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#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.