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#fireball – Twelve Fireballs initiated the second half of the 42nd Frostbite Series hosted and organised by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club yesterday, 6th January 2013 writes Cormac Bradley. Sailed under grey skies that eventually gave way to some weak sunshine, winds were of the order of 8-9knots with a direction of 153º that moved to 136º and then back to 167º as the five lap race progressed.

Watching the PY start and first beat from close to the weather station on Dun Laoghaire harbour's East Pier two RS 400s went separate ways up the first leg with the RS on the right-hand side of the course rounding the weather mark first – implying that the RHS was the way to go.

On an even start, the 12 Fireballs were distributed across the start line with Team Clancy, James and Conor hogging the pin. They proceeded to work the LHS of the course to round in first place with Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14937), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) following immediately behind them. Thereafter the running order was Luke Malcolm & Shane Divinney (14790), Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14953), Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive (14934), Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella (15058). The latter combination appeared to take places on the first reach of the triangle, but they were further off the pace than this observer would have though possible given their performance in the first half of the series, before Christmas.

Rounding the first leeward mark in first place, Butler/Oram initially went to the right of the course and proceeded to work the middle, rounding the 2nd weather mark with a comfortable lead of 24 seconds on the second placed combination of Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe who had gone even further right. These two combinations simply sailed away from the rest of the fleet who scrambled between themselves for the last remaining podium place. On the second rounding of the weather mark the order was Butler/Oram, McKenna/O'Keeffe, Malcolm/Divinney, Creighton/O'Reilly, Rumball/Kinsella, Doyle/Sweeney and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865). A capsize after the gybe mark undid all the latter's good work in getting this far up the pecking order.

On the third beat, Butler and Rumball worked the right side of the course while McKenna stayed left-ish with the Clancys and Doyle. Butler's lead grew as a consequence of this different approach, rounding over a minute ahead of McKenna who had a 37 second gap on Malcolm/Divinney. The Clancys, Creighton and Rumball were the next boats in sequence.

At the top end of the fourth beat, Butler and Oram sailing on the port lay-line to the weather mark were both sitting inboard relative to McKenna & O'Keeffe who were steaming up the starboard layline, closing to 33 seconds on the leaders. By this stage the first reach had broadened to a run of sorts, allowing Creighton/O'Reilly to subsequently gybe twice in their approach to the gybe mark. Boyle & Flahive, making their debuts in the 2012/13 Series had meanwhile crept into third place, but they were almost ¾ leg behind McKenna/O'Keeffe who had closed to 12 seconds behind Butler/Oram at the fourth gybe mark.

Weak sunshine embraced the fleet for the final lap with Butler/Oram working the middle of the course in tandem with McKenna/O'Keefe to about halfway up the beat when Butler went left and McKenna right. This extended Butler's lead back to a one-minute margin by the last weather mark, with the gap to Boyle/Flahive in third at 1 minute 55 seconds. These positions stayed the same on the water allowing Butler & Oram to open the 2013 competitive season with a win. McKenna & O'Keeffe's performance was exceptional as they simply stuck to the task of chasing the lead pair and sailed away from the rest of the fleet as a consequence.

Debutants, Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive took the day's Frostbite mugs.