Dun Laoghaire Harbour-based Viking Marine supported current and former staff members Antonia and Mary in their weekend entry in the National Yacht Club's Women At The Helm regatta on the J97, Windjammer.

The Windjammer crew competed in the Cruiser 1 category - against a fleet of J109s, a Beneteau 50 and a host of other larger boats, claiming a 3rd, 7th & 5th in Fleet, finishing 5th overall on the first day of light airs racing.

Sunday was a tough 2.5-hour race in light winds, and things got trickier when they were pipped at the post with a 'DNF' due to an almost complete shut down of the wind less than 150m from the finish line.

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The final day of the 2021/22 Frostbites, sponsored by Viking Marine and hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club was bathed in sunshine from start to finish. Across Ireland and the UK we were bathed in sunshine (I was in N Ireland on the Saturday) and given that at one stage we went four Sundays without a race, to have a sunshine day for the Series conclusion was just reward for everyone’s perseverance. From early in the week the forecast had suggested we would have a genteel finish to proceedings and while the strength and direction of the wind for the first race of the day was NOT according to forecast, it didn’t prohibit starting of the race. Albeit we flew a postponement for a short period in case there had been any stragglers who had forgotten to change their clocks and watches overnight.

The wind was of the order of 5/6 knots as the committee boat took up station in the main part of the harbour, but it was much further northwards than had been forecast. Expecting a large fleet for the last day and with the weather we had, a triangular course was set for the first race with a start area set inside the transit from the gybe mark to the leeward mark – triangles make the recording a slightly easier task. The weather mark was set just off the red lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour with the gybe located towards the western breakwater and the leeward mark about 100m off the entrance to the marina and three laps were set.

Stephen Oram (L) (Aero 7) [3rd Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] and Ian O’Meara of sponsor Viking Marine

A modest fleet of 44 boats started the first race made up of PY (21), ILCA 7s (2), ILCA 4s (5) and ILCA 6s (16). All three starts got away cleanly at the first time of asking with a large number of all the starts going left initially. Frostbites Director, Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen (FB 14775) were first to show at the weather mark with their reddish spinnaker and they proceed to pull away from the rest of this fleet for the duration of this race.

Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5) [2nd Series 2, 5th Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC.

Behind them, the rest of the Fireballs were clustered but also in the mix, on the water was the Finn, the IDRA, the RS 400 and, of course, the Aeros.

Daniel O’Connor (ILCA 4) [1st Overall (Series 1 & 2)] with Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Colin’s elapsed time for the race was 33:28 and 1:16 ahead of the second Fireball of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14713) who had 5 seconds on Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854) on the water. Three minutes and thirty-one seconds later, the IDRA of Pierre Long and his son finished. Yet, on corrected time, Colin & Moonen dropped to 7th on handicap, losing out to the IDRA (Long), the Finn (Des Fortune), the K1 (Tom Murphy), the Aero 7 (Noel Butler) the Wayfarer (Monica Schaeffer) and the GP14 (David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne).

Conor O’Leary collects prizes for the ILCA 7s from sponsor Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Conor O’Leary took the ILCA 7s, while in the ILCA 4s who share the start with the 7s, the finishing order was Ava Ennis, Max Cantwell, Emily Cantwell, Zoe Hall and Dylan de Vreeze.

In the ILCA 6s Sean Craig led most of the way round to take another gun, followed home by Michael Norman, Conor Galligan, Conor Clancy and Brain Carroll.

Sean Craig (ILCA 6) [Winner Series 2] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC

By the second beat of this race, the wind has made a substantial shift to the east but given the space between the leaders and tailenders in the three fleets changing the weather mark during the race is well nigh on impossible. So, while another committee boat member finished the mid to late fleets, the Racer Officer reset the course, moving the weather mark closer to the obelisk on the upper deck of the East Pier, moving the gybe mark to a position close to the green lighthouse, leaving the leeward mark where it was. A three-lap Olympic course was then set for the last race of the Series.

Noel Butler (Aero 7) picks up a prize from the additional Christmas Race from Viking Marine’s Ian O’Meara

Again, all three starts got away at the first time of asking but in the ILCAs one of the younger competitors fell foul of one of the doyens of the Class and was obliged to take a penalty on the water for his efforts.

In the PY Class, Colin and Moonen dominated proceedings on the water, breaking out their spinnaker first and sailing away from the rest of the fleet. In the lighter winds of the mid-afternoon, the all-lady combination of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry were proving difficult to catch but weren’t able to lay a finger on Colin & Moonen, coming in just shy of two minutes after the leaders but 1:17 ahead of Miller & Cramer. On corrected time the three Fireballs finished 2nd, 10th and 14th respectively, with Colin giving 1:10 to the 2.4 of Patrick Hassett. Behind the Fireball there was the K1 of Tom Murphy, the Aero 7 of Noel Butler, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and the GP14 of Mulvin & Beirne. Special mention must be made of Noel Butler who finished his first day back with two 4th places after undergoing major (major) surgery in early February.

Frank Miller (FB 14713) collects the Fireball Class Trophy for the Frostbites Series Overall from Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

O’Leary scored a second ace in the ILCA 7s, the Cantwells Max and Emily led the ILCA 4s home followed by Zoe Hall, Dylan de Vreeze and Ava Ennis. And, in the ILCA 6s, Conor Clancy took the win from two ladies, Shirley Gilmore and Judy O’Beirne with the former winning by a “nose” with Sean Craig and Mark Henry closing out the top five.

As this is the concluding report of the 2021/22 Frostbites, there is a large number of results to declare, so they are in tabular form for ease of reading. 

As I was involved in hearing a protest that overlapped with the final prize-giving I am unable to give you the details of who got what, so I am assuming that prizes were awarded on the basis of the table above. I think there is an overall Frostbites prize but I would be wrong to speculate as to how it may have been awarded this year. I can confirm that Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine was present to hand over the prizes under the MC control of Frostbites Director Neil Colin and that Frank Guilfoyle deputised for current Commodore Ian Cutliffe who was unavailable due to illness.

As Race Officer for the Series and correspondent for the Frostbites, may I take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who give so freely of their time to run the racing. To try and name each of them would be dangerous, in that somebody could get left out, but for each Sunday there are at least 16 people who take to the water to provide the racing – 5 ribs with two people apiece and a committee boat of six. A seventeenth person helps with the computing of the results. A further three people help with providing soup and the bar in the DMYC after racing and the DMYC Boathouse crew makes sure everything is ready on a Sunday morning.

And to all those who were asked to sample my beats before racing began, my thanks as Race Officer.

Huge thanks must also go to Frostbites sponsor Viking Marine who were represented at the prize-giving by Ian O’Meara. As you will see from the photographs attached to this report, prizes took the form of glasses and vouchers for this prize-giving and Rick Tomlinson calendars for Series 1. While it might be easy to be blasé about having a yacht chandler on the doorstep of the four Dun Laoghaire waterside clubs, Ian and his staff provide a great service to the sailing community and the convenience of the shop makes life so much easier. Their sponsorship of the Frostbites is a very significant gesture and I would ask all of you to support them over the summer months as best you can.

I am going to revert to being a competitor for the next six months with a busy calendar ahead, including a Fireball Worlds in Lough Derg Yacht Club. I won’t be giving up the reporting though!
Best wishes to all for your summer sailing.

Cormac

Viking Marine is planning a series of competitions over the coming months.

The season is fast approaching and Viking Marine will be running monthly giveaways all summer long, with prizes to suit all.

From sailors to swimmers & paddleboarders and everything in between there will be prizes to interest everyone.

The competitions will be run both on Vikingmarine.ie and on their socials, so be sure to follow Viking Marine on Facebook or Instagram to stay up to date and to enter their fantastic giveaways.

The statistics for the post-Christmas Frostbites make for sobering reading. In nine Sundays up to yesterday, only five races were sailed across three Sundays. There have been six weekends in which no racing took place and four of those have fallen in consecutive weekends, up to yesterday. Therefore, it was great to get two long races in yesterday under sunny but cool conditions. From early on in the week, the signs were looking good for racing and Mother Nature obliged accordingly.

Fifty-seven boats came under a new Race Officer’s order for the first race with newly elected Commodore of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, Ian Cutliffe, the Master of Ceremonies.

David Williams (ILCA 6) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (FB 15016) Photo: Cormac Bradley

With the breeze coming out of the east, the racecourse spanned the longer dimension of the harbour (east-west) and a weather mark was set in the location of the Boyd Memorial on the wall of the East Pier. For the first race, four laps of a triangular course were set with the gybe mark located in the mouth of the harbour and the leeward mark and committee boat about halfway along the western breakwater. This correspondent was on weather mark duty and in my estimation, the breeze was at about 8 – 10 knots for most of the afternoon. When the sun wasn’t behind clouds it was pleasant.

Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly (FB 14865/Red spinnaker), Brian Carroll (218961/ILCA 6) and Ciaran Hickey & Mick Keegan (FB 14676/White spinnaker). Photo: Cormac Bradley

In the PY Class, the race on the water was dominated by Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (15093) who led at the first weather mark and pulled away from the fleet for the duration of the race. They came up the left-hand side of the first beat whereas their chasers came from the middle and right-hand side. And, interestingly, the lead chasers were new occupants of that role, the Fireball of Ciaran Hickey and Mick Keegan (14676). In Class terms, Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly (14865) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016) were in close company and towards the end were chasing down Hickey & Keegan, which meant that Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) found themselves further down the pecking order than they might normally expect. In PY the regular battle for handicap honours is between the Fireballs and Aeros and yesterday was no different. Brendan Foley (Aero 7) was well up the pecking order on the water early on, but sailing in clear air, McCartin & Kinsella finished 5:11 ahead of him on the water at the finish. However, on handicap terms, McCartin’s margin was down to fifteen seconds. Three Aeros finished in the top five, two 7s and the 5 of Sarah Dwyer, while the GP15 of David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (14069) took fourth place. Three more Aero 7s were in the top ten along with the second Fireball of Hickey/Keegan and IDRA of Pierre Long and son.

Shirley Gilmore (216328) and Adam Irvin (8), both ILCA 6s Photo: Cormac Bradley

In the ILCA 7s and 6s the winners led from start to finish; Sean Craig in the ILCA 6 and Conrad Vandlik in the ILCA 7. In the 7s, Chris Arrowsmith and Gavan Murphy closed out the podium and in the 6s Adam Irvin, Shirley Gilmore, Justin Geoghegan and Judy O’Beirne closed out the top five. However, there was some very close racing in both fleets although there was a contrast in fleet numbers, the bigger rig mustering seven boats whereas the slightly smaller rig had twenty-three boats.

In the ILCA 4s six boats were on the water with a win for Emma Lynch followed home by Donal Walsh and Eva Ennis.

For the second race of the day, a four-lap windward-leeward course, the weather mark was moved marginally southwards and the race proceeded in slightly softer wind conditions.

Brendan Foley (1321/Aero 7) leads the Fireball of Hickey & Keegan (14676) at the weather mark Photo: Cormac Bradley

At the first weather mark the Fireballs were in a tighter bunch, with McCartin/Kinsella setting the pace again. However, this time the lead chasers were the all-female combination of Louise and Hermine, with Messrs Hickey, Sinnott and Miller taking the “supporting act roles”. Again, the time challenge for the Fireballs was staying ahead of the Aeros, and the second race margin was 3:15 on the water for McCartin. However, even this wasn’t enough as Brendan Foley took the “paper honours” with a time advantage of 1:06. The distribution of the top five was a bit broader across the classes in Race 2 with an Aero 7, a Fireball, a GP14, a K1 and an Aero 5 taking the honours – Foley, McCartin, Mulvin, Tom Murphy and Dwyer the beneficiaries. McKenna & O’Keeffe took 6th, Ciara Mulvey & Peter Murphy (GP14 11111) took seventh, the Longs (IDRA) eighth and two Aero 7s, Mick McCambridge and Paul Phelan closing out the top ten.

In the ILCA 7s, Conrad Vandlik banked a double by winning the second race of the day, with Gavan Murphy finishing second and Niall Cowman third.

In the ILCA 6s, with an additional two boats in the fleet, Sean Craig also banked a double, but my recall is that he was off the pace at the first weather mark, possibly outside the top five!

He clearly recovered to lead the fleet home with Adam Irvin, Luke Tierney, Brendan Hughes and Brendan Williams in his wake.

In the ILCA 4s, the girls in the first three in Race 1 swapped places with Ava Ennis taking the win and Emma Lynch taking third. In between another Donal, O’Connor, took second.

Frostbiters are also reminded that a Notice of Race for Friday the 18th of March has been posted. This is a) to take advantage of a double Public Holiday (Thursday and Friday), b) to give Frostbiters some more racing though these races will NOT count in terms of the overall Frostbite Series. Mug prizes will be presented on the day, to those classes with at least ten entries, but you have to be in attendance to get your Mug! Free entry to current Frostbiters, all other are asked to make a €20 donation to the RNLI. All interested parties are requested to register via the DMYC website.

Series 2 Frostbites, 6th March 2022

Race 1

PY Class 21 Boats
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (FB 15093)
2. Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
3. Mark Gavin (Aero 7)
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069)
5. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)

ILCA 7s 7 Boats
1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Chriss Arrowsmith
3. Gavan Murphy

ILCA 6s 23 boats
1. Sean Craig
2. Adam Irvin
3. Shirley Gilmore
4. Justin Geoghegan
5. Judy O’Beirne

ILCA 4s 6 Boats
1. Emma Lynch
2. Donal Walsh
3. Ava Ennis

Race 2

PY Class 21 Boats
1. Brendan Foley
2. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne
4. Tom Murphy (K1)
5. Sarah Dwyer

ILCA 7s 7 Boats

1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Gavan Murphy
3. Niall Cowman
ILCA 6s 25 Boats
1. Sean Craig
2. Adam Irvin
3. Luke Tierney
4. Brendan Hughes
5. David Williams

ILCA 4s 6 Boats
1. Ava Ennis
2. Donal O’Connor
3. Emma Lynch

From as early as Thursday evening, the wind forecast for Sunday afternoon and the Viking Marine sponsored DMYC Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour was dodgy, 3 knots gusting four was the prediction! By Saturday that had improved slightly to 6knots gusting to 8, but on Sunday afternoon a preliminary trip to the outer harbour to check the scene was required before a decision was made to try and get a race in. At that stage a group of ILCAs, in session in front of the National Yacht Club were moving sufficiently to suggest a race might be possible. And so, we went out!

While these Frostbite reports are inclined to focus on the competitive aspect of the racing, given the day that evolved, it is only right to acknowledge the volunteers that give their time to running the racing. On board the committee boat, “Goose” there is a team of six people, five of whom keep track of where the competitors are and yesterday that wasn’t easy. In order to lay marks for the races, a further nine people were enlisted, that makes 15 people trying to give 65 boats a race or races as the case may be. To all those volunteers, our thanks.

The Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy fleet spread across Dun Laoghaire Harbour in the search for wind

When “Goose” came out to the race area, a bit more breeze had filled in and the wind was coming out of the southern sector of the compass. The word sector is used advisedly as there was quite a bit of variation in where it was coming from. With the committee boat sitting inside the end of the West Pier, the variation in wind direction, at its worst, would have had a weather mark to the east of the Carlisle Pier or, alternatively, a weather mark at the entrance to the marina. That huge variance eventually gave way to a much more modest swing, but even so the weather mark ended up being in a compromised position, about 175m west of the Ferry dolphins. The leeward gate was just off the end of the West Pier.

Four laps of a Windward-Leeward course were signalled, the premise being that if it went light or silly, the course could be shortened. And the prospect of a second race wasn’t really being contemplated at that early stage of the afternoon.

In the build-up to the start, it seemed Mother Nature might be willing to give the Race Officer a reprieve as we started recording up to 9knots of breeze……..maybe this would work! The 9knots didn’t hang around!
The 28-boat PY fleet, with 10 Fireballs, 7 Aeros, 3 GP14s, 2 RS400s, the IDRA, the K1, 2 Laser Vagos, a Laser Pico and a Wayfarer struggled with their first start, prompting a General Recall and relegation to the back of the queue. The pin was adjusted and the ILCA 7s and 4s, in a 15-boat fleet got away first time with the majority of the fleet heading to the left hand-side of the beat, which was still a beat at this stage.

Next up were the ILCA 6s, of which there were 22 and they too had problems with the line as the wind and my setting of the pin end came in to play. That demoted them to a second attempt at starting behind the PY fleet who again couldn’t get away. After the ILCA 6s, the PY fleet started under a black flag and while there was an even distribution of boats along the line, Neil Colin & Marjo Moneen (FB14775) came in marginally late around the port quarter of the committee boat and seemed to have stolen a march of the rest of the boats further down the line. However, post-race they admitted that they then sailed into a hole and the guys that went left initially stormed in from that side of the course. Another post-race comment was that a particular Aero had been able to lay the weather mark on one tack almost from the start. I must admit I didn’t spot that myself, but there were other signs that things were going awry!

First the breeze had faded and while the ILCA 7s and 4s were running back from the weather mark as I expected, the boats going upwind weren’t all beating. Another tell-tale sign was that the committee boat was now sitting upwind of the leeward gate, but orientated to a S-Westerly bearing, out to the right-hand side of the course. The committee boat moved in an attempt to get a beat in to the finish, even at an early stage in the race but no sooner had the anchor been dropped than it became apparent that the new position wouldn’t work either. A decision was then taken to finish at what had been the weather mark, though what it was now was open to debate. The problem is that with the size of the course and the overall fleet size, there is no time gap in which to shift the weather mark. And abandonment would undo the efforts of all the competitors who had stayed out on the course. Next task was to identify where the leaders in each of the fleets were. The recording team had their work cut out for them today!

A shortened course was signalled at the committee boat together with a flag declaration that there would be no more racing, because at this stage the wind was at zephyr strength and very, very fickle.

To give all the competitors their dues, nobody made a grumble at the finish, and everyone seemed to appreciate that a race had been completed. It wouldn’t have stood scrutiny as a club championship race, but it did allow people to be out on the water on what was a nice afternoon temperature wise.

Viking Marine Frostbites Day 4

PY Class 28 boats
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella FB 15093
2. Cariosa Power & Marie Barry FB14854
3. Stephen Oram Aero 7 3288
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne GP14 14069
5. Roy Van Maneen Aero 7 3822
6. Paul Phelan Aero 7 2523
7. Frank Miller & Neil Cramer FB14713
8. Ronan Wallace & Crew FB 14840
9. Brendan Foley Aero 7 1321
10. Andrew Irvin & Aisling O’Grady RS400 1044

ILCA 7s 8 boats

1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Gary O’Hare
3. Chris Arrowsmith
ILCA 6s 22 boats
1. Brain Carroll
2. Sean Craig
3. Shirley Gilmore
4. Adam Irvin
5. Conor Clancy
ILCA 4s 7 boats
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Emma Lynch
3. Ava Ennis

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From an entry list of 72 dinghies, a fleet of 45 answered the Race Officer’s call and presented themselves in the start area of the Christmas Cracker Race – sponsored by Viking Marine and hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. This event had a very short gestation period, the idea only being floated on the penultimate Sunday of the pre-Christmas Frostbites. The idea was to have a charity race for the RNLI with entry fees capped at €5/boat and a request that competitors donate online to the RNLI.

In the week leading up to the event, the wind forecast varied enormously from the likelihood of no race due to high winds and gusts to a very light affair of fewer than three knots. Fortunately, neither of those scenarios arose and the fleet of 45 enjoyed winds that went up to a maximum of 15 knots, from the East. The air temperature was a balmy 10°.

Robin and Dacha Hilliard in their Flying Fifteen (3729) in the PY race Photo: Ian Cutliffe

The course was set as a “Tour of the Harbour” with marks in locations to make shoreside viewing easier. Thus, a mark was laid inside the end of the Carlisle Pier, in front of the National Yacht Club, another mark was set inside the fairway entrance to the marina towards the ice-house and the remaining two marks were set close to the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier and upwind of the western breakwater where it joins the West Pier.

Brian and Charlie O’Neil rounding Mark C (Boyd Memorial) Photo: Ian Cutliffe

The fleet was set a beat for the opening leg, to the mark off the Boyd Memorial, and they proceeded in an anti-clockwise direction around the harbour thereafter.

The plan was to have the first boat racing for 75 minutes and the Fireball of Frank Miller & Hermine O’Keeffe (14713), bisected the finish line 1.5 minutes inside that target.

Two Fireballs led the fleet all the way round. Miller was the first to fly spinnaker after rounding the weather mark and he was followed closely by Neil Colin & Marjo Moneen (14775). These were initially challenged on the water by the RS400 of Dave Sweeney and Gavin Doyle but as the race progressed the gap to the Fireballs increased. A strong ILCA turnout was led by Eve McMahon in the ILCA 6 (Radial), Gary O’Hare in the ILCA 7 (full-rig) and Max Cantwell in the ILCA 4 (4.7). Eve has had a great 2021 with a win in Lake Garda in the ILCA 6 Youth Worlds and she followed that up with a top 5 place in the Youth Worlds earlier this month. At the finish, she was only a couple of boat-lengths behind regular ILCA 7 competitor Gary O’Hare.

While the various ILCA rigs represented the largest element of the fleet, there was a good turnout from the Aeros, (5 and 7), the Fireballs, and there were two each of the GP14s and RS400s. The Irish National Sailing School has eight sailors on the water in the form of School Principal Kenneth Rumball, sailing an Aero 7 and seven RS Feva XLs sailed by the senior instructors. A solitary Flying Fifteen sailed by Robin Hilliard and daughter Dacha also contested the event and the Long household had two boats out – father Pierre, and one son in the IDRA and two other sons in the Mirror. We also had a Pico, sailed two-up.

DMYC Viking Marine Christmas Cracker – Top Ten finishers

1. Eve McMahon, Howth Yacht Club, ILCA 6 (Radial)
2. Max Cantwell, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 4 (4.7)
3. Noel Butler, National Yacht Club, Aero 7
4. Brendan Foley, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 7
5. Gary O’Hare, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 7 (full-rig)
6. Kenneth Rumball, Irish National Sailing Club, Aero 7
7. David Williams, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 6
8. Mark Gavin, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 7
9. Roy van Mannen, Royal St George Yacht Club, Aero 5
10. Conrad Vandlik, Royal St George Yacht Club, ILCA 7.

Prize-winners will be contacted directly about getting their prizes, vouchers from Viking Marine.

The Christmas Cracker fleet under starter’s orders – 20 seconds to go.

DMYC has launched a dinghy racing “Christmas Cracker” event for Dun Laoghaire Harbour on December 27th. 

Supported by Viking Marine and with the kind permission of the Harbour Master, the fixture will see a mass start PY race on Monday, 27th December @ 1.00, doing port rounding circuits of the Harbour, for all those looking to burn off the excesses of the Christmas Dinner, according to DMYC race organiser Neil Colin.

"This is a novelty Charity race in aid to the RNLI, with the aim of creating a spectacle for all those strollers on the piers", Colin told Afloat.

The course as above will feature marks in the extreme corners of the harbour and should provide a welcome break from regular format races, enabled by the lack of moored vessels in the harbour and the generally lower levels of waterborne activity in the harbour.

Entries will be capped at 90, with the expectation of higher participation than the regular Frostbite race days.

This is an “Open” event. While the main waterfront clubhouses will be closed, regular sailors will be able to access the dinghy parks, on a “sail and dash” basis.

DMYC are hoping to have a “Socially Distanced” prize giving in front of the DMYC approximately an hour after racing concludes.

Entries @ €5 per entry to cover costs and a donation to RNLI can be found here

DMYC wishes all sailors a happy and safe Christmas and we look forward to a nice day for winter sailing on Monday 27th.

Series 1 of the Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club closed yesterday in light and challenging conditions for the Race Management Team and the competitors alike. Having enjoyed very reliable winds for all of his sessions on the water to date, Race Officer Cormac Bradley had a different scenario to deal with yesterday, akin to the situation last Sunday.

Both XCWeather and the Windy App were predicting light N-Easterlies from midweek and so it proved, except that NE was just one of the directions the wind came from during the course of the afternoon. A north-easterly meant that the course would extend across the shorter dimension of the outer harbour with a weather mark situated in the area of the harbour mouth. The problem was that the wind was flicking between the Boyd Memorial on the upper wall of the East Pier to a position just west of the East Pier lighthouse – a distance of maybe 150 - 200m on the water. In the end the weather mark was situated between the Boyd Memorial and the weather station on the upper East Pier wall with the leeward gate situated upwind of the marine entrance.

A late decision to drop the weather mark just prompted another wild swing in the wind direction prompting the flying of a postponement flag and the re-setting of the course. However, it became apparent that the direction wasn’t going to settle and so, with all of the fleet in attendance a start sequence was initiated in the knowledge that it wasn’t an ideal course but in the spirit of giving a race to those who had made the effort to come out.

A two lap Windward-Leeward course was set, but that merely referred to the configuration of the ideal course, the wind making the first “beat” more of a two sailed fetch. Indeed, the subsequent leg for the spinnaker classes saw a few struggle to get down to the leeward gate. The wind direction moved constantly throughout the race, but I did witness some boats in upwind settings heading towards the weather mark. Strength-wise the “breeze” rarely got above 5 knots, though we did have a 7-knot reading during the start sequence.

With each start, the trick was to get onto port tack at the earliest opportunity and initially it looked as though it didn’t matter too much where that happened. An early tack by one of the Aero 7s looked as though it might pay huge dividends but by the weather mark, the GP14 of David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne (14069) was well up in company with Regatta Director Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen (14775). As they came back past the committee boat on their way to the leeward gate, there were more Aero 7s to the fore. All the fleets got away at the first time of asking.

The Fireball race within a race was dominated by Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen who went right up the first beat and found a reasonable breeze along the east pier side of the harbour. They were followed in the seven boat Fireball fleet by Louise McKenna/Hermine O'Keeffe (15016), Owen Sinnott sailing with Paul ter Horst (14865) and Cariosa Power/Marie Barry (14854). Taking up the rear with the other Fireballs were Frank Miller and Ed Butler (14713) who were caught napping too far upwind and were almost two minutes late for their start. Colin/Moonen appeared to have the two-lap w/l race in the bag but Power/Barry found wind on the final run and used the following breeze to slip inside the leaders by the final leeward mark to take the Fireball line honours from Colin. Miller/Butler were third Fireball having managed to claw their way past McKenna/O'Keeffe and Sinnott/ter Horst in the shifty and patchy wind. On PY Stephen Oram won on handicap in his Aero.

Viking Marine Frostbites 7th Round, Sunday 19th December

PY Class 22 boats.
1. Stephen Oram
2. Noel Butler (Both Aero 7s)
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP 14 – 14069)
4. Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
5. Roy van Mannen (Aero 5)
6. Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854)
7. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (FB 14775)
8. Pierre Long & son (IDRA)
9. Tom Murphy (K1)
10. Frank Miller & ed Butler (FB 14713)

ILCA 7s (Full Rig) 4 boats.
1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Chris Arrowsmith
3. Gary O’Hare

ILCA 4s (4.7s) 8 boats
1. Ava Ennis
2. Daniel O’Connor
3. Emily Cantwell

ILCA 6s (Radials)
1. Michael Norman
2. Archie Daly
3. Brendan Hughes
4. Sophie Kilmartin
5. Judy O’Beirne.

With discretion being the better part of valour, or the nautical equivalent, it was decided there was no real justification for a second race in the prevailing conditions and the fleet was sent to shore.
For Series 1 ten races were sailed with a total of four races lost to weather. On one weekend we had no racing at all and on two weekends we only had a single race. On that basis, two discards were available to all the fleets. Fleet totals in the section below reflect total entries relative to the 120-boat cut off declared before entries were opened.

PY Class 42 boats
1. Noel Butler 20pts
2. Mark Gavin 23pts
3. Brendan Foley 25pts
4. Stephen Oram 44.5pts (All Aero 7s)
5. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (FB 14713) 49pts
6. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069) 61pts
7. Pierre Long & Son (IDRA) 61pts
8. Roy van Mannen 65pts
9. Sarah Dwyer 74pts (Both Aero 5s)
10. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (FB 14775) 79.5pts

ILCA 7s (Full Rig) 15 boats
1. Gavan Murphy 12pts
2. Chris Arrowsmith 17pts
3. Gary O’Hare 36pts
4. Conrad Vandlik 40pts
5. Kei Walker 46pts
ILCA 4s (4.7s) 23 boats
1. Donal Walsh 24pts
2. Emily Cantwell 26pts
3. Daniel O’Connor 33pts
4. Ava Ennis 33pts
5. Brian Carroll 34pts

ILCA 6s (Radials) 43 boats
1. Brendan Hughes 14pts
2. Conor Clancy 40pts
3. Mark Henry 48pts
4. Archie Daly 53pts
5. Peter Kilmartin 54pts
6. Judy O’Beirne 56pts
7. Luke Turvey 68pts
8. Sean Flanagan 73pts
9. Hugh Cahill 80pts
10. Sophie Kilmartin 84pts.

Fireballs 14 boats
1. Frank Miller & Ed Butler 14713, 10pts
2. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen 14775, 24pts
3. Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe 15016, 28pts
4. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme 14706, 39pts
5. Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly 14865, 40pts.

As the principal sponsor, Viking Marine provided Rick Tomlinson 2022 calendars as prizes to the podium finishers across all the Frostbite fleets and a similar token was given to the large group of volunteers required to make the Frostbites a viable regatta.

All those associated with the Frostbites, competitors and volunteers are encouraged to support Viking Marine as a thank-you for their sponsorship of this perennial series.

Readers of this column should also note that a “Christmas Cracker Race” will be held in the harbour on Monday 27th December as a charity fund-raiser for the RNLI. Viking Marine have again stepped up to provide some prizes for this event. Hosted by DMYC, the entry has gone live on their website this morning (Monday) and there should also be a piece on the Afloat website. This is an open entry to Series 1 & 2 Frostbiters and anyone else who is interested. A €5 entry fee applies to cover petrol costs and a link to make donations to the RNLI online is to be made available.

The race will be run on a PY basis on a course that will have marks situated around the harbour – not in Olympic, triangle or Windward-Leeward configuration – to maximise the spectator element. An upwind leg will be selected to the first mark and a F-flag will be used at the last mark, to be decided by the RO, to direct boats to the finish. In between, the intent is to sail laps of the harbour.

As this is the last Frostbite column for 2021, may I thank all the volunteers of the Race Management Team for their assistance in Series 1. Thanks to all the competitors who have contested the seven Sundays of racing. And most especially, thank you to Viking Marine for their generous sponsorship.

Happy Christmas to all! If I don’t see you on the 27th, we start Series 2 on the 2nd January 2022.