Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#FIREBALL– In contrast to the blue skies and sunshine of the previous Sundays, in November, the first December Sunday of the Frostbites in Dun Laoghaire was typified by more seasonal weather, cold, grey skies and blustery conditions. Yet again the wind moderated from the forecast and the previous night’s conditions to allow sailing to take place – the forecast had been for Force 7 – 8 in the Irish Sea, but on Sunday morning XC Weather was predicting 12 – 14 knots with gusts in the twenties.

Twelve Fireballs took to the water this weekend and were rewarded for their perseverance with fast three sails reaches and challenging beats. Some of the fleet took a bath, under spinnaker, and described the water temperature as bracing.

The wind peaked before the start in terms of continuous breeze but throughout the race the westerly wind was gusty. One combination retired after a lengthy capsize, another due to a broken spreader, but the remaining boats enjoyed a five lap race.

The pecking order was established early on with Butler/Oram (15061) being chased by Kenny Rumball, crewed this weekend by Connor Kinsella (15058), and Andy Boyle sailing with Barry Hurley (14934). In fourth place, for the first lap at least were Frank Cassidy & Cormac Bradley (14719) before they went the wrong way up the second beat to lose places to Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) and Louis Smyth & Joe O’Reilly (15007). Smyth/O’Reilly took a bath on the first reach of the next lap to allow Cassidy/Bradley back into 6^th.

The blustery conditions and stronger breeze saw Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keefe (14691) at a disadvantage relative to their male competitors and the lighter combination of Luke Malcolm and Shane Diviney , in their first frostbite series were further back than they might have preferred.

Dave Coleman & Glenn Fisher (14407) formed the rearguard of this fleet. On the coldest day of the series so far, everyone retired to the hospitality of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, where soup and rolls restored bodies to a more comfortable condition.

Finishing third, Andy Boyle and Barry Hurley picked up the day’s mugs.

Noel Butler & Stephen continue to lead the series with Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran/Connor Kinsella 2^nd and Andy Boyle/Barry Hurley/Brian Flahive third. There are two races left in Series 1, 11^th and 18^th December, before the Christmas break.