#fireballsailing – For the second Tuesday in a row the Tuesday night Dinghy DBSC racing was kept inside the Dun Laoghaire harbour, for the same reasons as last Tuesday (24th) – light winds and a strongly ebbing tide.

Light winds are also afflicting one half of the Tuesday night kings as Noel Butler and his crew battle their way around Ireland in the J109, Adelie. Having started last Saturday afternoon, leader-board predictions are that Noel will only reach the finish line sometime tomorrow.

Five Fireballs answered the starter's call last night with Frank Miller, crewed by Francis Rowan (14713), Conor and James Clancy (14807) and Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) bunched tightly on the line. These three worked the middle and left of the projected four-lap triangular course which had a weather mark under the east pier and a gybe mark close to the end of the west pier at the harbour mouth. The leeward mark had a minimal amount of water surrounding it so close was it to one of the inner breakwaters – a fouled spinnaker drop could not be contemplated!
The other two Fireballs, Margaret Casey & Joe O'Reilly (14775) and Louise McKenna and Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) worked the middle and right hand side of the first beat. For those who are familiar with Dun Laoghaire harbour you will know that there is a busker who plays the banjo at the end of the east pier. The wind was so genteel last night that we could hear tunes such as "Boolavogue" and other favourites from his repertoire as we approached the weather mark and went down the first reach.
Team Clancy, probably the lightest of the all-male crews took the lead at the first weather mark and pulled away from Miller & Rowan down the first reach. "Pulled away" in this instance only means opened a gap because with the light winds there was no speeding on this course. Smyth & Bradley rounded third and chased the other two without making any real headway. Louise & Hermine rounded fourth with Margaret & Joe fifth.
On the second beat, Team Clancy seemed to increase their lead but the downwind leg of the sausage became a challenge to stay in wind rather than a tactical challenge. This had the effect of prompting early gybes to take boats in directions away from the leeward mark or further to the right hand side of the course towards the harbour mouth. But at the leeward mark, at the second time of rounding, the order was still the same, though the distances between the leading three had reduced.
On the third beat, Team Clancy and Miller & Rowan went left towards the harbour mouth. Smyth & Bradley went hard right and at one stage looked very good, seeming to have more breeze and better boat speed than the other two on the opposite side of the harbour. Team, Clancy bailed first to come back towards the middle, but Miller/Rowan went as far as they could while still keeping inside the confines of the harbour. While Smyth & Bradley were being lifted on port tack, the challenge was to cross the harbour to get to the weather mark. When this latter passage was undertaken, the gap to Clancy was substantially reduced and Miller/Rowan only reached the weather mark a boat length ahead of them.
Clancy got away again on the first downwind leg of the triangle – calling it a reach would be too prescriptive and a transgression of the "Trades Description Act" and initially Miller & Rowan got a couple of boat-lengths up on Smyth & Bradley. An early gybe was executed by the latter two to get into a little better breeze and this had the effect, with a second gybe, of the two boats approaching the gybe mark on opposite tacks. Miller & Rowan gybed again leaving them as windward boat and outside boat at the mark giving water to Smyth. They continued outwards towards the harbour wall (west pier) while Smyth & Bradley came back inside the course towards the breakwater. With the blue flag flying from the committee boat to indicate it was on station for a finish, the shortened finish line then became "no-go" territory. Thus, the two boats approached the leeward mark from either end of the finishing line...........except that going so close to the wall had left Miller & Rowan with less breeze than Smyth & Bradley who rounded the leeward mark in relative comfort with a short hitch to the finish for 2nd place.
Casey/O'Reilly & McKenna/O'Keeffe kept a close watch on each other down the two downwind legs of the second triangle and found themselves on the left-hand side of the committee boat on their approach to the leeward mark. Casey & O'Reilly did not look to be in a particularly favourable position but the results show that they got themselves out of that precarious position to finish behind Miller & Rowan in fourth place.
Officials results posted on the DBSC website show that Team Clancy did not get the first place they had on the water (as they are not registered for DBSC), so everyone gets a paper bonus of an elevation of one place.

DBSC Tuesday Night: Series 2, Round 3, 1st July 2014
1 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harbour
2 Frank Miller & Francis Rowan 14713 DMYC
3 Margaret Casey & Joe O'Reilly 14775 DMYC

With three races sailed in Series 2 and absentees due to holidays, the Round Ireland Race and line duty commitments (your correspondent last Tuesday), the overall situation is quite surprising;

DBSC Tuesday Nights: Series 2, Three races sailed, no discard. Pts
1 Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly & Francis Rowan 14713 DMYC 9
1 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey & Joe O'Reilly 14775 DMYC 9
3 Louise McKenna & Mick Creighton & Hermine O'Keefe & Joe O'Reilly 14691 RStGYC 11
4 Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire 14865 DMYC 14
5 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 14
6 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC 17
7 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC 26

Saturday 5th July's focus will be the Royal St. George Yacht Club's Regatta which is the fourth and final summer regatta of the four waterfront clubs. The Fireball turnout for the last two regattas, the National Yacht Club Regatta and the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Regatta has been five boats and there is a distinct possibility that there will be a similar turnout for the RStGYC. Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley have taken two titles, the Royal Irish and the DMYC while Louise McKenna and Hermine O'Keeffe took the NYC event. Two of the three events were decided by tie-break and Conor Clancy must feel hard done by as he lost both tie-breaks.
Thereafter, the Fireball scene will take us to Wexford Harbour Boat & Tennis Club on the weekend of 19/20th July for the Munster Championships. This is a new(ish) venue for the fleet as we haven't been there for quite some time.

#fireball– Last night's DBSC race for the Fireballs and other fleets was held inside the harbour due to very light breezes and an ebbing tide, both factors persuading the race management team that staying inside the walls of the harbour might allow a race to be provided. There was certainly little incentive to go outside as the Race Officer was recording as little as 4.5 knots of wind in the main body of the harbour in advance of the committee boat leaving the pontoons at the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
The Fireballs had a reduced turnout of only four boats, a fifth combination and this correspondent were on line duty and two other combinations may have been absent due to people being on holiday. A three-lap triangular course was set for the Fireballs with the weather mark off the east pier and a gybe mark in the mouth of the harbour.

Neil Colin and Margaret Casey pulled off an amazing start by coming in a half boat-length to windward of the other three boats at the committee boat end and crossed the line right on the button. According to the comments of the Race Officer, they left very..........very little to spare. Initially I thought this had set them up for a premium first beat! The fleet split in two with Mick Creighton & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) and the aforementioned Colin/Casey going left and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) and Grattan Donnelly & Joe O'Reilly (14713) going right.
From the committee boat we knew that there was some fluctuation in the breeze – it flicked left and right with the weather mark in a median position and obviously Creighton/O'Keeffe worked this to their advantage to round the weather mark first. However, Colin/Casey were very close behind and Chambers/McGuire were close behind them in turn – three red spinnakers broke out as they sailed towards the gybe mark but all three gybed halfway down the leg, leaving Colin & Casey in the windward berth. This allowed them to close even further on Creighton/O'Keeffe, but these two rounded the gybe mark with their lead intact.

At the leeward mark they rounded transom to bow with Colin/Casey on the outside. They tacked immediately and after a short hitch of a couple of boat-lengths, Creighton/O'Keeffe did the same. For the balance of the race these two stuck to each other "like glue" with Creighton/O'Keeffe doing most of the covering. Pointing and boat speed varied between the two which, on occasion, allowed Colin & Casey to get marginally ahead, but at those critical milestone events, mark-roundings, the Creighton/O'Keeffe combination held the upper hand. The attention these two gave each other allowed Chambers & McGuire to close the gap somewhat, but they never really got close enough to mount a serious challenge to the lead two. Colin & Casey revel in the light airs and Creighton & O'Keeffe clearly had the "bit between their teeth" last night and weren't going to let this one slip through their fingers.

DBSC Tuesday Series: Series 2; Round 2, 24/06 Overall Pts & (Position)
1 Mick Creighton & Hermine O'Keefe RStGYC 14691 7pts (Tied 3rd)
2 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey DMYC 14775 6pts (2nd)
3 Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire DMYC 14865 5pts (1st)

#fireball – The Fireball dinghy Open championships have been won by Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella. Second were Kenny Rumball with Brian "Teddy" Byrne/Shane McCarthy and third were Conor and James Clancy. The Classic trophy was won by Neil Colin and Margaret Casey.

The event, attended by well over twenty boats, was sailed at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club (CYBC) in extremely frustrating light and shifty conditions which tested competitors and the CYBC race team to the limit.

The Irish Fireball Class enjoyed a weekend of positives this past weekend at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club when they sailed their Open Championship and Classic Fireball events. The overall turnout of 21 boats was a huge positive in an era where we have seen pressure on the numbers attending regattas. The Silver fleet had a very healthy turnout of 7 boats, there were three "wooden deckers" contesting the Classic Event and a number of the home based fleet joined us for the racing. The sun shone, it was warm and the only real inconsistency was the wind – details later.
In the Classis Event Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) showed that hull age isn't an obstacle to success when they put three top ten results on their scorecard (7, 4, 5) to finish in a very commendable 6th place overall. Dara & Niall McDonagh (14330) had three scores just outside the top ten to take 2nd place in the Classics, where Henry Rice and Tim McAuley (14244) finished third.
Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) won the Silver fleet with four top ten finishes with the McDonagh brothers, Dara and Niall (14330) in second place. This result gives Mary & Brenda a perfect Silver fleet score as they also won this division at the Ulsters in Ballyholme a few weeks ago.
Another combination with a perfect score over two regattas is Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (15114) who added this title to their Ulster title. They didn't wind a single race here in Clontarf but put together four second places to take the title, after discard, by a single point.
Kenneth Rumball (15058) used two crews over the weekend, Brian Byrne (Saturday) and Shane McCarthy (Sunday), to take second place overall, courtesy in large part to a win in the last race from what appeared to be a hopeless position down the fleet. Given the conditions, this was an incredible individual race result. Rumball and his "crews" won three of the six races, but also had a "22" to discard – maybe a start line transgression.
The fact that Rumball and McCarthy won the last race combined with a drop from 1st to 5th was the undoing of the third placed combination, Team Clancy, Conor and James, who led the last race at the last leeward mark, but fell away to fifth at the finish – a situation that Clancy later claimed cost him the regatta. They won two races.
The last race win, on Sunday morning, went to Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) who by their standards (and former results) had a poor weekend. For the first time in a very long time they had a double digit finish on their score card which was later discarded, but a solitary race win and only one other result inside the top three makes this a weekend they might prefer to forget.
There were some other performances worthy of special mention, over and above the ones already mentioned – Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) had a great weekend with four podium places in individual races and a worst discard of 8th, to finish fourth overall. Mick Creighton & Hugh Johnson (14698) also enjoyed the weekend with four top ten finishes and relative newcomers Alan Henry & Simon Revill (14645) will have enjoyed the fourth place in the last race.
Race Officer Ian Sergeant deserves huge praise for persisting with the weather and getting six races in! At the briefing on the Saturday morning he advised that with the forecast being what is was (light and variable), he was contemplating racing inside the harbour. Of course the fact that the big boats were struggling to race the ICRA Championships in the main body of Dublin Bay was a substantial indication of the actual wind conditions on the water as opposed to what the forecast was saying. (ICRA had very limited race completion on Saturday.) A further signal to the conditions was the fact that Ian advised that Windward-Leewards would be sailed until the wind settled – Mother Nature didn't allow him that option on Saturday so we sailed three of these. It was the sort of day when a seven-faced dice would have been useful! For those fans of The Big Bang Theory, one could imagine Mother Nature shouting "Bazinga" every time she inflicted another wind change on the Race Officer and the fleet. The wind was light and fickle meaning that Ian and his team had to change the course for every race – swinging the weather mark left or right (and back again) to try and get a decent starting beat in! And even then the wind didn't stay for the second beat. The middle race on Saturday started well, but a wind shift to starboard effectively made the second beat a fetch and thus the race became processional. Another shift in the last race of the day forced Ian to shorten course at the second rounding of the top mark of the last race.
Overnight the cut-off for the last start on Sunday afternoon was extended by three-quarters of an hour. (ICRA started an hour earlier, prompted by the same condition.) Unusually, we had a second briefing from the Race Officer on Sunday morning – to confirm the extension to the cut-off for the last race start and to advise of the weather forecast which offered 5 more knots than the day before but from a less consistent direction – we were racing inside again! In truth we did get more wind, allowing trapezes to be used for the first time. Regrettably more breeze did not bring more consistency and the snakes and ladders character of the first day extended into the second day – just ask Louis Smyth, Niall McGrotty and Conor Clancy, who saw race leads evaporate (snakes) and Kenneth Rumball who climbed a huge ladder to take the final race of the day.
As ever the hospitality of Clontarf was commendable with teas and coffees available on both mornings, a generously proportioned barbeque on Saturday evening and sandwiches available after racing on Sunday.

Irish Fireball Open Championships & Classic Event Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club, Dublin Bay. 

1 Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella 15114 RStGYC 4 3 2 2 2 2 11
2 Kenneth Rumball & Brian Byrne/Shane McCarthy 15058 INSC 2 1 1 22 7 1 12
3 Conor & James Clancy 14807 RStGYC 1 6 3 9 1 5 16
4 Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer 14938 Skerries 3 2 7 3 8 3 18
5 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC 5 5 12 1 3 8 22
6 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC 7 10 4 11 5 16 37
7 Mick Creighton & Hugh Johnson 14698 Clontarf 15 11 8 5 4 9 37
8 Alan Henry & Simon Revill 14645 13 9 5 12 10 4 40
9 Louise McKenna & Joe O'Reilly 14691 RStGYC 9 16 6 6 12 11 44
10 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 6 14 11 4 14 10 45

fireball – An encouraging turnout of 21 boats made the second regatta of the Irish Fireball Regatta circuit, the Open Championship, at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club writes Cormac Bradley. Dublin Bay had been bereft of any significant wind on Friday for the first day of the ICRA Championships, but the wind forecast for today was slightly better. However, driving from Dun Laoghaire to the opposite side of Dublin Bay, there was no real sign that we were in for a better day wind-wise.

This lack of wind prompted the Race Officer, Ian Sergeant to advise the fleet that he might contemplate keeping the races inside the harbour. He was true to his word, for even though we got three races in, the wind was light and very variable. Ian did a great job of responding to the vagaries of the wind, by moving and tweaking the course set up to keep things as fair as possible. Mother Nature didn't always recognise his efforts for while he put the weather mark in the right place, during the races the wind would shift – significantly so in the second race when the second beat of the windward-leeward course became a two sail fetch.
Despite the "flexibility" of the wind, many of the names at the top of the page will be instantly recognised by readers of these Fireball Class reports.
Kenny Rumball & Brian Byrne (15058) may have got off to a slow start with a fourth, but they made amends by winning the second and third races to sit atop the "log" with a five point cushion. It was the sort of day when staying out of trouble and knowing how to keep the boat moving were the keys to success – Kenny & Brian shown those skills in spades – though they, like others, must have had some luck as well.
Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (15114) were slightly off the pace, by their standards, but showed progressive improvement by posting a 4, 3, 2 over the three races. A new boat beckons, but for the moment they are getting their current boat to go very nicely – admittedly with the sails of their new steed!
Team Clancy, brothers James and Conor (14807) started the day's proceedings with a very comfortable start to finish win. They worked the middle and right of the first beat and seemed to have that edge of speed to sail away from the chasing pack. They stayed on the same side of the course for the downwind leg.
When the wind goes light, the door opens to a number of additional combinations and there were lots of people who had at least one good race today. Michael & James Murphy (14908), a father and son combination scored a fourth in the difficult middle race. Alan Henry & Simon Revill (14645) also had their "moment in the spotlight" with a fifth place in the third race. Neil Colin and Margaret Casey led the last race at the leeward mark and were overtaken on the second beat, but still recorded a 4th place. This allowed them to occupy 5th place overnight.
However, the best performance outside the "usual suspects" was that of Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) who scored a 3, 2, 7 to occupy 4th place overall overnight.
It doesn't happen very often, in fact it is a rare occurrence, but today was a relative shocker for perennial pace-setters Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061). A very uncharacteristic 5, 5, 12 sees them down in 6th place overall. The 12th place represents a "get out of gaol" opportunity because at a late stage of what became the last downwind leg, there was a prospect of a much larger number of their score sheet.
Neil Colin and Margaret Casey lead the Classic Fireball Division.

#Fireball - High performance helm Ned Goss has been rated the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, according to Sailing Anarchy.

The South Carolina-based Fireball racer was reportedly recorded by his Velocitek meter at hitting a peak speed of 36.5 knots off the coast of Charleston in a sea breeze typical for the area.

That incredible number, achieved in what Goss says was a virtually unmodified Mach 2, smashes the previous record of 32.4 knots set by Chris Rast by more than four knots.

But Goss believes he can go further, with mods to the vessel and optimum currents meaning "40 knots is just around the corner".

Sailing Anarchy has more on the story HERE.

#fireball – The Irish Fireball fleet had a "soggy session" on the water last night, Tuesday 3rd June, with rain dominating the pre-race period and early part of the race and a fading breeze the feature of the race itself.
Despite the grey skies, there was a healthy presence of Fireballs on the start line – 7 boats. Again the weather data was at odds with what was on the water with a forecast of SW, a record of SSE from the harbour weather website and an actual wind on the water that started at 255˚ and then swung westwards.
A four lap windward leeward was set for the Fireballs who had first start. Initially the weather mark also had a spreader mark but that had gone AWOL by the second rounding. With an ebb tide that was nearly three hours old at the race start the question of which way to avoid the foul tide en route to the weather mark, tucked under the lee of the east pier, was the uppermost thought in the seven boats.
Six of the seven boats decided to go inshore initially, the exceptions being Louise McKenna & Joe O'Reilly (14691) who tacked at the committee boat end of the line and sailed westwards initially on port tack. The rest of the fleet were distributed along the line and headed inshore on starboard tack. Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) were at the pin which turned out to be the place not to be, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) were at the committee boat end, which was the place to be and they led the fleet around the first weather mark. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) were the next boat down the line from Butler and they too looked in good shape as they rounded the weather mark in second place. Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) looked to be in a bit of trouble but benefitted when Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) had to "duck" McKenna on starboard tack. This caused them to drop to leeward of Smyth. McKenna's decision to go right paid off as she rounded the weather mark third followed closely by Smyth. Miller and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) rounded behind Power.
A shift in the wind direction and better breeze meant that those who were on the left hand side of the run were in a better position to gain from the switch. Having said that, Colin & Casey who had gone low were still in good shape at the rounding of the leeward mark! With the limit mark of the starting line still in position, the embargo on crossing the start/finish line during the race meant that this was now an obstacle on the course. Those who went high and left were able to power reach down to the committee boat and bear off towards the leeward mark. Butler, McKenna, Smyth, Power, Miller and Chambers took this route – Colin was the exception going to the opposite end of the start/finish line obstruction.
On the second beat the start line was still "at large" and (at least) one boat passed between committee boat and pin. Butler and McKenna tacked to avoid it and Smyth went outside the pin. Having rounded behind McKenna at the leeward mark, Smyth overtook her en route to the 2nd weather mark to slot into 3rd place behind Butler and Colin. These three boats retained their positions down the 2nd off-wind leg, but at the leeward mark Colin tacked immediately while both Butler and Smyth took a hitch to the west (or RHS) of the beat. At this stage the wind was starting to ease and swing slightly further westwards – not enough to make it a fetch to the weather mark but enough to allow a modest easing of sheets which had the added benefit of allowing progress to be maintained over what was a slightly lumpy sea. Colin's immediate tack didn't pay off and Smyth was able to sail over the top of him, albeit from a position of probably sixty metres upwind. Smyth also closed significantly on Butler, but on the third rounding of the weather mark – sans spreader mark – Butler & Oram got distance again. Colin lost further places to McKenna & O'Reilly and Power & Barry and found himself in the company of Miller & Donnelly at the weather mark. Going down the off-wind leg, Butler and Smyth were "comfortable" but Power and McKenna were keeping very close quarters in the overall context of the race.
A shortened course was signalled at the 3rd leeward mark and again Smyth seemed to close the gap on the water to Butler but it must have been an optical illusion because Butler's winning margin time-wise was over 1½ minutes.
McKenna rounded the leeward mark ahead of Power and appeared to be applying the appropriate cover to her close rival, but as the pair approached the finish line, it became increasingly apparent that Power had sailed out from "underneath" McKenna in the quest to get to the finish line next. And so it proved for although she appeared to be to leeward of McKenna, Power had enough speed (and it appears distance) to tack below her rival, cross her and claim third place on the night.
DBSC Tuesday Nights: Series 1, Tuesday 3rd June.
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC
2 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb.
3 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC

Due to the fading breeze and a tide that was still ebbing, most of the Fireball fleet were towed home. Noel & Stephen's reward for winning by such a comfortable margin is that they got to sail most of the way home – at least to the harbour mouth!
In overall terms Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (5pts) are very comfortably ahead of the chasing pack, but only 3 points cover the next three boats – Cariosa Power and Marie Barry (13pts), Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (15pts) and Louis Smyth and Cormac Bradley (16pts).
In 10 days' time the Fireball fleet will convene in Clontarf for the Open Championships and Classic Fireball Regatta, 14/15th June with a six race programme. Fireballers resident in Ireland who read this report are encouraged to make a serious effort to get to this event which has been planned to coincide with other festivities in Clontarf over that weekend – the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf. Of course readers from further afield are also most welcome!

#fireball – Here's a genuine offer to use a race-ready, competitive Fireball at an upcoming regatta on Dublin Bay. Applications are invited to sail a modern Wide Bow Winder Fireball, race ready and properly maintained in the upcoming Open and Classic Fireball Regatta at Clontarf Yacht & Boat Club over the weekend of 14/15th June 2014 - 2½ weeks away. This is a genuine opportunity to sample Fireball racing in a competitive boat which is insured for racing. Minimal conditions attached!

This is a bona-fide promotion of the Fireball Class due to the generous donation of the boat for the weekend by a high profile member of the Class.
The class is looking for;
a) A written submission setting out your dinghy sailing/racing experience.
b) Any evidence of Fireball sailing experience (not compulsory).
c) A combination of two people (helm and crew) who will sail the boat together, (No substitutions will be allowed.) on both days of the regatta – 6-race schedule.
d) Evidence of your interest in sailing/racing a Fireball.

You will be required to join the Fireball Class - €20 for both of you and pay the entry fee to the regatta.

Deadline for applications is 3pm, Tuesday 4th June 2014, so that a decision can be made after Tuesday night racing on the same evening. Applications should be directed to [email protected]

#fireball – Last night's dinghy racing in Scotsman's Bay was the first "genteel" session since the DBSC season opened on 29th April. The forecast was for 4-6 knots of Easterly at 19:00 (XCWeather) but on the water the wind was coming out of the South-East, though the strength was probably about right. Some evening sunshine added to the ambience of the evening.
The Fireball race itself was a combination of the board games Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders, except in the latter case we were playing blind!
The "Monopoly" reference describes the start to finish domination of the lead by Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) who simply sailed away from the rest of us, picking up a proverbial €200 at each rounding mark to stretch their lead further and winning by a margin of over two minutes. As the defending Tuesday night champions, they are showing every sign of retaining their title because for the present they are almost untouchable!
Another "monopoly" reference is that of the straight line speed of the all-lady combinations of Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) and even more significantly Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) who simply sailed into the upper echelons of the pecking order of six boats.
The "blind snakes and ladders"? With a tide that was flooding for 2 hours by the race start of 19:00 and a light wind scenario, logic would appear to suggest that getting out of the tide would be the thing to do. Six boats thus took an early port tack hitch off the start line to head for shore, with the weather mark of the 3-lap triangular course off the rocks at the 40-foot. The furthest boat to sea was the aforementioned Chambers & McGuire, who one would have thought, were fighting a stronger element of tide as the fleet converged on the first weather mark on starboard tack. Not at all, they rounded in second place, even being lifted around the mark. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) rounded third followed by Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007), Power & Barry (14854) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691).
With Butler & Oram gone, the remaining five boats were set for their own race with not a great deal of distance separating 2nd from 6th. At the gybe mark Smyth & Bradley had a faster gybe to leave them upwind and overlapped with Chambers & McGuire, but Power & Barry were closer than they had been.
On the 2nd beat, first Chambers & McGuire, then Power & Barry simply sailed faster in a straight line than Smyth & Bradley who thus dropped to fifth and were fighting to keep McKenna & O'Keeffe at bay! Coin & Casey tacked out into the tide but managed to stay ahead to the 2nd weather mark. Seeing no ill effects from that tactic, Chambers & McGuire followed suit and opened up distance on Smyth & Bradley who had taken the inshore option. Meanwhile Power & Barry did their own thing to close on Colin & Casey and round third at the 2nd weather mark.
To compound the sense of blind snakes and ladders, going inshore on the downwind leg didn't appear to cost the two proponents of this tactic any distance – McKenna and Smyth still struggling to close on Power and Colin who rounded the 2nd leeward mark bow to transom.
On the third beat, McKenna went further out to sea than the others, but unlike the 2nd beat it didn't bring any rewards and by the top mark her opportunity to pass Smyth seemed to have gone. In the meantime, Power had overtaken Colin who was taking short hitches to sea – just to confuse the rest of us he would later claim – and Chambers closed the gap on Colin. At this stage, final weather mark, Butler & Oram were ⅔ of the first spinnaker reach ahead of the 2nd placed boat, Power & Barry, who were followed at a fairly safe distance (for them) by Colin & Casey and Chambers & McGuire. Smyth & Bradley closed the gap down the two reaches but spent the 2nd reach of the triangle looking over their shoulders at McKenna & O'Keeffe who were travelling faster.
The short hitch to the finish should have been academic but the different approaches taken to this 150m stretch meant that finishing margins came down to one or two boat-lengths (with the exception of the first placed boat – who were long gone!) and prompted some cover tacking in the final approach to the finish line!
DBSC Tuesday Nights, Series 1: May 27th (Race 5)
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC
2 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
3 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC

In overall terms, Butler & Oram lead with a six point cushion over Power & Barry and Colin & Casey who are tied on 10 points each.
On the previous Saturday, three Fireballs contested the Royal Irish Yacht Club Regatta, with Smyth & Bradley taking the event with two race wins. Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe and Frank Miller & Ismail Inan shared the second and third places to tie on 5pts. However, Ismail would have enjoyed the Sunday of his weekend when he attended the Ireland – Turkey soccer game at Aviva - that result went his way!!

#fireball – Six Fireballs came under starter's orders for the Tuesday Night Series last night, under the burgee of the Dublin Bay Sailing Club writes Cormac Bradley. They encountered a different weather scenario than was predicted. The website providing weather details for Dun Laoghaire Harbour was suggesting that winds of 10 knots were the order of the evening with gusts up to 15.7, from a southerly direction (171˚), in a temperature of 13˚. XCWeather was offering a forecast at 19:00 of SSE 11 knots, with gusts of 17 knots and an air temperature of 14˚.
This correspondent was sitting shore-side again, courtesy of a broken mast from the previous Saturday, and from my perspective the temperature was nothing like the 13 - 14˚ that was being suggested. At the post-mortem in the DMYC afterwards, contestants said there was quite a bit of wind on the course together with a rather confused sea.
Making their 2014 debut were Dave Coleman and Glenn Fisher (14740) who made a late arrival at the start area where the Race Committee had set a 3-lap Windward- Leeward course, with a spreader mark at the top of the course and the weather mark located off the rocks at the 40-foot bathing spot. The other participants were the "usual suspects" – Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775), Frank Miller & Joe O'Reilly (14713), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691).
Dave & Glenn were too early for the start signal at the pin end of the line which left that position to the devices of Butler and Colin respectively. The balance of the fleet was distributed along the line and the fleet all headed out to sea to avail of the ebbing tide. In truth, the race was won in this initial phase of the "half-beat" between the start line and the weather mark, because when Noel & Stephen made the first tack to go inshore towards the weather mark they had a comfortable distance between themselves and the chasing pack.
The rounding sequence thereafter was Miller & O'Reilly, Colin & Casey, Louise & Hermine, Dave & Glenn and Cariosa & Marie. Initially the fleet stayed on the RHS of the run to the leeward mark before Butler & Oram gybed inshore and then gybed back again to leave them sailing a parallel course to their pursuers but on an inshore line. This double gybe tactic seemed to allow Miller & O'Reilly to close the gap in terms of straight line distance. McKenna actually took the most inshore route to the leeward mark.
From a place changing perspective there is little more to be reported on – the fleet followed a simple and similar approach to the beats – sail the leeward half of the beat inshore before taking a tack out to sea and tailor-making their approach to the windward mark.
However, a partial systems failure for Miller & O'Reilly – a slipping main halyard – rendered the profile of their main to a partially reefed main and allowed Colin & Casey to pass them on the final run to secure second position on the night.

DBSC Tuesday Night Series: Series 1, 20th May 2014
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 NYC
2 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC
3 Frank Miller & Joe O'Reilly 14713 DMYC

At the start of the DBSC season an amendment to the Sailing Instructions was issued that stated that boats could not pass through the start/finish line during the race. From my shore-side observance, this rule amendment didn't appear to have effect last night..........which makes the declared results on the website all the more interesting.

In overall terms, after four Tuesdays, Messrs Butler & Oram enjoy a four-point lead over Neil Colin & Margaret Casey who, in turn, are a point ahead of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry.

#dbsc – CRUISERS 2 - 1. Borraine (Ean Pugh), 2. Bendemeer (L Casey & D Power)

CRUISERS 3 Tuesday - 1. Syzrgy (R Fogarty), 2. Grasshopper II (K & J Glynn), 3. Maranda (M Kelly)

Ensign - 1. RIYC 1 (Tim Goodbody), 2. RIYC 2 (Mark McGibney)

FIREBALL - 1. No Name (S Oram), 2. Elevation (N.Colin/M.Casey), 3. Blind Squirrel (Frank Miller)

GLEN - 1. Glendun (B.Denham et al), 2. Glenmiller (P Cusack), 3. Glenshane (P Hogan)

IDRA 14 FOOT - 1. Dunmoanin (Frank Hamilton), 2. Doody (J.Fitzgerald/J.Byrne), 3. Slipstream (Julie Ascoop)

PY CLASS - 1. R Kenneally (Laser), 2. Colin Galavan (Laser), 3. Gary O'Hare (Laser)

RUFFIAN 23 - 1. Cresendo (L Balfe), 2. Alias (D.Meeke/M.McCarthy), 3. Ruff Diamond (D.Byrne et al)