#fireball – What can I write of last night's Fireball race in Dun Laoghaire? Cormac Bradley reports.
It was a pleasant evening, though not quite what XC Weather had predicted. There was a nice breeze when we went out, but that started to fade shortly after we had finished the first lap. The DBSC Race Committee set a great Olympic-sized course, with a three lap schedule. There was a strong tide, as evidenced by this correspondent having to takes two bites to round the second weather mark of the night. Despite the feast of Fireball racing over the past two weekends, 10 races in 3½ days at Volvo Dun Laoghaire and 9 races in 3 days at the Nationals in Skerries last weekend, there were 6 boats out.
The actual race and how it played out on the water left this correspondent bemused!
A clean start for the fleet as a strong tide, even with only a hour of flood, was pushing the fleet away from the line. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) tack immediately at the committee boat end to head inshore. As each of the next five boats follow suit, one after the other, the stacking order, leeward to windward, is Butler/Oram, Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), Frank Miller & Ed Hyland (14713), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691), Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) and Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar (14891). Nicholson & McKenna peel off further up the beat to go further out to sea. Butler & Oram work the inside track to build a substantial lead at the first weather mar. The race for first place is over already! Miller/Hyland and Smyth/Bradley round in close company with Power & Barry a short distance behind them! Nicholson rounds next with McKenna in last place – a most unusual position for her on a Tuesday night.
Miller & Smyth stay in close company down to the gybe mark where Bradley slips off the windward deck just as the gybe beckons but they recover to close the gap marginally on Miller. However, Power closes on both Smyth and Miller as the three boats approach the leeward mark.
Butler/Oram are already heading inshore again so the next three boats follow suit. Miller is pointing significantly higher than Butler in the distance and Smyth is hanging onto his coat-tails. Power eases off to power (deliberate pun) out from underneath Smyth.
Nicholson tacks immediately at the leeward mark and heads out to sea – in theory sailing against the strongest aspect of the contrary tide. He will be beyond the gybe mark before he tacks again. McKenna tries to work middle and right but is strangely off-form.
Weather mark second time around! Butler & Oram are doing a horizon job on the rest of us. Miller& Hyland have held onto second, Power & Barry are third, but from far (far) left, Nicholson & Besslar have stormed into 4th place. Smyth & Bradley take two bites of the cherry to get round the weather mark, so strong is the tide, and by the time they do get round, Nicholson & Besslar in 4th place are more than halfway down the sausage. In 6th place McKenna has fallen further behind and must be pulling her hair out.
The order remains the same for the balance of the race. Then on the hitch from the last leeward mark to the finish it is apparent, from my distant view point that Butler & Oram have tacked immediately at the mark whereas Miller and Hyland went further inshore. In an amazing turnaround, given the lead that he had earlier in the race, Butler and Oram are forced to work their way inshore to cover Miller & Hyland to protect their lead. The margin of victory at the end was safe, but a barnyard of a lead had evaporated in the space of maybe 500m!
The next challenge for Smyth & McKenna was to make sure they weren't timed out – they weren't!
My sense of bemusement was confirmed by the others when we congregated in the DMYC clubhouse afterwards. Still a bad night on the water beats a good day on shore!
DBSC Fireball – Series 3, Race 1: Tuesday 23rd July 2013
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC
2 Frank Miller & Ed Hyland 14713 DMYC
3 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
4 Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar 14891 RStGYC
5 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb.
6 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe 14691 RStGYC
Series 2 was concluded last week and even though a query on last Tuesday's results was lodged, the results of Series 2, as posted are;
DBSC Fireball: Series 2, 5Races, 1 Discard.
1 Noel Butler & Glen Fisher/Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC 4pts
2 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe/Francis Rowan 14691 RStGYC 13pts
3 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 16pts
4 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC 17pts
5 Conor & James Clancy 150** RStGYC 20pts
