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Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella, representing Cushendall Sailing Club, Royal St. George Yacht Club and UCD Sailing Club are the 2011 Irish National Fireball Champions after another commanding performance on the water. However, this time their talent wasn’t directed at getting small numbers on their score card but rather making sure that having gone into the overall lead that they didn’t lose it.

At the end of Day 2 McCartin & Kinsella were tied on 11pts with Simon McGrotty & Ruairi Grimes of Skerries Sailing Club, with the latter combination on top of the pile and they had a twelve point cushion on the next two boats who were both tied on 23pts – Mike Murphy & Alex Voye & Noel Butler & Stephen Oram.

A keen start in the Fireballs. Photo Gareth Craig. More from Gareth on the Afloat Gallery here.

The forecast, which has been the subject of much debate at this regatta (and many others no doubt) was mixed. XC Weather had been predicting 9knots with gusts of 12 – 14. The Sea Area forecast from Met Eireann had talked about Force 4 to 5, but at least they were agreed on direction – WNW! While both had the direction right, the Race Management Team of Neil Murphy, Richard Kissane, Stuart Kinnear and others had enough material to work with to set two exceptionally good Olympic courses to exploit the breeze and relatively flat waters in the inner reaches of Dublin Bay. While there was more than 9knots of the water, there wasn’t the Force 4 to 5 either, though some of the breeze brought in with the rain squalls were providing a handful and the top reach of the last triangle of the 2^nd Olympic was sailed two-sailed by most.

In Race 7 of the series, McCartin/Kinsella scored a 3 to McGrotty/Grimes’s 5^th – fifteen – love to McCartin/Kinsella. The race was won by Kenny Rumball & Seamus Moore who were not having their best regatta, followed by Clancy/Rowan. In 4^th was Butler/Oram, with Creighton/Bradley in 6^th – the stronger breeze being to the latter’s advantage.

In Race 8, McGrotty/Grimes fell back to 6^th, a position that most combinations would envy, but not helpful in the penultimate race of a series that was getting very tight at the top. McCartin/Kinsella scored a 4^th – thirty –love to the series’ leaders! Rumball/Moore won again, but their charge to the front of the fleet was going to be a case of too little, too late. Butler/Oram took 2^nd, Kissane/Bradley 3^rd, Creighton/Bradley 5^th.

The leading pack at the front of the third race, a windward/leeward was made up of the usual suspects with two notable absentees – McCartin/Kinsella & McGrotty/Grimes. The former decided that they were going to be ultraconservative and sail their opposition down the fleet to make doubly sure of their win – a bit like Nadal serving an ace on Championship Point – just to put a final “classy” nail in the coffin.

While the Championship leaders played around at the back of the fleet, scoring an 18^th and 13^th respectively, Butler/Oram, Kissane/Bradley, Clancy/Rowan, Rumball/Moore and Creighton/Bradley hared around the course. All of these got a finish, except for Rumball/Moore who were ruled OCS, thus finishing off their event in much the same way as it had started – in disappointment.

The consequence of Butler/Oram’s late charge on Day 3 is that they closed the overnight gap to a single point. Rumball/Moore’s two wins propelled them from 10^th to 7^th, Clancy/Rowan’s 2, 8, 3, saw them jump from 6^th to 4^th, while Creighton/Bradley, with a 6, 5, 4 went from 12^th to 9^th at the expense of Miller/Donnelly, Bracken/O’Hara & McGrotty/Cramer.

The Silver fleet, of course has a competition within the competition and on Saturday evening Ben Malone & Matthew Bennion held a 10pt advantage over Ian O’Gorman & Glen Fisher. While both had been timed out of Friday’s third race, Malone/Bennion produced a “tight” set of results of 13, 14, 16 and two 17ths to O’Gorman/Fisher’s 15, two 16ths, 17 and 23^rd.  In third was Peter Armstrong and Peter Collins of Sligo Yacht Club sailed the wooden Fireball that made its debut at the Sligo Worlds (15060).

Malone/Bennion more than doubled their lead over O’Gorman/Fisher in Sunday’s racing to score a comfortable win. Armstrong/Collins were comfortably third.

At the closing prize-giving, thanks were offered to Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club for hosting the event and in particular to Neil Colin and Margaret Casey who in addition to being members of the Fireball Class committee are members of DMYC and were principally involved in organizing the event. They also sacrificed their Saturday sailing to provide rescue cover when there was a problem with resources. Thanks were also afforded to the Race Management Team of Neil Murphy, Stuart Kinnear and Richard Kissane and to Valerie Kinnear who processed the results.

Prizes in the form of “part-vouchers” from P&B, towards a jib, and from North, towards a spinnaker, were awarded to the mid-fleet boat in the Gold and Silver fleets respectively and won by Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (jib) and Cearbhall Daly & Mark Browne (spinnaker).

Glass prizes from Dublin Crystal were awarded to the 1-2-3 in both the Gold and Silver fleets.