At a time when the Irish Fireball fleet should have been in Howth, welcoming Fireballers from all over the World to the 2020 Fireball World Championships, a 13-boat fleet was contesting what we think is the first National Championship to be hosted in a Covid-ravaged summer calendar. When the Worlds and Nationals in Howth were cancelled due to COVID, Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club offered to host the event and principal regatta organiser, Neil Colin, secured sponsorship from Helly-Hansen.

The headline for this report could have come from any number of sources, “Fireball women to the fore” with reference to the three race wins achieved by our all-lady crews, “Tight racing for Fireball Nationals” despite the points tally on the final score, “Challenging conditions for race management and competitors” reflecting the dearth of healthy wind, or “DMYC step up to the plate to host Fireball Nationals”.

Second Overall Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe

What is most important, however, is that I am able to bring to you a report on a regatta that a few short weeks ago might have been deemed impossible such is the impact of the health crisis. Instead, due to the specific efforts of DMYC and the Irish Fireball Class Association in our case and Irish Sailing who have engaged with the relevant bodies in this crisis to get people back out on the water across the country, there is a regatta report to be written.

Third Overall - Daniel & Harry Thompson

Six different clubs were represented in the fleet, with DMYC claiming the biggest representation at 5, the National Yacht Club, the Royal St George Yacht Club and Sailing in Dublin 2 each and Wexford Harbour Boat and Tennis Club and Lough Ree Yacht Club one each.

Silver Fleet Winners, Clodagh Nash & Glen Fisher

That’s who were present and at a dinner on Saturday night we worked out that there could have been at least another five boats sailing which weren’t due to a series of personal circumstances.

Classic Fireball Winners Colm Breen (left) & Cormac Power Breen with DMYC Commodore Frank Guilfoyle

In addition to the Fireball stalwarts, we had Ben Graf and Alexander Farrell representing Lough Ree Yacht Club in Frank Miller’s “Blind Squirrel” 14713. These two young men have been campaigning a 420 and showed us that the step up to Fireballs isn’t that severe in the conditions that we “enjoyed” over the weekend. The two SID boats were Colm Breen & Cormac Power Breen and Nick Miller & Cearbhall Daly, respectively while Paul Ter Horst and Pavlo Tishkin made their Fireball regatta debut in the recently acquired 14790. And carrying on from last year, Clodagh Nash had Glen Fisher crewing in 14691.

Irish Fireball Championships 2020 Prizegiving MC Neil Colin with Margaret Casey

Proceedings got under late on Friday afternoon in pleasant conditions even if the wind was a little on the sparse side – a subsequent feature of the entire weekend. Defending champions Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) stamped their mark on proceedings with a comfortable win in Race 1 but a tighter win in Race 2. An early indication that this wasn’t going to be a fun regatta for the “420 boys” was confirmed when they took two second places with the third places being shared by Neil Colin & Cormac Bradley (14775) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706). However, a bit like the first round of the USPGA the day before, there was a log jam of boats in third place after two races all counting 9 points – included in the cluster were Colin & Bradley, Court & Syme, Daniel & Harry Thompson (15156, 5&4), Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016, 4&5). At the other end of the fleet, Nash, Ter Horst & Breen were covered by 2 pts.

Regatta organiser, Neil Colin arranged for socially-distanced refreshments to be available after racing where post-mortems were undertaken – but all in good spirit – no pun intended.

The fleet reconvened at 09:30 on Saturday in glorious sunshine but again the wind was conspicuous by its absence. With DBSC racing scheduled and the SB20s also racing in Dublin Bay, Race Officer Suzanne McGarry and her team took the fleet off towards the west to make sure that all of the fleets on the Bay had their “own turf”. Butler & Oram took another win in Race 3, followed home by Graf & Farrell – Was this going to be the pattern for the rest of the regatta? The Thompsons clearly decided that it wasn’t because they started their assault on the title with a third place, followed home by Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14990). McKenna & O’Keeffe counted a 5th place.

However, in Race 4, the applecart was overturned and shortly after the start the leading two boats appeared to be in very close company at the back end of the fleet – surely the “fun and games” wasn’t going to start this early! Butler later conceded that he had had a poor start and it was just coincidence that Graf was in the same vicinity. In persistently light and challenging conditions, the finishing order was; the Thompson brothers, McKenna & O’Keeffe, Court & Syme, with Graf & Farrell 4th, Miller & Butler 5th and Butler & Oram back in 6th, a most unusual result for them – it would become one of their two discards. An early halt to the racing saw the fleet ashore by 16:00 as the fickle wind was getting just too fickle!
With five races down the situation was unusually tight at the top of the leader-board, Butler & Oram (7.0) led by 1 from Graf & Farrell, with the Thompsons a further 3pts adrift but only one ahead of McKenna & O’Keeffe who had a six-point cushion on Court & Syme. Nash & Fisher led the Silver fleet by a one-point margin over Breen & Power-Breen who had a point less than Ter Horst & Tishkin.

Post-mortems followed in glorious sunshine (suitably distanced) and a significant number of the fleet then relocated to dinner in the National Yacht Club.

The forecast for Sunday didn’t promise any more wind and a lot less sunshine. And just as the horse-racing fraternity have a “Ladies Day” at the big meetings, so the Fireball fleet had their own version of a Ladies Day when first Louise & Hermine and then Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) scored race wins. Louise and Hermine won their race in pressured circumstances as the racing at the front of the fleet was tight, but Power & Barry romped home with a “Butler-esque” lead – they got further away from the fleet the longer the race went on! It was a fantastic fillip for the four women and the regatta in general even if Butler, Thompson and Graf might not have shared their joy on the water (in regatta terms).

Butler & Oram scored a second place behind McKenna & O’Keeffe in Race 6 but they were unable to drop their spinnaker completely at the last leeward mark of the Windward-Leeward course. Further investigation, on the water, found that the spinnaker halyard had shredded within the mast, but some very clever manipulation of the main halyard allowed them to get back into racing format with an operational spinnaker halyard. It was a close call! The Thompsons took third in Race 6 and followed up with a 4th in Race 7. Graf & Farrell had a bigger problem in Race 6, scoring a DSQ for going through the start/finish line while the blue flag was flying. They then scored a 6th in the seventh race and these two scores were to be their discards. McKenna added a fifth place to her first place from Race 6 in Race 7 and impressively, considering the pre-race drama, Butler & Oram scored a third in Race 7. Court & Syme had a “purple patch” race in Race 7 to finish 2nd, their regatta high point.

In Race 8, Butler & Oram closed their account in the same way they had opened it – with a win. Behind them the finishing order was the Thompsons, McKenna & O’Keeffe, Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly (14865) – a great result for them – and Graf & Alexander.

As I hope this report confirms, the winners didn’t have the regatta all their own way, even if they had a 7pt margin at the end. Noel Butler acknowledged as much at the prize-giving and the fact that we had four different race winners is a testimony to the competitiveness of the regatta. For the two all-women crews to take three race wins was very encouraging and livened up the competition for everyone. Racing in the Gold Fleet was tighter than the numbers will reflect and some well established Fireballers struggled to keep big numbers off their score cards – no names, no pack drills. The fact that the younger combinations of Daniel & Harry Thompson and Ben Graf & Alexander Farrell enjoyed individual race successes, if not race wins, then certainly podium places, was also good for the regatta.

In the Silver fleet, the final finishing order was Nash & Fisher, Breen & Power Breen, Ter Horst & Tishkin and Miller & Daly.

In addition to the perpetual prizes for 1,2,3 Overall, 1st Silver and 1st Classic, Helly-Hansen provided sponsor prizes which were the subject of a raffle open to the competitors and Race Management team alike. The prize-giving was conducted by DMYC Vice Commodore Neil Colin with assistance from Margaret Casey.

Irish Fireball Championships 2020 Race Officer Suzanne McGarry with her present from the Irish Fireball Class Association

Irish Fireball Championships 2020 Race Officer Suzanne McGarry with her present from the Irish Fireball Class Association

A special word goes to Suzanne McGarry and her race management team who worked very hard to provide eight of the nine scheduled races. While the sun-gods might have shone on them, particularly on Saturday, the wind gods were less generous. At the prize-giving, due thanks were recorded to Suzanne, her team and the organising team of DMYC. Club Commodore Frank Guilfoyle presented the prizes and closed out the proceedings by thanking the competitors, the race management team and his own DMYC team for their collective efforts in making the regatta happen. Frank Miller, representing the Irish Fireball Class, thanked the club and Suzanne McGarry was presented with a variation on the usual gift from the Class Association.

Nine Fireballs took part in specialist coaching sessions at DMYC this weekend led by former Olympic sailor Phil Lawton. The event, supported by Irish Sailing, was geared towards optimizing crew work in a fast two-hander dinghy. Phil spent a solid year with Ger Owens practising and perfecting their techniques in the 470 for the Beijing Olympics so it was a real bonus for the Fireball class to pick his brains. Amongst the regular Fireballers were some younger teams relatively new to Fireballs including Harry Thompson with Jack McDowell as helm, Ben Graf and Alexander Farrell from Lough Ree, and young Clodagh Fischer sailing with her father Glen. The opening message to the sailors was simple - there are two crews in a two- handed boat, what each does is very different but they have the same goal. While the emphasis throughout the sessions was on the (front!) crew's role the importance of communications and mutual support was emphasised throughout. This philosophy underlined Phil’s approach through the many exercise sessions.

When a spinnaker drop is sticky for example the helm should be looking for the source of the problem at the back of the boat, which is frequently the location, rather than waiting for the crew to find the problem alone. And similarly, if at the leeward mark the kite drop is slow the helm should steer hard around the mark to get up on the new course, albeit with jib flapping and spinnaker tubed, rather than give distance away downwind. Throughout the many exercises, short windward leeward courses and rapid triangles the emphasis was on controlled aggression, smooth movements designed to keep the boat flat and driving. Smooth but firm crew movements were emphasised throughout. Phil suggested that the crew(s) actually write out each process on paper (starts, beats, reaches, runs, hoists, drops, mark rounding etc). When the process is fully recorded, assign tasks to each person in the boat. Analyse each action afterwards and see what are the problem areas, how can these be sorted out. Ask if tasks need reassignment - is one person overloaded, consider what happens to these processes in each of the different wind strengths – light, medium, heavy.

The exercises were fast and furious, designed to put teams under pressure and show up any deficiencies in technique or coordination. For example, at one point the course was changed without warning so that a gybe set was required at the top mark. The tiny start line had a strong starboard bias forcing sailors to compete for any available room and oxygen at that side. And to add further pressure on Saturday afternoon the wind kept shifting, shifting, shifting, keeping everyone on their toes. Courses set were deliberately set too short which made forced each leg and required co-ordinated action between crews if the boat was to successfully negotiate the course. During each 5 minute ‘race’ the emphasis was more on technique practice than on winners/losers although the fleet didn’t appreciate that too much and fought tooth and nail to be 1st over the line each time with several ‘liberal’ interpretations of the starting gun.

Amongst the tips from Phil were to break down and list all the duties/actions of crew and helm around the race course. Discuss and work out a breakdown of tasks, i.e. who does what and when and make this the standard routine. This is especially useful for spinnaker work; preparation, hoists, sets, gybes, drops. When it comes to spinnaker drops the crew should use the full height of their body and arms to get the kite down in a couple of pulls rather than “squirrelling”. Build body or muscle memory for these and other set pieces. Another exercise was to talk continually between each other about what you are doing and are about to do. The take-away suggestion was to get out on the water as a single boat and copy the practice sessions which we undertook at the weekend i.e. ultra-short mark rounding with either 1 or 2 buoys or other useful marks in the water at the time. This will build muscle memory. Without muscle memory established for each action, it is not possible to work on boat speed. Boat speed only comes after all the tasks required to sail the boat are innate.

Overall, this event was a great success and sets the stage nicely for the Fireball National Championships at the DMYC on the 7th, 8th and 9th of August. Competitors are invited to enter online now at dmyc.ie

The Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club at the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire Harbour is busy preparing for its early June lift in of boats and cruisers. 

The lift-in was postponed in April due to COVID-19 restrictions but the dinghy, keelboat and club season finally appears to be getting underway in line with social distancing guidelines next month.

Markings on the slipway are to remind members that social distancing rules apply when ashore and afloat.

A new Dublin Bay regatta involving the whole Dun Laoghaire sailing waterfront has been announced for July 31st to August 3rd. 

The 'Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs Solidarity Regatta 2020' is an initiative of all five of Dun Laoghaire's yacht clubs as a response to the COVID-19 interrupted season.

"The event is a joint effort of the DMYC, RIYC, RStGYC, NYC and DBSC", according to Mark McGibney, the sailing manager of the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

We plan to run this regatta from Friday 31st July to the 3rd August.

In these uncertain times, the clubs have also decided to 'book' the weekend of the 5th/6th September as reserve dates if the August dates fall through.

More details as we have them.

Read also: 2020 Irish Sailing Fixtures (The Beyond COVID-19 Version)

The DMYC has taken the decision to cancel the remaining Frostbite races in response to Government guidelines over the Coronavirus spread. 

While it is acknowledged that the numbers taking part do not get to the threshold of outdoor events for cancellation, the view has been taken that cancellation is still the correct decision to take in the current climate.

All competitors in the 2019/20 Series will be emailed a discount voucher which can be used for next season’s DMYC Series.

The 2019/20 prizegiving will be hosted at a later date when the situation has normalised.

There was good news for DBSC Spring Chicken Series sailors who successfully completed their fourth race of the series in strong westerly winds this morning on Dublin Bay. The gusty conditions, however, proved too much for the DMYC Dinghy Frostbites this afternoon and unfortunately, that fixture was cancelled.

The 50-boat Citroen South sponsored Spring Chicken fleet sailed south to Dalkey Island passing a turning mark in the middle of Scotsman's Bay with some of the competitors –  especially the sportsboats – hoisting spinnakers for the relatively tight downwind leg.

A tight downwind leg for J109s off the Forty Foot on Dublin Bay Photo: Afloat

The final race of the DBSC series (the added extra race) will take place on March 22nd.

After three Sundays of no racing due to the ongoing storms of winter, the Dun Laoghaire DMYC Frostbite fleet was able to take to the water yesterday in what were still quite brisk winds but nothing like what we had seen over the past three weekends. During the week before, the forecast had been for quite light winds but late on Friday, XCWeather was showing a change and by late Saturday afternoon, the predictions were up to the high teens in terms of base wind strength. A positive sign for the afternoon was the bigger boats going out in the morning for their DBSC Spring Chicken Series and not being blown over.

The race start was brought forward by an hour to accommodate those armchair fans of a particular rugby match………of which there will be no further reference in this article/report. A brisk westerly greeted the competitors to the DMYC dinghy park and there were plenty of “cats’ paws” on the water. Air temperature was on the cool side, but it was bright.

With the wind out of the west, the longer dimensions of the harbour were available to set a two-lap triangular course with the weather mark set halfway along the inner pier off the West Pier and the gybe mark in the proximity of the HSS gantry. The leeward mark was set off the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier. From the committee boat perspective, the wind was reasonably steady in direction at 270° but my “samplers” of the course told me that the upper end of the beat was gusty and variable and the same could be said for the top reach. However, my Fireball “guinea-pig” was able to report that the angles of the reachs were good.

All the starts were clean and the only complication on the PY fleet was the Fireball of Frank Miller and Neil Cramer (14990) capsizing immediately after crossing the start line. Most of the fleet went left and worked the port hand side of the beat. First to show from a spinnaker perspective was Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) with the Thompsons, Daniel & Harry (15156) not far behind them. Also, conspicuously, the Solo of Shane McCarthy wasn’t far off the lead bunch. This was a quick-fire race as there was plenty of breeze for the top reach and as the leaders sailed down the quieter second reach of the first lap, they had to take a slightly altered course to the leeward mark because of the third start of the day. In the end, less than thirty seconds covered the first three Fireballs at the finish. However, in handicap terms McCarthy turned a 2:30 deficit on the water to a 00:45 win on handicap. That left the first three Fireballs, Butler & Oram, Daniel & Harry Thompson and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) sandwiched between McCarthy and the Aero 7 of Alexander Rumball. On corrected time, 1:36 covered the top five boats.

The Laser Standard fleet has become a dedicated fleet of three – Messrs Arrowsmith, Murphy and O’Leary and in Race 1 this was the finishing order. The 4.7 numbers are also under pressure, but Rian Geraghty-McDonnell continued his winning ways in the first race of the day, followed by Luke Turvey and Evan Dargan Hayes. The Radials won the bragging rights for the biggest start of the day with 22 boats (to PY’s 21) and they enjoyed close racing with a finishing order of Adam Walsh, Conor Gorman, Sean Craig, Owen Laverty and first lady, Shirley Gilmore.

Given the short duration of the first race and the fact that the wind was still healthy but starting to drop, a longer four-lap Olympic course was set with time to rugby still not a problem. The weather mark needed slight tweaking, going slightly further south, or to port.

Again, three clean starts were completed and in the PY fleet, the blue and white spinnaker of the Thompsons was first to show. They had a scorching top reach to pull out a comfortable distance from Butler & Oram. Yet again the trend was to go left initially, before working the port side of the beat. The Thompsons held the lead for the first triangle but by the start of the sausage their lead had been cut dramatically by the chasing Butler & Oram. By the next windward mark, the order had changed and Butler & Oram won ultimately by 1:05 over the younger brothers. Frank Miller & Neil Cramer were third over the line, 1:29 down on the brothers. Yet again the handicap finishing order top five was populated by Fireballs and single-handers – Shane McCarthy’s Solo was 6:33 behind the first Fireball but closed to 16 seconds on handicap. And Alexander Rumball brought the Aero 7 home in fourth, 5:20 behind the Fireball but only 1:27 down on handicap.

In the Standard Lasers, Garvan Murphy took the honours with Chris Arrowsmith second and Conor O’Leary third. In the 4.7s, there was a family affair as Luke Turvey won from his brother Hugh, with Rian Geraghty-McDonnell third. And in the Laser Radials, Sean Craig took the win from Adam Walsh, Marco Sorgassi, Conor Gorman and Brendan Hughes.

An amendment to the sailing Instructions had advised competitors of the addition of a separate finishing mark, situated much closer to the committee boat. In the first race the outer limit mark for the start, a candy-striped mark was still in place at the finish and at least one boat used this as the outer limit for the finish. The errant act of sailing through the finish line when the blue flag is flying, indicating the committee boat is “On Station” for a finish, was prevalent again yesterday and in one of the Laser fleets the art of counting to four appeared to be a problem.

I think most people got ashore in time for THAT event on TV, but I would argue that the sailing was more enjoyable on the day!!

As this report is being written, there is a very wild Dublin Bay in evidence, and the last readout from the Dublin Bay buoy is: Wind Direction 267°, Gust Direction 315°, Avg. Wind 32 knots, Gust 46 knots. Just as well we were racing yesterday!

Frostbites: 23 February 2020.

PY Fleet; Race 1.

1. Shane McCarthy, Solo
2. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, Fireball 15061
3. Daniel & Harry Thompson, Fireball 15156
4. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme, Fireball 14706
5. Alexander Rumball, Aero 7.

Standard Lasers; Race 1

1. Chris Arrowsmith
2. Garvan Murphy
3. Conor O’Leary.

Laser 4.7s

1. Rian Geraghty-McDonnell
2. Luke Turvey
3. Evan Dargan-Hayes.

Laser Radials

1. Adam Walsh
2. Conor Gorman
3. Sean Craig
4. Owen Laverty
5. Shirley Gilmore

PY Fleet; Race 2

1. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, Fireball 15061
2. Shane McCarthy, Solo
3. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme, Fireball 14706
4. Frank Miller & Neil Cramer, Fireball 14990.
5. Alexander Rumball, Aero 7
   
   

Standard Lasers

1. Garvan Murphy
2. Chris Arrowsmith
3. Conor O’Leary.

Laser 4.7s

1. Luke Turvey
2. Hugh Turvey
3. Rian Geraghty-McDonnell.

Laser Radials

1. Sean Craig
2. Adam Walsh
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Conor Gorman
5. Brendan Hughes.

Yet another early call has been taken to cancel the DMYC Frostbites this Sunday at Dun Laoghaire Harbour with winds of mid to high twenties gusting to mid-forties predicted for race time. Storm Dennis has an element of “Denis the Menace” to him.

The proposal is to have an early start on Sunday 23rd , possibly 12:30, in order to accommodate those who want to watch rugby as well – a particular game from Twickenham.

This afternoon's DMYC Frostbite Series racing for dinghies at Dun Laoghaire Harbour has been cancelled due to adverse weather with gusts in excess of 30 knots on Dublin Bay.

Gale force winds are predicted for the Irish Sea later today.

See live Dublin Bay webcam here

This morning's first race of the DBSC Spring Chicken Series did go ahead in the comparatively sheltered waters of Seapoint Bay.

A fleet in the mid-fifties braved a chilly Dun Laoghaire harbour today for the third race of Series 2 of the 2019/20 DMYC Frostbites. Wind strength during the morning in advance of racing wasn’t as brisk as forecast but the direction was right – westerly. The team racers were enjoying good conditions to confirm that the stronger winds forecast for the day hadn’t arrived.

However, the dominant weather feature was the chill factor and some preliminary soundings in the DMYC dinghy park suggested that the idea of a single long race to keep everyone active wasn’t a bad call. And so, the dye was cast! A five-lap Olympic course was signalled by Race Officer Cormac Bradley.

The committee boat set up just off the weather station on the East Pier and the 270° wind direction allowed a weather mark to be set just off the leading starboard leading light into the marina. The first reach took the fleet eastwards beyond the HSS gantry to a position off the Carlisle Pier, leaving the leeward mark between the weather station and the Boyd Memorial.

The PY fleet numbered 23 boats and included Wayfarers (2), GP 14s (2), Kona Windsurfers (3), RS Aeros (3), RS 200s (3), RS 400s (2), the Paralympic 2.4 (1), a Solo, and Fireballs (6). They had a General recall to start, one of the Aeros and one of the Fireballs leading an early charge over the line, causing the limit mark to disappear. That relegated them to the back of the queue! When they did get away, the trend seemed to be to go left into the middle of the harbour before picking a port-hand tack to get upwind towards the weather mark. The first rounding of the weather mark by the PY fleet looked busy and it wasn’t a red spinnaker that was first to break. Instead it was the blue of Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706) and another couple of reds were seen before Butler & Oram (15061) showed! Following what looked like two good reaches under spinnaker, the pecking order was Court, Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14990), Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016) and Ciaran Harken and Michael Keegan (14676) may have been ahead of the aforementioned Butler & Oram. Court/Syme lost their lead with a subsequent capsize on a beat and McKenna/O’Keeffe took on the mantle of leaders though they were hard-pressed by Miller/Donnelly. This latter combination also led the race for a period. However, it seemed that everyone in this race within a race was waiting for the “fat lady to sing”. Rounding the weather mark for the last time, two red spinnakers were well ahead of the fleet, followed by a third red spinnaker. It seems (in the post- race banter) that the first two reds were McKenna and Miller, who it was claimed had a double-digit lead of boat-lengths over Butler. For reasons that weren’t forthcoming, a severe luffing match ensued and there may have been turns taken, which opened a huge door of opportunity for Butler & Oram – which they availed of with both hands to take a win on the finish line. A “squeaky-bum” performance by the pair!!

However, the result on the water wasn’t good enough for them to occupy the podium places on handicap – those places went to the GP14 of Peter & Stephen Boyle (1st), followed by the Solo of Shane McCarthy and the Wayfarer of Dave Mulvin and Ronan O’Beirne. The three RS Aeros (7s) were led home by Kenny Rumball in 5th, followed by Brendan Foley in 6th and Mark Gavin in 7th respectively. Sarah Byrne led the two-person RS contingent home in 4th place while the Fireball of Butler & Oram had to be satisfied with 8th. There was some consternation at the handicap results with the GP 14 finishing 6:25 down on the Fireball but winning by 2:14 on handicap. The Solo was 55 seconds down on the GP14 but 42 seconds ahead of the Wayfarer. The “delta” between the Wayfarers on the water was 1:02, but on handicap, seven boats got in between them.

The three-boat Laser Standard fleet had three starters but only two finishers with Alan Hodgins taking the honours over David Field.

Four 4.7s raced with Kitty Flanagan taking the wing over siblings Luke and Hugh Turvey and Eimear Farrell closed the account in 4th place.
Twenty-six Radials assembled at the start line for racing with a transfer from the 4.7s in the form of Rian Geraghty-McDonnell. This young man has dominated the 4.7s thus far so clearly has decided to up his game for the balance of the series. He started off where he left off with another win on the water, but it was a very close race at the front with the lead boats overlapped every time they cam down past the committee boat on the sausage leg. There were no raised voices throughout any of the manoeuvres to get around the leeward mark and if there had been “fun and games” the senior fleet in this fleet, one Sean Craig would be quick to restore proper order. As it was, he finished in third behind the Geraghty-McDonnell and Kate Fahy. Behind him, in turn, were Judy O’Beirne and Alanna Coakley, leaving the males in the minority of the top five places.
Only one Laser seemed to be disappointed that there wasn’t a second race – everyone else seemed to be happy to go home.

DMYC Frostbites: Series 2; Round 3

PY Fleet:
1st Peter & Stephen Boyle (GP14), 2nd Shane McCarthy (Solo), 3rd David Mulvin & Ronan O’Beirne (Wayfarer).
Standard Lasers:
1st Alan Hodgins, 2nd David Field.
4.7s:
1st Kitty Flanagan, 2nd Luke Turvey, 3rd Hugh Turvey, 4th Eimear Farrell.
Laser Radials:
1st Rian Geraghty-McDonnell, 2nd Kate Fahy, 3rd Sean Craig, 4th Judy O’Beirne, 5th Alanna Coakley.

A quieter than usual DMYC clubhouse saw Peter & Stephen Boyle pick up a Frostbite Mug for their endeavours. There were other Mugs available for collection, but the rule is that you have to be there to get it!