BENETEAU 31.7 Echo- 1. Kernach (Eoin O'Driscoll), 2. Extreme Reality (P.McSwiney/E.O'Rafferty), 3. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power)

BENETEAU 31.7 - 1. Prospect (Chris Johnston), 2. Levante (M.Leahy/J.Power), 3. Magic (D.O'Sullivan/D.Espey)

CRUISERS 0 Echo - 1. Lively Lady (Derek Martin), 2. Tsunami (Vincent Farrell), 3. Loose Change (P Redden & M Mitton)

CRUISERS 0 - 1. Loose Change (P Redden & M Mitton), 2. Lively Lady (Derek Martin), 3. Wow (George Sisk)

CRUISERS 1 Echo - 1. Joker 11 (John Maybury), 2. Something Else (J.Hall et al), 3. Ruth (L Shanahan)

CRUISERS 1 - 1. Joker 11 (John Maybury), 2. Something Else (J.Hall et al), 3. Ruth (L Shanahan)

CRUISERS 2 - 1. Graduate (D O'Keeffe), 2. Dick Dastardly (B.Cusack et al), 3. Red Rhum (J Nicholson & C Nicholson)

CRUISERS 2 Echo - 1. Kamikaze (P.Nash/B.McIntyre), 2. Graduate (D O'Keeffe), 3. Antix (D Ryan)

CRUISERS 3 A Echo - 1. Lady Rowena (David Bolger), 2. Hyflyer (J Barnard), 3. Cartoon (McCormack/Brady/Lawless)

CRUISERS 3 A - 1. Quest (Jonathan Skerritt), 2. Cartoon (McCormack/Brady/Lawless), 3. Cries of Passion (B Maguire/ A O'Connor)

CRUISERS 3 B - 1. Chouskikou (R Sheehan/R Hickey), 2. Gung Ho (G & S O'Shea), 3. Taiscealai (B Richardson)

CRUISERS 3 B Echo - 1. Jiminy Cricket (M Tyndall), 2. Chouskikou (R Sheehan/R Hickey), 3. Gung Ho (G & S O'Shea)

DRAGON - 1. Zu (M Minch/C Grimley/T Pearson), 2. Phantom (D.Williams)

FLYING FIFTEEN - 1. Frequent Flyer (D Mulvin), 2. Deranged (A Green/C Doorly), 3. Thingamabob (T Galvin)

GLEN - 1. Glenshesk (L.Faulkner et al), 2. Glenroan (Terence Moran), 3. Glencoe (Rose Mary Craig et al)

RUFFIAN 23 - 1. Diane ll (Andrew Claffey), 2. Ruff Nuff (D & C Mitchell), 3. Ruffles (Michael Cutliffe)

SB3s - 1. Should be... (Michael O'Connor), 2. Seriously Bonkers (P Lee/M Cuppage), 3. Bad (J.Dowling)

SHIPMAN - 1. Gusto (C Heath), 2. Malindi (B.Smith/A.Gray), 3. Curraglas (John Masterson)

SIGMA 33 - 1. White Mischief (Timothy Goodbody), 2. Popje (Ted McCourt), 3. Rupert (R & P Lovegrove)

SQUIB - 1. Perfection (Jill Fleming), 2. Periguin (N Colcough), 3. Kookaburra (P & M Dee)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS Echo - 1. Afternoon Delight (Michael Bennett et al), 2. Aurora (Ray Conway), 3. Windshift (R O'Flynn et al)

WHITE SAIL CRUISERS - 1. Persistence (C. Broadhead et al), 2. White Lotus (Paul Tully), 3. Calypso (Howard Knott)

#fireball – The majority of the eight-boat Fireball fleet in the second round race of DBSC Series 3 will have come off the water having had an entertaining evening writes Cormac Bradley.  I say the majority, for in the blustery conditions there were a number of costly capsizes, one of which resulted in a DNF and another that saw a 4th with a possibility of a 3rd become a 5th.

A westerly breeze was blowing with some quite hard squalls at the start of the evening but the viciousness of the squalls eased off as the evening wore on! An amendment to the sailing instructions saw the Fireballs promoted to the first start and a check of the ebbing tide before the race did confirm that it was pushing us away from the line. The Flying Fifteen fleet was on Race Committee duty tonight and they set an excellent Olympic course of three laps.

Messrs Butler & Oram (15061) went hard left on the first beat and worked the inshore side of the course. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) did the same, from the pin end of the line. Just up from the pin, Smyth & Bradley (15007) could be found, sailing a parallel course to 14775, with Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe (14691) also going left, but astern and marginally to leeward of Smyth. Nicholson & Besslar (14781) went right into the ebbing tide as did Miller & Donnelly (14713) and Power & Barry (14854). Miller & Donnelly broke away from the offshore side of the beat to mix it up with Colin & Casey, while Nicholson & Besslar left that manoeuvre to a little later and crossed ahead of Smyth & Bradley. Later, up the same beat these two would cross each other again with Smyth, on starboard very close to Nicholson's transom!

At the weather mark Butler & Oram were gone again! A cluster of boats rounded together, Colin & Miller having worked the port lay line were ahead of Smyth who rounded just ahead of Nicholson and McKenna. Applying the Adam Bower's mantra of WUMPETA, Smyth stole a modest march on both Miller & Nicholson to get out from under the lee of the one and over the top of the other to allow him to chase Colin & Casey.

The first reach was tightish, but the second one broadened out as the fleet went offshore. McKenna & O'Keeffe's night came to an early finish when Hermine appeared to come off the wire and the resultant capsize, with spinnaker, left them too far behind the pack. Smyth closed on and overtook Colin & Casey to round the leeward mark in 2nd place. However, Colin & Casey stayed offshore for the early part of the second beat while Smyth & Bradley went in and within a couple of hundred metres, the situation was reversed with Colin sitting in 2nd spot. The first four boats gybed at the weather mark to stay out in the ebbing tide and this allowed them to slide towards the leeward mark. Butler & Oram were doing another horizon job! Colin & Casey were in a comfortable 2nd while Miller & Donnelly had closed on Smyth & Bradley to challenge for 3rd. At the 2nd leeward mark the order was Butler, Colin, Smyth & Miller.

The third beat saw the lead boats stay out in the tide initially before crossing the course to work the inside track of the beat. There didn't seem to be any sense of boats closing on the boat ahead of them but Miller stuck close to Smyth. Around the third and final weather mark, Smyth was able to launch his spinnaker before a squall came across the water to stay high. Miller, on the other hand, rounded in the squall and was forced off to leeward trying to get the spinnaker up. This left him fighting to get up to the gybe mark and he ultimately paid the price with a capsize, under spinnaker before he got to that particular "holy grail". The finishing order seemed to be set!

Except down the two reaches, Smyth & Bradley closed on Colin & Casey to the extent that there were only boat lengths between them at the final leeward mark. Colin's rounding left him marginally to leeward of an IDRA (PY fleet) while Smyth was able to round to windward of a Laser (also PY fleet) and all four boats were within a distance of 10 – 15m. Colin tacked to go inshore, crossing ahead of the IDRA. Smyth went over the top of the IDRA and stayed out in what was a foul tide. Halfway up the final beat, with the committee boat relocated further to windward, Smyth & Bradley crossed Colin & Casey with a gap of about 30m and Smyth & Bradley ahead! The remainder of the beat saw Smyth & Bradley covering their opposition to the finish line where they were rewarded with a 2nd place that hadn't looked at all likely throughout the previous triangular lap.

#J70 – The recent arrival of the 22.75 foot 'pocket rocket' J70 design into the Royal Irish Yacht Club has been creating quite a stir.

The J70 represents the culmination of several years design effort by the highly regarded J boats firm.

Having recently sold his SB20 sportsboat in which Dublin Bay sailor Roger Bannon had enormous fun over the last five years, the new challenge he says is to find an alternative boat which provides a similarly lively and rewarding performance with perhaps a bit more comfort and security.

Is it the J70? He took a spin in one and his conclusions are here on Afloat Boats for Sale site.

#fireball – What can I write of last night's Fireball race in Dun Laoghaire? Cormac Bradley reports.

It was a pleasant evening, though not quite what XC Weather had predicted. There was a nice breeze when we went out, but that started to fade shortly after we had finished the first lap. The DBSC Race Committee set a great Olympic-sized course, with a three lap schedule. There was a strong tide, as evidenced by this correspondent having to takes two bites to round the second weather mark of the night. Despite the feast of Fireball racing over the past two weekends, 10 races in 3½ days at Volvo Dun Laoghaire and 9 races in 3 days at the Nationals in Skerries last weekend, there were 6 boats out.

The actual race and how it played out on the water left this correspondent bemused!

A clean start for the fleet as a strong tide, even with only a hour of flood, was pushing the fleet away from the line. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) tack immediately at the committee boat end to head inshore. As each of the next five boats follow suit, one after the other, the stacking order, leeward to windward, is Butler/Oram, Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), Frank Miller & Ed Hyland (14713), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691), Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) and Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar (14891). Nicholson & McKenna peel off further up the beat to go further out to sea. Butler & Oram work the inside track to build a substantial lead at the first weather mar. The race for first place is over already! Miller/Hyland and Smyth/Bradley round in close company with Power & Barry a short distance behind them! Nicholson rounds next with McKenna in last place – a most unusual position for her on a Tuesday night.

Miller & Smyth stay in close company down to the gybe mark where Bradley slips off the windward deck just as the gybe beckons but they recover to close the gap marginally on Miller. However, Power closes on both Smyth and Miller as the three boats approach the leeward mark.

Butler/Oram are already heading inshore again so the next three boats follow suit. Miller is pointing significantly higher than Butler in the distance and Smyth is hanging onto his coat-tails. Power eases off to power (deliberate pun) out from underneath Smyth.

Nicholson tacks immediately at the leeward mark and heads out to sea – in theory sailing against the strongest aspect of the contrary tide. He will be beyond the gybe mark before he tacks again. McKenna tries to work middle and right but is strangely off-form.

Weather mark second time around! Butler & Oram are doing a horizon job on the rest of us. Miller& Hyland have held onto second, Power & Barry are third, but from far (far) left, Nicholson & Besslar have stormed into 4th place. Smyth & Bradley take two bites of the cherry to get round the weather mark, so strong is the tide, and by the time they do get round, Nicholson & Besslar in 4th place are more than halfway down the sausage. In 6th place McKenna has fallen further behind and must be pulling her hair out.

The order remains the same for the balance of the race. Then on the hitch from the last leeward mark to the finish it is apparent, from my distant view point that Butler & Oram have tacked immediately at the mark whereas Miller and Hyland went further inshore. In an amazing turnaround, given the lead that he had earlier in the race, Butler and Oram are forced to work their way inshore to cover Miller & Hyland to protect their lead. The margin of victory at the end was safe, but a barnyard of a lead had evaporated in the space of maybe 500m!
The next challenge for Smyth & McKenna was to make sure they weren't timed out – they weren't!

My sense of bemusement was confirmed by the others when we congregated in the DMYC clubhouse afterwards. Still a bad night on the water beats a good day on shore!

DBSC Fireball – Series 3, Race 1: Tuesday 23rd July 2013
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC
2 Frank Miller & Ed Hyland 14713 DMYC
3 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
4 Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar 14891 RStGYC
5 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb.
6 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe 14691 RStGYC

Series 2 was concluded last week and even though a query on last Tuesday's results was lodged, the results of Series 2, as posted are;

DBSC Fireball: Series 2, 5Races, 1 Discard.
1 Noel Butler & Glen Fisher/Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC 4pts
2 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe/Francis Rowan 14691 RStGYC 13pts
3 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 16pts
4 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC 17pts
5 Conor & James Clancy 150** RStGYC 20pts