#FIREBALL – The boat (below) on the left sailed by Ian Pinnell and Daniel Cripps won the 1994 Worlds in Durban South Africa. The boat on the right was sailed by Tom Gillard & Sam Brearey to the World title in 2012, in Mandurah, Western Australia.

So, they are both World Championship-winning boats to the same design, but separated by 18 years....which makes GBR 14415 a Classic Fireball.

This year the Irish Fireball Association intends to promote the Classic Fireballs in our midst by starting the regatta season with a dedicated regatta for them at Killaloe on the weekend of May 19th & 20th, coincident with the Munsters. Additionally, the best placed "Classic" will pick up a "Classic" award at the Nationals to be held in Howth at the end of June.

For the purposes of this regatta, the class is defining the Classic Fireballs as those boats with a sail number earlier than 14600.

The hope is that by having a dedicated Classic Regatta for the older Fireballs we might give encouragement to the owners of these beautiful wooden boats to come and join the regatta circuit on a season long basis.

The Association wants to promote and encourage the Classic fleet using with two approaches;

• Encourage owners of "Classic " boats to attend regattas and participate locally and regionally

• Encourage crews with newer boats to beg or borrow a "Classic" with the view to tuning it up to current standards, thereby demonstrating to its owners that their boat is competitive

The focus on "Classic" is also intended to encourage lower budget completion and make the class more affordable for potential competitors.

Get those wooden beauties going...

#FIREBALL – For the Irish Fireballers sailing in Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series, the morning of Sunday 11th March might as just as easily have been Sunday 10th June such was the weather – clear blue skies, temperatures to 14 degrees and a very light breeze writes Cormac Bradley. This correspondent was able to finish off washing the car in shirt sleeves such was the balminess of the day.

However, as the afternoon approached the blue skies gave way to grey clouds and the temperature, while still pleasant for March, dropped off, to the extent that my stroll to the harbour to view the racing was undertaken with a hat and gloves.

Fourteen Fireballs took to the water in very genteel conditions, though the consensus in the bar of the DMYC afterwards, where we watched the 2nd half of France versus England from Paris – “Allez les Blancs” – was that the breeze was very twitchy and that it was quite cool.

The shiftiness of the breeze was certainly confirmed for me as an observer on the shore when not only the beats but the two reaches seemed to promote lots of place changing. I watched the middle two laps of the 4-lap race and could see that the decision on the beat was whether to take a hitch to the left at the leeward mark and then sail up to the weather mark on port, or sail up to the weather mark immediately, leaving the starboard hitch to the end of the leg. In the two beats I watched both approaches paid for different individuals on successive betas.

The first reach looked very tight and I was amazed to see Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran mis-judged the tightness of the leg to lose the lead (at that stage) to Neil Spain & Hugh Butler when the latter pair sailed over the top of them. Tightly sheeted spinnakers were the order of the day for the entire fleet on that first reach.

The second reach saw the fleet fan out across the course, quite a feat considering the shortness of the leg, but it was apparent that there were different streams of breeze across the course. Mick Creighton, sailing with Ciaran Hickey gybed immediately and pursued a course down the middle of the course. Out the other side, Butler & Oram, Rumball & Moran and Colin & Casey sailed past the gybe mark to chase wind on the outside of the course.

Creighton/Hickey certainly closed the gap on the leading boats with this manoeuvre and the lead changed hands with Rumball/Moran losing out to Spain/Butler. Amazingly though, on the very next beat, a decision to take a hitch to the left saw Spain/Butler give the lead back again to Rumball/Moran which they held to ultimately take the race.

By their standards, Butler/Oram had a bad day at the office, which started with the start signal. With a committee boat bias, the fleet had assembled ………at the committee boat and they found themselves shut out. They spent the afternoon sniping at the boats in front of them (while I was watching) fluctuating between 2nd and 4th, while ultimately securing 3rd. Performance of the day must go to Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keefe who took a very creditable 4th on the water followed home by Neil Colin & Margaret Casey.   

The score sheet reflected that two boats had a head-start on the rest of the fleet so there were only twelve finishers and the post mortem in the bar suggested that one other boat should be considering whether they had adhered to all the rules on their way round the course.

The day’s mugs went to Sligo Yacht Club’s Peter Armstrong (15060) sailing with a newcomer to Fireballs, Oscar McCullough, for whom today was his second sail in a Fireball.

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club Frostbites; Series 2; 11th March 2012
1
Kenny Rumball & David Moran
15058
Irish National Sailing Club
2
Neil Spain & Hugh Butler
14807
Royal St. George Yacht Club
3
Noel Butler & Stephen Oram
15061
National Yacht Club/DMYC
4
Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keefe
14691
Royal St. George Yacht Club
5
Neil Colin & Margaret Casey
14775
Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club
 

In Series 2, the competition between 1st and 2nd overall remains a 1pt challenge between Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) and Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran (15058). A similar 1pt gap exists between 3rd and 4th overall where the challengers for the third podium place are Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) and John Chambers/Neil Spain & Hugh Butler (14807). 5th overall are Alistair Court and Gordon Syme who are only 3pts adrift of 4th overall.

Today saw the first posting of the combined Series 1 and 2 scores and here again the margin between 1st and 2nd is down to a single point. 3rd, 4th and 5th overall are secure relative to each other and at this late stage in the competition, with only two races left, the only question to be resolved is; Who will be the 2011/12 Frostbite Champions?

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club Frostbites; Series 2 Overall
1
Noel Butler & Stephen Oram
15061
9pts
2
Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran
15058
10pts
3
Neil Colin & Margaret Casey
14775
31pts
4
John Chambers/Neil Spain & Hugh Butler
14807
32pts
5
Alistair Court & Gordon Syme
14706
35pts
 

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club Frostbites
Series 1 & 2 Combined.
1
Noel Butler & Stephen Oram
15061
17pts
2
Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran
15058
18pts
3
John Chambers/Neil Spain & Hugh Butler
14807
50pts
4
Neil Colin & Margaret Casey
14775
62pts
5
Alistair Court & Gordon Syme
14706
66pts

Despite next Sunday being the day after St Patrick’s Day, with all the potential consequences of recognizing our national heritage and the post mortem of England versus Ireland from Twickenham, there will be a Frostbite race, the penultimate of the Series.

#DUBLIN BAY – Although over 40 Dublin Bay Cruisers got some specacular downwind sailing in yesterday morning in the penultimate round of the Dublin Bay Spring Chicken Series the strong north westerlies put paid to yesterday afternoon's DMYC Frostbite racing. The fixture was blown off in blustery conditions about five minutes before the commencement of the start sequence when wind strengths went into the high twenties!

Full DBSC results on this site later.

#FIREBALL – For those travelling from across the water (not the Liffey!), Howth Yacht Club is making a big gesture for June's Irish Fireball championships by promising to accommodate as many visitors as possible in members' houses. The country's biggest club recognises the cost commitment which Fireballers will have to sign up to to compete so this deal might be the perfect incentive. With nine races over three days, visitors will get excellent value for money and free digs only minutes from the club. Hosts insist that guests bringing their own bacon and eggs! Nice one Howth Yacht Club!

#FIREBALL – For the second Sunday in a row, the Frostbite racing was held outside Dun Laoghaire harbour. Weather conditions defied the time of year with sunshine, clear blue skies and extremely mild temperatures. Despite missing a number of regulars, there was a healthy turnout of up to 12 boats.

Tidal management on the first beat was the key to success and Noel Butler & Stephen Oram and Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly particularly got it perfect to round first and second respectively. Behind them was a 3-boat chasing pack of Owen Laverty & Ed Butler, Kenny Rumball & David Moran and Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley. This was the running order for the first half of the 4-lap race using a separate weather mark for the Fireballs.

On the first reach of the third triangle, a troubled hoist of the spinnaker by Miller & Donnelly cost them 2 places when first Rumball/Moran and then Laverty/Butler got through. At the leeward mark of the same lap Laverty, Miller and Smyth indulged in some close quarter manoeuvring with the former two shutting the door on the latter. However, on the next beat Smyth got through to fourth and held on to the finish.

Behind Miller/Donnelly were Andy Boyle & Barry Hurley.

In the race for the days mugs the participants were Mary Chambers & Brenda Maguire and Dave Coleman & Glen Fisher. At. regular intervals in the race these two were in close company, but the ladies won out.

1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram

2 Kenny Rumball & David Moran

3 Owen Laverty & Ed Butler

4 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley

5 Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly

#FROSTBITE – Frank Hamilton and Jennifer Byrne had a great turn of speed in their IDRA 14 dinghy getting on all the tricky harbour shifts and even beating the two RS200s to the finish line last Sunday at the DMYC Frsotbite series. Two Mirror teams had a battle all the way around until a leeward mark tangle with the Laser fleet put some distance between them.

Once more the most impressive sailing was out front with the Emmett and James Ryan and  team showed their heels in the RS400, winning again with some excellent sailing. Results are below to download.

The Fireball race report by Cormac Bradley is here.

#FIREBALL – Bright sunshine greeted the Fireball Frostbite fleet in Dun Laoghaire yesterday and combined with 8-12 knots of breeze, it allowed the fleet to race outside the harbour for the first time this year.

Thirteen boats took to the water and Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran led from start to finish in a five-lap race that incorporated a separate weather mark for the Fireball fleet.

A “deep” first reach that kept the chasing bunch high allowed the wily fox that is Neil Colin, sailing with Margaret Casey, to outsmart everyone bar Rumball/Moran and get to the first gybe mark in 2^nd place. Colin/Casey conceded another place to John Chambers to occupy third and this order remained for 2 laps before Noel Butler got wound up to stage a recovery, overtaking Colin/Casey on the third beat.

Late on Alaistair Court & Gordon Syme and Mick Creighton & Paul McDermott also got through with Court/Syme getting fourth on the last leeward mark, followed by Creighton/McDermott.

It was a day of snakes and ladders on a course that had holes of no-wind, à la Puma in the Volvo Ocean race in China, and big shifts resulting in a lot of place changing.

The all-girl team of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry had an excellent last beat to get into 7^th, followed by Frank Cassidy & John Hudson.

With seven races completed and a single discard in play, the overall standings show that there is competition to be had between 1^st and 2^nd, separated by a point and 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th, separated by four points, with a single point between 3^rd and 4^th.

The Frostbite Mugs were won by Mick Creighton and Paul McDermott who finished in 5^th place.

#FIREBALL – Top Irish dinghy sailing class, the Fireballs have announced the 2012 Irish Fireball Nationals will be hosted by Howth Yacht Club over the last Friday and Saturday of June and the first Sunday of July – 29th, 30th June & 1st July.

This 3-day event will see nine (9) races being sailed under the race management of one of Ireland's leading clubs which has a very impressive recent record of hosting international events:- the Etchells Worlds in 2010 and the J24 Europeans in 2011, together with a host of regional and national events encompassing dinghies and keelboats.

In 2012, in addition to the Fireball Nationals at the end of June Howth will also run the BMW sponsored Irish Cruiser Racing Association Nationals over three days at the end of May. These are just two of some seventeen regional or National events that they will host in 2012.

Situated on the northern perimeter of Dublin Bay, but "round the corner" from Dublin Bay, racing for the Nationals will be on a sea-course where there is very little interference from commercial traffic. The club boasts a sizeable marina, a substantial clubhouse that has its own restaurant and bar and a marina/sailing office that has full-time staff. It enjoys easy access from Dublin Airport and the ferry terminals (10 miles) and in 2010 hosted an exceptionally well run Leinster (regional) Championships for the Irish Fireball fleet.

Its race management team boasts one International Race Officer and several National Race Officers, one of whom is expected to do the "Fireball gig".

The timing of the event has been changed twice to accommodate various Fireball fixtures in the Irish/UK/European Fireball scene, namely the Fireball Europeans in Rome in July (21 – 27th), the 50th UK Nationals (11-17th August) and a number of domestic events in Ireland.

In 2011, we canvassed for commitment to this event from the UK Fireball fleet and got some encouraging responses – one of the main attractions being the concept of multiple races on each day – as opposed to the current UK model of a race a day.

The website for online entries has already gone live, so this article is a very early invitation to come and join us for what we expect to be a very well run event.

Enter the event here

#FIREBALL – Blue skies and a building breeze greeted the fifteen-strong Fireball fleet who took to the waters of Dun Laoghaire harbour for the DMYC's Frostbites yesterday, Sunday 12th February writes Cormac Bradley.

Earlier, the morning had dawned grey and windless which had suggested that sailing might not even be possible, but by 13:00, it was evident that the breeze had arrived and it was building. So while the conditions for racing were improving, the water temperature was static, as one would expect at this time of year. This scribe took a pre-race swim when he and Louis Smyth (15007) had a windward role, under spinnaker, avoiding a Phantom on the water. The water was bracing to say the least!

A competitive first start saw Fireballs distributed along the start line with the likes of Noel Butler & Kenny Mason at the pin end. Going left was the way to go on the first beat as there was more pressure on that side of the course and as the weather mark was approached there were lifts to be had on the way in. A series of bow to transom roundings saw the first five of six boats round in close company with a running order of Noel Butler/Shane McCarthy, Kenny Rumball/David Moran, John Chambers/Connor Kinsella, Neil Colin/Margaret Casey and Louis Smyth/Cormac Bradley. However, the next group was only just behind, with Alastair Court/Gordon Syme, Andy Boyle/Barry Hurley and Luke Malcolm/Shane Diviney fighting each other to get into the lead group. Court/Syme did break through on the second reach and this was the only place that Smyth/Bradley lost throughout the race to win the first set of mugs for the day. There was an element of "tooing and froing" in this middle section of the fleet, with Smyth, Boyle and Malcolm all keeping tight company, but in the offwind legs, Smyth was able to keep his nose ahead of his pursuers. Upfront Rumball and Butler had their usual "ding-dong" session on the water and I had gained the impression that Butler/McCarthy had led all the way round, but onshore it transpired that it was the other way round until Rumball/Moran let them through very late on.

A second race had been declared in advance of the first race starting and the first race was limited to 3 laps. The second race was set at four laps under greyer skies and a breeze that had dropped off in strength. Trapezing conditions still prevailed, but I imagine that most people had their rigs set at 22'8". Yet again the start was competitive and yet again the usual suspects were at the front of the fleet; Rumball, Butler, Chambers, Colin and Court. Observations of the starts before the Fireballs suggested that left would be the preferred side again and so it proved. Again, the rounding of the first weather mark was very tight but in contrast to the first race the leading group didn't open up the same distance on the rest of the fleet. From our perspective, in 7th/8th place, the leaders didn't seem to be as far away and indeed on the second reach of the latter triangles we were on the same leg as the leaders.

Aggrieved maybe at losing the first race so late on, Rumball/Moran led the second race throughout, while Butler/McCarthy were ultimately relegated to third when Chambers/Kinsella took second place. Colin/Casey and Court/Syme swopped finishing places from the first race to finish 4th and 5th respectively, while Malcolm/Diviney upset the group symmetry of finishers from the first race, by beating Smyth/Bradley into 6th.

Derval O'Carroll & Stephen Campion took the mugs for the second race.

 With two races sailed yesterday, the second Series has now recovered the one race lost to weather thus far, so unusually, a complete set of races, across Series 1 & 2 has now been completed. Given the images of snow and adverse weather we have seen from the UK, we have been very fortunate with our weather thus far.

#FIREBALL – Fifteen Fireballs took to the water for last Sunday's Frostbite race but only 14 of them got a finish – Andy Boyle & Barry Hurley (14934, Royal Irish) – were recorded as an OCS! Wind conditions were lively with a WSW Force 4/5 blowing with gusts flashing across the course. The start had a boat-end bias for a change and my various correspondents advise that there were a few capsizes on the day. It also appears that people were doing 720º and 360º for rule infringements and mark-touching.

The first three boats over the finish line, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, Neil Spain & Hugh Butler and Owen Laverty & Ed Butler effectively sailed their own separate race from the rest of the fleet and they enjoyed a race of nip and tuck with places changing between them.

Neil Colin & Margaret Casey finished fourth but behind them a tight bunch were fighting for places. Included in this group were Messrs Rumball & Moran, Malcolm & Diviney, Court & Syme and Miller/Donnelly before the all-lady teams of McKenna & O'Keefe and Power & Barry.

The ladies were well represented today with three all-female teams out on the water, the third being Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire, who finished thirteenth. Derval O'Carroll was also a welcome returnee to the Frostbites, sailing with Stephen Campion. And our Sligo friends, Peter Armstrong & Matt mayron were also out sailing the all-wooden 15060.

Class stalwart Louis Smyth, sailing with Joe O'Reilly, had a bad day at the office – an early interaction with another boat required a 720º with a capsize thrown in as a "double-whammy". At the first weather mark there was another revolution taken when they hit the mark. "Enough said!"

Mug winners for the day were the ladies of 14691, Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe of the Royal St. George Yacht Club.

In overall terms, Butler & Oram stretched their lead over Rumball/Moran to 5pts, while the latter pair have a comfortable 8pt margin over third placed Laverty/Butler.