further bonus when the Race Management Team advised all participants by Facebook that with the weather in hand we would be racing outside the harbour. The forecast was for 10 – 15 knots from an ENE direction but on arrival at the club there didn’t seem to be quite that much. The sail out to the race area under blue skies and warm sunshine was very pleasant in the sheltered waters of the harbour but outside with a wind against tide scenario there was more of a chop. An early check of the course suggested that going right might be the better option with tide rather than wind being the more critical parameter for the best route to the weather mark.

A General Recall for the Lasers gave an indication of the challenge to prevent the tide sweeping the starters over the line. The Fireballs had a clean start with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) electing to go right immediately on the five-lap triangular course. Frank Miller & Cormac Bradley (14713) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) also went right but not immediately. The balance of the fleet – Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Louis Smyth & Glenn Fisher (15007), Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14864), the “pink ladies” Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) and the Keegans, Peter & Michael (14676) all put in an element of left-hand side before they came back right.

The consequence of this early division is that Miller, Colin and Court were in the fight to get round the weather mark first. Miller ultimately won out for that privilege but both Colin and Court were close on his transom and despite an early sense of having gone the wrong way, Butler was just behind this lead group of three.  Down the second leg of the triangle Court and Colin pushed Miller for the lead and while there were overlaps at the gybe mark, Miller still had the lead. On the second reach, Miller was being pushed by Butler and Court and these three found themselves much more to weather than Colin who discreetly sailed a quieter leg to join the other three in a seamless rounding – almost but not quite – transom to bow of the leeward mark.

Up the second beat there was much more time spent on the right hand side of the course and at the second weather mark Miller conceded the lead to Butler, by a small margin but still had to watch Court and Colin who rounded close behind him. The next two legs were a game of cat and mouse between these three while Butler stretched his lead.

There was fun and games at the second leeward mark as Miller got inside a Laser Vago at the three boat-length mark which initially seemed to be enough to squeeze Colin out for water at the mark but a “coming together” between Colin, the Laser Vago and Miller saw some elevated voices and led to Miller taking turns in response to a suggestion that he go home.  Relegated to the back of the fleet, it afforded this correspondent to see what was happening with the rest of the fleet. The “pink ladies” were behind the leading three, Butler, Court and Colin, but sailed a great third beat to get into second place. Smyth and Power were keeping each other company around the course and by the third weather mark the order was Butler, McKenna, Court, Colin, Smyth, Power, Miller and Keegan.  Miller got two places back over the next two legs to get back in the hunt for a podium place. Butler, meanwhile, was stretching his lead while those behind him were expending energy watching those around them.

McKenna latter half of the race did not go to plan as she dropped back from her lofty second place as Colin, Court and ultimately Miller passed her out. However, with the weather that was in it, trapezing conditions and a tricky tide nobody, other than Butler, could be sure of their finishing position.

Special mention must be made of one particular participant in Sunday’s race! Days after celebrating a very significant birthday, his 80^th, Louis Smyth was on the water racing with Glenn Fisher. He is an astounding testament to what is possible with a determination that says age is just a number. He is an exceptional character who has served two terms as Fireball International Class Commodore, sailed more international events around the globe than possibly any other active Fireballer, has been an enormous source of logistical and technical support to the Irish fleet and is the epitomy of the adage that sailing is a sport for all ages. Many, many congratulations Louis on a significant milestone!!

At the Frostbite prize-giving there were prizes for the second half of the series and the overall series. This was the 42^nd hosting of the Frostbites which continue to be an enormously popular event during the “off-season”. The Commodore of DMYC welcomed everyone to the event and offered his thanks on behalf of the club for the significant team of volunteers who make the Fristbites happen every year.

At the conclusion of the prize-giving, having previously thanked his support team, Frostbites organiser Olivier Proveur announced that due to increasing time commitments he would be standing down from the role, after twenty-two years of service to the Frostbite community. An impromptu vote of thanks by Monica Shaeffer (Wayfarer) to Olivier was concluded with sustained applause and a rousing “three cheers” for the man who has given so much of his time for everyone else’s enjoyment during the winters of the past 22 years.

Merci beaucoup Olivier!   

On Sunday a Fireball launched quietly in the Coal Harbour Dun Laoghaire for the last DMYC race in a very successful series writes Frank Miller. "Nothing to see here" probably thought the majority of those walking the pier as they watched Louis Smyth and crew Glen Fischer sail out to the harbour mouth in light wind and beautiful conditions.

In fact the event was remarkable as just a couple of days before Louis celebrated his 80th birthday.

To sail any boat as octogenarian is an achievement but to sail a fast demanding racing dinghy while still remaining competitive at that age is a triumph.

Hats off to Louis Smyth and many more years of happy sailing.

Today saw very lively conditions for the third last weekend of the DMYC frostbites series at Dun Laoghaire writes Frank Miller. The forecast was suggesting up to force five but in fact the wind Gods delivered a bit more. By the start of the race, the wind was a very solid 16–knots gusting 22. A diminished bunch of sailors did a few test laps of the trapezoid in a Norwesterly breeze before racing got underway.

First Fireball out was Frank Miller with guest star crew Ismail Inan in Dublin on a flying visit, wrapped up a mix and match of spare sailing gear. The pair sped around the course in an attempt to settle back into some kind of groove since the last time the pair sailed together was in the Europeans in Shetland. Things were going well enough until the UJ on the tiller extension broke and the pair sailed slowly and painfully back to the DMYC to pick up a spare. Meanwhile Noel Butler/Owen Laverty appeared on the horizon followed by the Keegans, the Clancys and the "pink ladies" Louise McKenna and Hermine O'Keefe.

By the time racing got underway your correspondent was rooting in his car boot for his spare tiller extension and by the time he returned to the fray racing was underway.

Thus Miller/Inan joined in at the back, one lap in, trying not to interfere with the legitimate starters. From this position we can report that Butler/Laverty sailed a cool solid race keeping things under control and the boat flat, no mean achivement in a race where the majority of all fleets had multiple capsizes. This was brought on by gusts of 36 knots about 40 minutes into the race, keeping the rescue ribs on their toes. Butler's laps of honor saw the Clancys nearest, followed by the Keegans, and Miller/Inan. Thus it ended, by the finish the race committee deemed conditions hairy enough to send everyone home, tired but happy.

Though those returning to the DMYC had the additional pleasures of Hells Gates to navigate in alternate massive gusts and complete lulls. The Keegans won the mug for their troubles.

Racing resumes next Sunday, and then one Sunday sees the conclusion of the series

For the first Sunday of March it was cold and blustery and the racing scene in Dun Laoghaire, for the Fireballs at least, was conspicuous by the absence of Noel Butler, Stephen Oram or their Fireball, 15061 writes Cormac Bradley. In all the time I have tried to cover the Frostbite racing I think I can count on one hand the number of times that there was no presence at all from this particular combination.

It left the race as an easy one for the Clancy Brothers Conor & James (14807) to win, as by the time I reached the harbour, they had a comfortable lead which was never challenged.  Behind them Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) sailed a conservative race without any spinnaker action that I saw to finish second. Alistair Court and Gordon Syme were much more adventurous as they flew spinnaker across the bottom reach of the trapezoid course where nobody else bothered.  However, for all their sense of adventure, they could not close the gap on Miller & Donnelly.  The fourth placed boat was the “pink ladies”, Louise & Hermine (14691) who also sailed a conservative race to stay upright.

Initially the weather station in the harbour complex was not giving any details but the wind was out of the western quadrant of the compass and on my way out is was showing a wind direction of 300˚, a base wind strength of 18 knots with gusts going up to 24 knots and an air temperature of 6.9˚.

With this wind direction the Race Officer was able to set one of the longer courses across the width of the harbour with a weather mark off the block house on the West Pier, No. 2 off the entrance to the marina, No.3 just off the end of the HSS terminal and No.4 in the vicinity of the monument on the East Pier.  The beat was sailed by taking a port tack to the end of the East Pier before crossing the course on starboard. That left everyone putting in a port tack approach to the weather mark.

The top reach was challenging and none of the Fireballs flew spinnaker with the exception of the Clancys who hoisted just as they approached No.2 each time. 2 to 3 was sailed on starboard tack to an area just to windward of the HSS Terminal, at which point a gybe was undertaken to sail towards No.3. In each instance the Clancys dropped at No.3. Court and Syme did fly spinnaker across the bottom reach but the price to be paid was falling off the rhumb line between the two marks. It was very challenging as evidenced by a flogging mainsail over the second half of the leg. 

The four boats were well spread out with Clancys having a lead the length of the top reach over Miller and Donnelly and the other gaps between the boats were also sizeable.

The award for boat-handling must go to the solitary Enterprise which has contested all the Frostbites this season.  Scorching along the bottom reach of the trapezoid, I caught sight of one of the crew being washed overboard, to windward.  Despite the blustery conditions, the remaining crew member was able to take some form of control, turn the boat around and sail back towards their crew member who then clambered over the transom to allow them to resume the race which they finished.

Sunday's DMYC Frostbites saw two excellent Fireball races in lively conditions in Dun Laoghaire harbour. According to the DLH weather site the wind was mostly westerly about 10-12 knots but gusting at times more than 20 knots.

In both races the pin end was favoured but given that the start line was in the crook of the East Pier there was arguably an advantage to starting at the committee end to get the benefit of lifting gusts at the harbour mouth and also the advantage of the incoming tide through the mouth of the harbour. Anyway spoiler alert; the two races were dominated by the rockstar team of Gerbil Owens and Phil Lawton standing in for Noel Butler and Stephen Oram.

From the start of race one the pair worked the right side of the course and led around the trapezoid course without their lead ever being under real threat. Closest boat was veteran Louis Smyth with Glen Fisher who were looking good until they capsized in round 2 of the 4 lap course near the leeward mark, where for some reason the wind always seemed to ramp up a couple of notches.

Frank Miller with Ed Butler snatched second place and appeared comfortable in that position until the gybe mark in the 4th round where an all too casual gybe delivered the traditional punishment. When the pair recovered from their turtle they were about last but they closed the gap on those who zoomed past and finished 5th in the end with Alistair Court and Gordon Syme taking 2nd and Neil Colin/Margaret Casey 3rd.

The start of race 2 once again saw the seven boat fleet stretched along the line. For this race Lawton / Owens switched roles but continued to dominate the race with a lead of a least a half leg. The pair started at the (technically unfavoured) committee end with a burst of speed which allowed them to drive low almost reaching across the fleet positioning them for first tack to weather of the fleet on the port layline to the windward mark.

The first reach was always tight but the configuration of the harbour discouraged going too high too soon so for both races it was a tricky and close first reach with a near run on the second and a beam reach for the third.

Following Owens/Lawton were Court/Syme and then Miller/Butler. The latter took over the 2nd place on the beat by taking the lifting gusts available on the right side of the course.

This time they kept their noses clean and their mast in the air and held onto that place till the end. Hot on their heels remained Court/Symes but special mention should go to Dara McDonagh who was never far off the lead in his composite fireball proving that a well maintained 20 year old boat is perfectly competitive in the right hands . Spare a thought for Smyth/Fisher; in the second race they had a close encounter with Louise McKenna/Hermine O’Keeffe which resulted in their outhaul being flicked off the end of their boom and sent them home earlier than planned.

All in all this was a terrific days racing in mild but gusty conditions snatched from the jaws of an Irish February ...

The fat lady hadn’t sung……….or the sailing equivalent! In truth, that storyline is only one of a number of possible headlines that I contemplated before writing this Fireball report writes Cormac Bradley.  Last week I wrote of the vagaries of weather forecasting and this week was no different and that too could form a headline. As I had been “booked” to sail earlier than normal in the preceding week, I was watching the forecast for Sunday correspondingly early as well. By Wednesday, the seven-day forecast on XCWeather was suggesting that sailing wouldn’t be possible at all. But as the week progressed, so the forecast became more favourable, until at 12 noon on Sunday, the forecast for 15:00 was down to 9 – 14 knots from a westerly direction.

Except it seems, that wasn’t the case. As I stopped at a red light on my way to the club, a well-known sailing character was “loitering with intent” outside the chandlers, waiting for them to open. He told me that 10 minutes prior there wasn’t a breath inside the harbour, whereas there was now enough to get a race underway. Indeed, after the race I found out that the big-boat racing of the morning had been cancelled due to a lack of wind.

Rigging in a hurry, because I had arrived late, again the suggestion was that there wasn’t a great deal of breeze but as we launched the word was that we were going to be sailing outside.  That suggested breeze! And oh how much breeze there was – full on trapezing conditions!

A five-lap race was set outside the harbour with a start area just to the west of the harbour mouth. Inside the harbour there was some protection from the westerly even if there was the occasional squall coming across the water, but once outside, rigs were adjusted as the full force of the westerly became apparent. One Fireball took a swim before the start!

Eight Fireballs assembled for the start and they all headed leftwards off the start line, in parallel with the PY fleet which had gone that direction as well, six minutes earlier. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) got quickly into the groove and started to pull away at an early stage.  Behind them a tight bunch formed, made up of Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713), Conor & James Clancy (14807), Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) and Louise McKenna & Cormac Bradley (14691). Darragh McDonagh and crew, with sail number 15058, were in touch with this bigger group but Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) were slightly off the pace and both became early retirees, with the former pair caught out by the chill of the westerly and the robust conditions – they had too few layers on!

Butler & Oram led comfortably at the first weather mark but the group that followed them was very tight with McKenna on the inside, Miller to her weather, Court to Miller’s weather and the Clancys a bit further out on the outside of the bunch – none of them having clear water (in a bow to stern sense) relative to the others. Behind the bunch, McDonagh was lurking!

While the fleet all gybed at Mark 2 the first time, it wasn’t the right thing to do because it left the approach to Mark 3 awkward as one had to sail by the lee to get there.  However, after everyone in the bunch had gybed, McKenna was the windward-most boat and sailed into a clear 2^nd place by Mark 3. Mark 3 to Mark 4 was too tight even for Butler & Oram, so the rest of us followed their lead and dropped bag for a tight two sail reach across the bottom of the course.

Whereas everyone had gone principally left on the first beat, the fashionable thing to do the second time was go right. Butler and McKenna went this way but the boats behind them were eventually required to go left and work a course inside the confines of the course. Up the second beat the Clancys took over second spot though they were a good distance behind Butler & Oram. McKenna, Miller & Court then took over the competitive mantle as they rounded the weather mark and charged off towards Mark 2, this time sailing past Mark 2 to get a better angle in to Mark 3. McKenna held the other two off to Mark 3 before dropping the spinnaker and putting the leeward sheet under the boat.

This time McKenna followed Butler & Clancy by going left on the beat but couldn’t cover both her chasers as Miller went right while after a short hitch to the right, Court also came left. By the third weather mark, Butler & Clancy were comfortable and both Miller & Court had passed McKenna to relegate her to fifth.  A spinnaker hoist was attempted to see if the sheet under the boat could be freed but to no avail.  Miller & Court then played cat and mouse with each other with Miller flying spinnaker across the bottom reach on the third lap.

At the front of the fleet, there was no sense that Butler would be headed by Clancy, he was comfortably ahead. However, by the last rounding of Mark 3, the distance between them had closed significantly though Butler still had the lead. But on the last reach from Mark 3 to Mark 4, Butler & Oram decided to fly bag and soon found themselves having to bear off considerably before being forced into an Aussie drop to get back to Mark 4. Clancy played safe and two-sailed the leg in a straight line to go into the lead. In the short hitch to the finish, Clancy kept a vigil on Butler to secure an unexpected win! The fat lady had sung!

Afterwards it turned out that Butler & Oram lost their significant lead in a capsize, with spinnaker, when they went wide at Mark 2. However, while they righted quickly, the spinnaker sheet was snagged on the boom which wasn’t ideal in the conditions. The different approaches to the last leg was down to personal choice, but from my perspective on the water, flying bag across the bottom of the course cost Butler & Oram the win.    

Darragh McDonagh and crew won the Frostbite Mugs for the day. 

The UK Fireball class in association with Lyme Regis sailing club have opened entries for the 2017 Fireball Europeans & Nationals. 

The first round of early entry closes on the 19th March for an event scheduled for 18th-25th August.

The class is expecting competitors from all over Europe, and interest is already registered from competitors from Australia, Kenya, Canada, and South Africa. Download an entry form below

In the build-up to last weekend’s Fireball racing at the DMYC Frostbites, the forecast from Thursday on XCWeather suggested it might not be possible to get a race in, but by early Sunday morning the forecast was down to 12 – 18 knots from the SE writes Cormac Bradley. The Windfinder app and the Met Eireann Sea Area Forecast were showing a similar story of about 12-15 knots. The one thing they all agreed on was that the direction would be from a South-Easterly direction.

On arriving at the boat park the situation on the water was anything but what was forecast and it was damp and chilly to boot! Out on the race course it was another story again but surprisingly warmer than it had been on shore. Marginal trapezing conditions were had at the start of the two-race afternoon, but the wind strength eased as the day grew later and only the bottom reach of the trapezoid course was offering any action in this department by the second race.

An oversize blanket would have covered all seven Fireballs at the start of the first race as they cloistered themselves off the aft quarter of the committee boat. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) very soon made a claim to having the best start as they pulled ahead of the fleet and went to the left-hand side of the course.  This proved to be the critical manoeuvre of the first race as they were never headed though Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) pushed them close. Another boat to work the left-hand side was Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) and they too were rewarded with a good position in the early pecking order. In contrast, Alistair Court & Cormac Bradley (14706) bailed out of the cluster and went right. It proved to be one of the few times when a right hand sortie didn’t pay. They approached the weather mark up the starboard lay-line in close proximity to the lead two boats, but before they could reach the mark two other boats put themselves into the gap, Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) and Miller & Butler. The leg from 1 to 2 was a broad spinnaker leg and yet again there was a decision to be made at 2, whether to gybe or not. Maybe because he was always in clear air on this leg, Colin always seemed to get it right and in most instances he didn’t gybe until he was almost inside the harbour mouth.

On the subsequent beats of the five-lap race, there were a number of approaches as to how it should be sailed. None involved going to the corners of the course but rather going a reasonable distance to one side or other without going out on a limb! Butler & Oram kept Colin & Casey on their toes, but despite getting close, the lead pair always had a handful of boat lengths between them and their chaser.

Where the place changing went on was between 3^rd and 5^th. Having learned their lesson from the first beat, Court & Bradley decided on a more conservative approach to the beats and with some close quarter spinnaker got to third place at the penultimate rounding of Mark 4, having had a close fight with the pink ladies and Miller & Butler. Up the last beat, they went left with McKenna & O’Keeffe hitting a BIG right! It was the first time in the afternoon that a BIG right paid and it allowed them to reclaim 3^rd place on the water and a few boat-lengths of comfort relative to Court & Bradley who had been chased up the left-hand side by Miller & Butler. In the lighter breeze, the heavier all male combination couldn’t catch the ladies. 

The course was tweaked for the second race by a shift to port. Again the fleet was cloistered at the committee boat end of the line but this time Colin & Casey were too early, being a half-boat length clear of the start line before the starting signal went. This caused them to go right after they rounded the committee boat end of the line to restart. The rest of the fleet went left initially before working rightwards further up the beat. The delayed start didn’t have an adverse effect of Colin & Casey as they rounded the weather mark in first place and for the second race of the day they were not headed thereafter. However, at the first weather mark, while Colin had his mitts on 1^st, the rest of the fleet could again have been covered by an oversize blanket as they rounded. This time there were new players at the front in the form of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), while the seventh boat in the fleet, Owen Laverty & James Clancy (14807) were also in the mix. Another “average beat” for Court & Bradley saw them with lots to do in 7^th place. Despite the tweaking of the course, the same decision at Mark 2 was in play and again there was a “mixed bag” approach, Colin predominantly favouring sailing on to the harbour mouth before gybing to get round 3.

Close quarter skirmishes were the order of the day for the middle and back of the fleet and by Mark 4, Court had relieved himself of last place. Up the next beat the middle of the fleet condensed and Butler, Laverty, McKenna and Court were soon enjoying spinnaker leg shenanigans on the leg between 3 and 4.

Power & Barry in the meantime were quietly doing their own thing a slight distance apart and soon found themselves in 2^nd place. A sparkling final beat by the ladies saw them round the last weather mark in a solid 2^nd place behind Colin & Casey, but also ahead of Butler & Oram.  They held onto their position, though it got close at the end to record a fabulous 2^nd place. Court also worked hard on the final lap to move into fourth place with Laverty & Clancy in 5^th.

Considering the long-term forecast, the immediate forecast and the assessment of the wind in the dinghy park a great afternoon of racing was had by all, with no-one dropping too far off the pace in either race. Colin claimed he hadn’t won a Frostbite race for a while, so with two in one day he and his crew were in great form. Ditto Marie & Cariosa who worked hard and well to secure the 2^nd.   

Yesterday’s diminished Fireball fleet in DMYC’s Frostbite Series may have been a consequence of the actual weather mirroring the forecast writes Cormac Bradley. XCWeather had been predicting winds of 17 knots with gusts up to 28 knots from a WNW direction and that is what the weather station in the harbour was showing on my arrival – 20.1 knots, a gust of 28.6 knots, a wind direction of 295˚ and an air temperature of 10.6˚. While the air temperature may have been a balmy 10.6˚ for January, it still required a hat coat and gloves to stand and watch proceedings.

Three Fireballs were on the start line at the designated time, Messrs Butler and Oram (15061), the Clancy brothers (14807) and the “pink ladies”, McKenna & O’Keeffe (14691). Later they were joined by Frank Miller and (possibly) Ed Butler, but I am not sure if this latter combination would be ranked as a starter. (Official results today confirm they are both a starter and a finisher).

All three boats sailed to the left-hand-side of the course on the first beat with Team Clancy, Conor & James, the first to peel off to go right. From my vantage point it appeared that they had done the right thing by going right that bit earlier, but by hanging in that bit longer on the left, Noel & Stephen gave the impression of being able to sail that bit freer up the port lay-line to power over the brothers. Spinnakers were broken out on the legs from Mark 1 to Mark 2, but in reality the course was such that Mark 2 was almost incidental from an angles perspective. At the first rounding of Mark 2, Butler & Oram gybed, but all this seems to achieve was to set them up for another gybe to get round Mark 3, followed by another gybe at Mark 3 itself. Team Clancy sailed beyond and probably 20 - 30m outside Mark 2 before they put in their gybe to get to Mark 3. The leg from Mark 3 to Mark 4 proved to be too tight for spinnakers.

On the second beat the lead pair, with Butler & Oram comfortably ahead, sailed on the RHS to the harbour mouth, relative to a weather mark that was of the order of 100-120m to the west of the end of the West Pier. This time Butler was the first to cross the course with Team Clancy hanging on to the outer edges of the course. By the time Butler & Oram reached Mark 4 the second time they had a leg lead on the Clancys. On the third beat, the pair split, with Butler going left and early on it looked as though Clancy may have closed the gap. However, when they actually crossed tacks Butler was still comfortably ahead. On the following beat, they took opposite sides again, except Butler went right this time. It made no difference as the lead was maintained.

Mark 2 had less and less of a role to play in the race as the laps passed, increasingly the lead two boats, flying spinnaker, sailed further and further outside of Mark 2, extending the starboard tack three sail reach to beyond the HSS terminal before putting in a gybe for a short hitch to Mark 3 and a spinnaker drop to two-sail to Mark 4. The “pink Ladies”, Louise and Hermine obviously decided that discretion was the better part of valour and kept their spinnaker in its bag for the day. Ditto Messrs Miller & Butler.