UK Coach Passes on Fireball Tips

29th April 2012

Afloat.ie Team

#FIREBALL – The perennial primer for the Irish Fireball regatta season took place last weekend, 21/22 April in Dun Laoghaire when Adam Bowers brought his expertise, good humour and unique style of coaching to an eleven-boat audience writes Cormac Bradley.

Blessed with significant wind for the first time in his trips to Ireland (the fourth, I think), Adam was able to concentrate on additional aspects of racing that the presence of breeze facilitated.

As ever, there was a significant focus on starting with classroom emphasis on controlling position in the end stages of the countdown to the start and a demand that boats be accelerated off the start line rather than accelerating. The consequence of this requirement, Adam stated, was the early achievement of "gorgeousness" within a short distance of crossing the start line.

The achievement of "gorgeousness" has also to be matched with a significant injection of "WUMPETA" – energy and earnestness in the execution of boat and sail trim and helming to get the boat travelling at its fastest in the shortest possible time.

The recurrent theme of proper rounding of the leeward mark is another Bowers "hobby-horse". Adam perceives the leeward mark as a gateway to escaping from the boats immediately around you who have been tardy in their mark rounding. The quests for clean water and clean wind and the commensurate rudder movements at the leeward mark were drummed into his audience.

Held over two days in strong winds on the Saturday and more moderate wind on the Sunday, the session concluded with the "Porsche Cup" – a three race, no discard series, triangle-sausage-triangle course, sailed under black-flag conditions with a five-minute countdown.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram successfully defended their trophy, with Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney second and Frank Miller & Susie Mulligan third.

Thanks are due to Marie Barry (Treasurer) who made the arrangements for getting Adam across from the UK, Marie and Stephen Oram who hosted Adam and rib drivers and assistants in the persons of Neil Colin (Chairman), Mick Creighton, Alistair Court, Hermine O'Keefe and others.

Published in Fireball

Tagged under

Fireball

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

You might also want to read...

Fireball: 60 years of history

Designed in 1962 by British naval architect Peter Milne, the Fireball is a two-person dinghy with spinnaker and trapeze, combining simplicity of construction, high performance and accessibility. Over the years, it has been a training ground for generations of sailors, developing skills in tactics and technique, and producing champions who later moved on to Olympic and offshore challenges. More than half a century later, it remains one of the most vibrant and passionate classes, also thanks to initiatives such as the Under 25 category, designed to engage new generations and keep the tradition alive.

At A Glance – Fireball Dinghy Specs

Crew 2 (single trapeze)
LOA 16 ft 2 in (4.93 m)
Beam 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m)
Hull weight 175 lb (79 kg)
Mast height 22.3 ft (6.8 m)
Mainsail area 108 sq ft (10.0 m2).
Jib / Genoa area 35 sq ft (3.3 m2).
Spinnaker area 140 sq ft (13 m2).