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#fireball – Tonight's dinghy race under the auspices of the DBSC was held under very difficult conditions. On the way out to the starting area it wasn't at all certain that any racing would actually take place. There was no obvious sign of consistent wind on the water, rendering the sea conditions to a lumpy smooth surface finish.

The majority of the fleet struggled to make the official start of proceedings so the status of the initial postponement may have been due to wind conditions – there was a significant shift – or due to the fact that only a handful of boats would have made their respective starts.

XCWeather was projecting a southerly of about 10 – 12 knots but what wind there was was closer to east than south initially, swung to SE and then went further south during the race.

Seven Fireballs took to the water and despite a cautionary note about our poor start of the last Tuesday night this correspondent was off the pace again when the starting signal went!

Five Fireballs went left and out to sea. The all-lady crews of Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) and Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) went inshore. Of the five seaward going Fireballs, all on starboard tack, Jonathon Nicholson & Vivian Besselar (14781) were the furthest inshore, while Noel Butler & Shane McCarthy (15061) and the Clancy Brothers, Connor & James (150**) led the straight line "chase" (figuratively speaking) to the port lay-line. Also in this bunch and well placed were Mary Chambers & Brenda Maguire (14865).

At the first weather mark the running order was Clancy, Butler, Nicholson, Chambers, McKenna, Smyth & Power. 100 – 150m into the downwind leg, the wind shifted southwards rendering the course into a three sail reach down wind and a two sail fetch upwind, with a short hitch at either end to round the mark, or so it appeared from my vantage point! Clancy and Butler seemed to be initially vying for the lead but the biggest movers of the night were Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe who converted their first weather mark fifth place to a second place on the finish line. Butler & McCarthy led from the 2nd weather mark and were never threatened by the remainder of the fleet.

Tonight was the first race in the second series of DBSC so these individual race finishes reflect the overall situation.

In Series 1, the winners were Noel Butler & Stephen Oram, followed by Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe and Connor Clancy & Others.