Race Officer Neil Murphy and the Green Fleet had a difficult day on the water for Saturday’s DBSC racing.

Initially, the Race Officer took the fleet well to the west of the bay with the bigger boats and a WAZP regatta dictating the availability of the course area. From an early stage, it was apparent that the wind was not going to play ball as it fluctuated either side of 270°. With the WASZPs finishing their racing, the committee boat moved to their location but Neil’s struggles were not over, and the sight of the big boat fleet beating southwards and eastwards and the leaders running back westwards under spinnaker up the bay must have left him thinking he was operating in a parallel universe. That breeze never materialised for the Green Fleet – SB20s, Dragons, Sportsboats, Flying Fifteens, Mermaids, Ruffians and Beneteau's.

A two-lap Windward-Leeward race was commenced with a breeze that changed so regularly that deciding which end of the line was best to start was also a matter of chance. A committee boat start did not look too bright for 4081 (Mulligan & Bradley) relative to 3955 (Dumpleton & Hickey) and 4057 (Tom Murphy & Matt) who tacked onto port almost immediately and shot ahead of the fleet. I am going to assume that 4099 (Gorman & Casey), 4083 (Lavery & Green) and 4093 (Galvin & Poole) were at the other end of the line because these three boats and the previous two formed the core of the head of the fleet. By the latter half of the first beat, Gorman and Lavery were at the head of the fleet with Dumpleton and Murphy thereabouts. Mulligan had a better 2nd half of the beat to close the gap somewhat but the racing was tight down the spinnaker leg.

Dumpleton’s manoeuvres towards the end of the run were unsuccessful as he got dropped by Messrs Gorman and Lavery, having been in a position to challenge them both. The lead group went left but soon found themselves wallowing in no wind. Mulligan, 3753 (Court & O’Leary [with hat intact]) and 4068 (Mulvin & Beirne) having rounded together with 3896 (Cooper & McNamara) then worked the middle and right of the course. Court & O’Leary could have sailed to Clontarf and turned left when they ran out of water, they were so far removed from the rest of us. Cooper also went right but not to the extremes of Court. Mulligan and Mulvin were the most conservative operating in a tight corridor that never completely ran out of breeze, but never had a huge amount either. After one tack, Mulligan was able to lay the weather mark on a huge starboard lift. But that too evaporated!

Court eventually steamed in on starboard tack, reaching in from afar. However, he rounded the mark behind Cooper and with Mulligan on his transom. Court & Mulligan gybed immediately, Mulligan following Court’s lead and these two stayed within a boat-length of each other down the spinnaker leg. Mulvin & Beirne initially gave chase to Mulligan but the latter managed to squeeze out from the wind shadow Mulvin was trying to create.

The “left wingers” managed to get back in the frame by the weather mark as the breeze started to fill a bit more fruitfully across the course. Thus, we had Court, Mulligan and Mulvin working the left-hand side of the run, utilising the breeze that Court had brought in from the Clontarf side. Gorman, Lavery, Dumpleton, Cooper, the Colemans, Niall & Susan (4008) were on the shore side of the first three.
The lead two finished marginally overlapped, with Court & O’Leary taking the gun. Mulvin & Beirne were rewarded with 3rd place ahead of Gorman & Casey, Dumpleton & Hickey, the Colemans, Lavery & Green and Cooper.

It was a day of multiple wind changes and Neil Murphy, visiting the southern portion of the Bay from Howth, had multiple decisions to make to get a race in. A decision to wait until 16:15 to even contemplate a second race was the considered approach and by this deadline there was still no solidity to the wind conditions. The breeze that the big boats enjoyed never materialised on the Green course even though they used a weather mark that was only about one hundred metres away from our start area. The Green Fleet sailed homewards under spinnakers with a breeze that still had a westerly element to it. Inside the harbour the dinghy fleet abandoned their racing.

DBSC Saturday 6th August 2022

Flying Fifteens
1. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne
4. David Gorman & Margaret Casey
5. Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey

Saturdays Series B
1. David Gorman & Others 9pts
2. John Lavery & Alan Green 10pts
3. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 15pts
4. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 19pts
5. Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey 21pts

Saturdays Overall
1. David Gorman & Others 31pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 49pts
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 72pts
4. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 83pts
5. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 96pts

In an eight-boat turnout in IRC One, Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club won in Saturday's AIB DBSC Summer Series race 12 on August 6th.

Second was Colin Byrne's XP33 Bon Exemple in a two-hour race.

Southeasterly breezes for the cruiser courses on Dublin Bay were 11 knots in strength. The Race Officer was Barry MacNeaney.

Overall series leader Lindsay J. Casey's J97 Windjammer was the Cruisers Two IRC division winner. The Royal St. George yacht took the gun from clubmate Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer. Third, in the three-boat race, was Jim McCann's Peridot.

In a four-boat turnout, Frazer Meredith's Asterix was the IRC 3 winner from Myles Kelly's Maranda. Third was Kevin Byrne's Royal St. George Formula 28 Starlet. 

In the One Design keelboat fleets, Davy Taylor's Ted was the winner of the single race in a ten-boat SB20 fleet. Winds on the one design course, under race officer Neil Murray, were westerly five or six knots.

In the nine-boat 31.7 fleet, Chris Johnston's Prospect won from John Power's Levante. Third was Brian Geraghty's Camira.

Full results across all DBSC classes are below.

After an extended run of light wind conditions for Thursday night racing, Flying Fifteen Race Officer John McNeilly had some wind to play with on Thursday night (August 4).

The DBSC results sheet for the night suggests we had 10–18 knots on the course, but post-race John made the comment that he had recorded 10 – 16 knots. My sense was that the higher wind strength was at the start of the evening. Fifteen boats made their way out to the start and as the wind was behaving in accordance with the forecast – N-Westerly, a race from the QW suite of races was chosen – QW2. It appears that this caused some confusion later on the course, with one person citing dyslexia pre-start as their excuse for getting the course wrong.

QW2 – Harbour-Island-Pier-Island-Omega-Island-Finish was a course that involved lots of spinnaker and upwind sailing and resulted in one of the longer races we have had on a Thursday night for some time. Another observation of the night was that there was very little tactical sailing on the night and that the only tactical beat was the leg to Harbour. Aside from that comment, most people seemed to have enjoyed a night where we had good breeze throughout the evening and there were incidents aplenty on the course. There was a port/starboard on the first beat with turns having to be taken, there were two boats who decided to go trawling with their spinnakers, there was an emergency gybe to recover a cherished and distinctive piece of headgear that had blown off its owner’s head – a very commendable gesture by the helm, wearing a more secure hat!! The same boat also had the night’s second port/starboard incident. And to finish off the evening an attempt to squeeze over the finish line at the pin end caused the boat in question to loose the boat closest to him and certainly one other place. And as for the racing…………

A brisk NW wind, an ebbing tide, a relatively short first beat, a consideration as to which side the spinnaker would fly on the leg to Island and determining where to start in a fifteen-boat fleet gave everyone food for thought. Mulligan & Bradley (4081) attempted to commandeer the pin and were marginally too early. They sailed through the line, gybed and restarted finding a gap not too far from the pin to wend a way out onto the course side. Others in the area of the pin were Tom Galvin & Keith Poole (4093), Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753) and possibly Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774). In close proximity to this bunch could be found Class Captain Jill Fleming sailing with Joe Coughlan (3913). On the opposite side of the start, working a more offshore passage were Alan and Caroline Green, sailing Phoenix (4083) and David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068). As the fleet closed out the latter stages of this leg, Mulligan found himself being pushed to the wrong side of Harbour mark by Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara (3896). A hail to the effect that Harbour was to be rounded to starboard, like all the other marks on the night, had the desired effect. At Harbour, Galvin & Poole had a good lead, with Mulligan and Bradley in second. However, with spinnakers finally set, the chasing pack was spread across the course with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), the Greens, Murphy & Mulvey and Court & O’Leary almost in a row from inshore to offshore. Most people put into a number of gybes on the way to Island which Galvin & Poole rounded in first place. Mulligan played greyhound to Galvin’s rabbit while behind Mulligan, Green, Colin, Murphy P and Court played greyhounds to Mulligan’s rabbit.

With the ebbing tide, the universal view was to go inshore with Galvin leading the charge. Mulligan appeared to be closing the gap in straight line terms while he occupied a position slightly to windward of Galvin. An inboard tweak of the genoa caused Mulligan to drop to Galvin’s lee, but Mulligan’s speed was not compromised so that the straight-line distance between the boats continued to reduce. Galvin went offshore first while Mulligan hung on to the inshore route for that bit longer. The wind was now showing some fluctuation so lifts and headers came into the equation to an enhanced extent. Mulligan’s passage to the right-hand side of the beat showed that he had closed considerably on Galvin, because although the latter crossed him on starboard, the gap between the boats was down to a couple of boat-lengths. Behind, Colin, Green, Court and Murphy were still in close company but Mulligan had enhanced his lead over them.

At Pier, Galvin & Poole’s lead was down to a few boat-lengths and they and Mulligan & Bradley sailed the leg to Island in reasonably close company until late on in the leg when the lead pair eked out a few more metres of a lead. Mulligan was requested to execute a rounding that would leave them sitting to windward of Galvin for the start of the leg to Omega. He duly obliged to put some more visual pressure on Galvin. With a lead that allowed Mulligan to concentrate on hauling in Galvin rather than looking over his shoulder at Colin, Green, Murphy and Court, 4081 progressively bit into 4093’s lead and by Omega, Mulligan had taken the lead by an 80m margin. Galvin’s approach to Omega went a little awry which allowed Colin to get to very close quarters and indeed, Colin may have rounded in second place. Behind these two, Court & O’Leary were not too far away and Mulvin and P Murphy were also in striking distance. Omega to Island was executed safely by Mulligan with Galvin, Colin and Court staying in close company. The Greens may still have been here, but Alan advised that they had a hiccup on the water and it may have been on this leg, as I can’t place them at this stage of the race.

The leg to the finish, upwind of Pier, again meant getting out of the tide, now running out at its strongest. So, heading inshore was the best policy which everyone adopted. However, as one sailed towards the shore and the harbour, the numbers on the compass made it obligatory to take the highs and try and mitigate the lows. And so, approximately halfway up the leg, Mulligan as leader, started to play the shifts, encouraged by the crew not to stray too far from a loose cover on the rest of the fleet and wherever possible to occupy a weather slot relative to the chasing pack.

A little bit later, Colin & Casey broke ranks and put in a tack to the offshore side of the beat. Ever wary of Colin’s tactical nous, Mulligan & Bradley decided that he should be given more attention than the others simply because he had done something different to everyone else. They sailed across on a favourable number to make sure there were no “eleventh-hour” surprises as the finish came into view. They were still in the “pound seats”!

Mulligan & Bradley took the gun at the pin-end of the line in close company with a Beneteau 21, while Colin finished closer to the committee boat. Galvin and Court were very close closing in on the pin, and from our perspective Court was slightly to leeward of the pin and in danger of not making the finish line. He then appeared to tack to get over the line on port tack, but extremely close to Gavin who was on starboard. Court may then have clipped the pin so had to go back to the course side and re-finish which cost him a place to Mulvin & Beirne. The excitement never stops!

DBSC Flying Fifteens Thursday Night Series

Thursday 4th August.
1. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081
2. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 4028
3. Tom Galvin & Keith Poole 4093
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 4068
5. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 3753

Thursdays Overall Series B.
1. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14pts
2. Niall, Susan & Laura Coleman 18pts
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 19pts
4. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 24pts
5. Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara 27pts

Thursdays Overall (All season)
1. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 30pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 54pts
3. Ian Mathews, Tom Galvin & Keith Poole 56.5pts
4. Niall, Susan & Laura Coleman 70pts
5. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 78pts.

Chris Johnston's Prospect was the winner of Thursday night's nine-boat Beneteau 31.7 Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) AIB sponsored Summer series race on Dublin Bay.

Winds were northwesterly and up to 15 knots on the Bay.

The National Yacht Club skipper beat Michael Blaney's After You Too from the Royal St. George Yacht Club on scratch. Third was Johnston's clubmate, john Power sailing Levante.

In the overall Thursday Series rankings, after 15 races sailed, Johnston trails Power by two points on 22 points. Third, on 28 points, is Blaney.

Full results for all DBSC divisions are below.

As we emerge from the pandemic and gradually become accustomed to unfettered sailing, it is right and proper that we should salute those who guided our sport through the various regulations and restriction of the last two years and more. Chris Moore of the National YC had already given exceptional services to sailing - including being Commodore of both the NYC and Dublin Bay SC - when he took on the role of DBSC Honorary Secretary before the clamp-downs occurred.

Thus he was running one of the world’s largest yacht racing organisations through unprecedented new challenges, a fact which was recognised with DBSC becoming the Mitsubishi Motors “Sailing Club of the Year” for 2021. But with normality of sorts returning with the club in good heart, it was time to stand down, and in mid-July, he was succeeded in the key role by Rosemary Roy. We salute Chris Moore for his exceptional service to our sport.

In a five-boat turnout in IRC One, the DP Partnership's J109 Dear Prudence beat Tim Goodbody's White Mischief from the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Saturday's AIB DBSC Summer Series race on August Bank Holiday weekend (July 30th).

Third was Colin Byrne's XP33 Bon Exemple in the one-and-a-three-quarter-hour race.

Dublin Bay's winds were light and up to 11-knots from the southeast. The Race Officer was Barry MacNeaney.

Lindsay J. Casey's J97 Windjammer was the Cruisers Two IRC division winner. The Royal St. George yacht took the gun from Jim McCann's Mustang Peridot. Third, in the three-boat race, was Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer.

Kevin Byrne's Royal St. George Formula 28 Starlet was the IRC 3 winner from Frazer Meredith's Asterix. Third was Myles Kelly's Maranda.

In the One Design keelboat fleets, Peter Carvill's Leviathon was the winner of the first race in a six-boat SB20 fleet.

In the seven-boat 31.7 fleet, Chris Johnston's Prospect came from behind at the last mark to squeeze Attitude ((Trina Milner) be five seconds ahead at the finish.

As previously reported, DBSC dinghy racing on Saturday was scrubbed due to a forecasted low turnout on the bank holiday weekend.

Full results across all DBSC classes are below.

Patrick Burke's First 40 Prima Forte from the Royal Irish Yacht Club produced a corrected time win of over a minute in a fine turnout of eight Cruisers Zero boats in Thursday's AIB DBSC Summer Series.

Racing took place in light southeasterly winds of about six knots and a flood tide on Dublin Bay.

The results put Burke just a single point behind the overall Thursday leader, Rockabill VI skippered by Paul O'Higgins of the RIYC.

O'Higgins did not compete last night with his JPK10.80 now positioned to West Cork for next week's Calves Week Regatta. 

Second in last night's Race 14 of the series was Chris Power-Smith's J122 Aurelia from the Royal St. George Yacht Club. Third was the late Vincent Farrell's First 40.7 Tsunami from the National Yacht Club. 

In a nine-boat Cruisers One IRC turnout, Timothy Goodbody's RIYC J109, White Mischief, won from clubmate Colin Byrne in the XP33 Bon Exemple. Third was Andrew Craig's Chimaera.

Lindsay J. Casey was the Cruisers Two race winner in the J97 Windjammer. In the Corby 25 Ruthless, Conor Ronan was second in a seven-boat turnout from Ian Bowring's Sigma 33 Springer.

In the one designs, as Afloat reports here, Ian Mathews and  Keith Poole were the Flying Fifteen winners. 

Full DBSC results below

The last check on the weather forecast for last evening, before departing work suggested 6/7 knots SE going south and dying as the evening wore on. DBSC Race Officer John McNeilly in his briefing to the fleet on the water advised that he had 6 -6.5 knots at 145° and reminded everyone in the Flying Fifteen fleet that the tide had just turned and would be flooding all evening. Two Thursdays ago, in what we thought were similar conditions, a seaward hike on the first beat had been of enormous benefit in taking the gun, but last night a lesser hike to sea was the initial undoing of this author.

Ian Mathews & Keith Poole (4093) led a “Lake Garda-esque” charge to the shore and led the fleet into the three-mark course – Bulloch-Island Pier-Island-Pier-Finish. Others in this group included Niall & Susan Coleman (4008), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774) and probably Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3753).

On the opposite side of the course, shortly after the start could be found Alan Green, back after an extended campaign in the UK, sailing with his daughter Caroline in 4083, Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081), Alan Balfe (3995) and Tom Murphy & Nicki Matthews (4057). The first two were the last to abandon this course, with Green politely goading Mulligan to tack. Having done so, Green, in the weather berth simply sailed off, eventually scoring a podium place on the finish line.

Having traversed the beat, Mulligan joined the rest of the fleet as they rock-hopped along the coast between the 40-foot and Dalkey, trying to duck the tide. At this stage, Mulligan was in the mix with John O’Sullivan and Cas (3792), Hugh & Niall Meagher (3938) and Tom Murphy and rounded in ninth place. The light conditions meant that there was no hiking and most crews were either sitting on the cockpit floor or on the leeward deck.

The leg to Island was a two-sailer, with the fleet sailing high to compensate for the tide and it was only at Island that spinnakers were broken out and a running order, from my perspective, could be determined. First to show was the red and black of Mathews & Poole (4093), followed by the blue of the Colemans (4008), the white of the Greens (4083), the yellow of Colin & Casey (4028), the green and yellow of Court & O’Leary (3753) and another blue of Murphy & Mulvey (3774). In their immediate company Mulligan & Bradley (red) had Murphy & Matthews (two-tone blue), Balfe (sky blue & white) and the Meaghers (pink & blue, I think).

For the leg to Pier, the breeze held its strength, but there was no change in the running order at the head of the fleet that this correspondent was aware of. What I can confirm is that the distances between the boats was quite large so there was no close quarter sailing going on in the leading 1 -7 boats. The second beat saw the fleet sail lemming-like to the shore with the exception of Adrian Cooper (3896) who went to sea in a big way. Later Tom Murphy would also head seawards and neither really lost out by it. Indeed, it could be argued that Cooper re-joined the company as a consequence of this tactic.

Mathews & Poole were very comfortable at Island the second time and would go on to win by a very large margin. The Colemans, the Green and Colin & Casey finished in quick succession and with a semblance of being in a close race. Murphy & Mulvey and Court & O’Leary were next home. The next group of boats – Murphy T, Meaghers, Copper and Mulligan had closed in to form a tighter group as they sailed to Pier for the second time and some divergent downwind sailing took place. Copper was on the inside with Mulligan to his starboard side. Team Meagher went much further right while Murphy T tried to source wind by first gong right and then coming back again. Mulligan held a reasonably steady line but was the first to gybe for the final approach to Pier. And this paid off, allowing him to round Pier as the first of this quartet of boats.
For the short hitch to the finish, Copper and Murphy went to the left, while Mulligan sailed to the right and was able to cross the line ahead of the other two.

DBSC Thursday Series: Flying Fifteens

28th July
1. Ian Mathews & Keith Poole (4093)
2. Niall & Susan Coleman (4008)
3. Alan & Caroline Green (4083)
4. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028)
5. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774)

Thursdays Overall

1. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 28pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 52pts
3. Keith Poole/Ian Mathews & Tom Galvin 53.5pts
4. Niall, Susan & Laura Coleman 62pts
5. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 68pts
Thursdays B Series (5 races) [As posted by DBSC]
1. Niall & Susan & Laura Coleman 10pts
2. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 12pts
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 17pts
4. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 17pts
5. Adrian Cooper & crews 20pts

The fleet is reminded that it is racing for the Facet Trophy this Saturday, 30th July, with a prize-giving scheduled for 17:15 (approx.) in the National Yacht Club.

Having sought feedback from Dublin Bay Sailing Club Dinghy Class Captains, participation is expected to be low this coming Saturday, so DBSC has decided not to hold dinghy racing on Saturday, 30th July 2022.

Tuesday sailing on 2nd August is still in place as per the club's racing schedule.

DBSC is Ireland's biggest yacht racing club. Full results below.

Late Saturday morning signalled a change in the recent weather, with blue skies giving way to overcast conditions and the light winds of the previous Thursday night’s racing disappearing to be replaced by wind that whistled through the rigging on the platform of the National Yacht Club. It generated some debate as to whether there would be racing but that argument was partially undone by the launching of a large number of ILCAs for their Leinster Championships earlier in the morning. XCWeather had predicted southerlies of 12 knots gusting to the low twenties, one voice claimed that the Dublin Bay Buoy was showing 22knots gusting to 28. However, a later check on that source showed 4knots gusting 22!

The ongoing holiday season and one case of ill health continues to create new combinations for racing in the Flying Fifteens and this Saturday there was no shortage of new names sailing together, with some sailing in unusual places. John Lavery helmed David Mulvin’s Ignis Caput Duo (4068), with David in the sharp end. Joe Coughlan crewed for Ian Mathews in Mike Wazowski (4093), Alan Balfe stepped into the sharp end of Thomas Murphy’s Fflagella (4057) and Chris Doorly teamed up with David Gorman (4099). In the absence of any contrary notification from the Race Officer, Barry O’Neill, these four boats and six others launched for the 2-race programme. A busy race agenda with ILCAs sailing Leinsters and Ruffians sailing their Nationals saw the Saturday Green Fleet going deep into the west of the bay to get their racing in.

Mulligan & Bradley en route to the start area

With low water at 14:30 tide would be a feature of the afternoon and despite the wind whistling in the rigging ashore, the sail out to the start area was quite genteel. On the water, the wind direction was of the order of 145°, not quite the southerly that XCWeather had suggested.

For the first race of the day, the fleet all started on starboard with Mulligan & Bradley closest to the committee boat – by choice. Their decision was influenced by an assessment of tide and wind and while the rest of the fleet belatedly followed them inshore, Mulligan appeared to have stolen a slight march on the fleet. However, the route to the weather mark of the 2-lap Windward-Leeward course meant that those who had taken a starboard hitch initially were better off, though when the fleet converged for the final approach to the weather mark, there wasn’t a great deal of distance between them. Mulligan looked to have cleared those coming in on port tack, but that isn’t how it materialised as Mathews & Coughlan led the fleet around, followed by Lavery & Mulvin, Gorman & Doorly and Mulligan & Bradley. Mathews and Lavery were reasonably close with a gap to Gorman and a further gap to Mulligan who had to watch his windward quarter where Murphy & Balfe lurked with intent.

It was a starboard tack two-sailer all the way to the leeward mark where a gybe was required to round the mark and start the second beat. The leading quartet all went straight inshore with Gorman the furthest boat to windward but behind the front two where Mathews was the leeward boat but still leading. Mulligan eased off to get out from underneath Gorman and “Lake Garda like” the race was on to get to the shore first. These four pulled away from the rest of the fleet and closed on each other to provide a tight rounding of the weather mark for the second time.

Again, the course to the leeward mark was a simple straight-line matter apart from Gorman & Doorly sailing high to try and take the two boats ahead of them. My recall is that this didn’t succeed, but in the short leg to the finish, a decision to try and fly bag cost Lavery & Mulvin, allowing Gorman to take second place.

There was a sense that the breeze got up for the second race and the RO rejigged his course, seeming to make it longer as well as moving the weather mark in a northerly direction. Mulligan again pursued an inshore course and got it right to lead around the first weather mark of the three-lap course. This time the RO had set a course that forced people to make choices as to which route to take downwind. Mulligan favoured a slightly right-hand side biased route and was followed to varying degrees by Lavery and Mathews whereas Gorman sailed a more inshore route. The tactical aspect of the downwind came into play later on in the leg when an early gybe was needed to sail back towards the leeward mark. While an earlier transit has suggested that in straight line terms Gorman and Mulligan would be close, Mulligan’s gybe undid that assessment as he stole a few boat-lengths to get into the mark first. A well-executed spinnaker drop saw him gain another boat-length on Gorman and more importantly the windward slot relative to his pursuer. Mathews and Coughlan’s race came to an end here when they sailed over the spinnaker and Coughlan went overboard trying to resolve the problem.

Compared to the previous trek to the shore, Mulligan & Bradley decided the numbers weren’t good enough and took a hitch to sea. Or at least it started as a hitch and ended as a long solitary passage up the left-hand side of the beat. It was a risk, as none of the chasing pack felt so inclined but with a focus on the compass, they managed to eke out some distance from the chasing pack! As they tacked to come back inshore they were rewarded by being able to comfortably cross the fleet and close out the last metres of the second beat in relative comfort. What followed was another tactical downwind with Messrs Gorman and Lavery in pursuit – never easy and enough to focus the mind very intently. At the very least Mulligan maintained his lead over his pursuers and was able to embark on the third beat with some distance on Gorman who was still ahead of Lavery, but Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (Ffinisterre 3753) were now in the mix. As Mulligan led the chasers upwind on starboard tack it was apparent that Court & O’Leary were closing on Gorman & Doorly. As Mulligan tacked inshore for his final approach to the upwind finish of a shortened course Court and Gorman hit the left-hand corner with Court in the windward berth and ahead on the water. As they, in turn, tacked onto port to close on the finish, it was Court who was ahead and he took the gun for second place.

DBSC Flying Fifteens: Saturday Series. Saturday 23rd July.

Race 1.
1. Ian Mathews & Joe Coughlan 4093
2. David Gorman & Chris Doorly 4099
3. John Lavery & David Mulvin 4068
4. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081
5. Tom Murphy & Alan Balfe 4057.

Race 2.
1. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 4081
2. Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary 3753
3. David Gorman & Chris Doorly 4099
4. John Lavery & David Mulvin 4068
5. Tom Murphy & Alan Balfe 4057.

DBSC Flying Fifteens: Saturday Series Overall*
1. David Gorman & Michael Huang/Chris Doorly 22pts
2. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley 34pts
3. David Mulvin/John Lavery & Ronan Beirne 48pts
4. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 64pts
5. Tom Murphy & Carel/Alan Balfe 71pts

*The DBSC website is now showing the Thursday Night and Saturday Series as Thursday A & B and Saturday A & B, but the “Overall” results for the Saturday Series posted in this article is for all the Saturdays to date.