fireball – An encouraging turnout of 21 boats made the second regatta of the Irish Fireball Regatta circuit, the Open Championship, at Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club writes Cormac Bradley. Dublin Bay had been bereft of any significant wind on Friday for the first day of the ICRA Championships, but the wind forecast for today was slightly better. However, driving from Dun Laoghaire to the opposite side of Dublin Bay, there was no real sign that we were in for a better day wind-wise.
This lack of wind prompted the Race Officer, Ian Sergeant to advise the fleet that he might contemplate keeping the races inside the harbour. He was true to his word, for even though we got three races in, the wind was light and very variable. Ian did a great job of responding to the vagaries of the wind, by moving and tweaking the course set up to keep things as fair as possible. Mother Nature didn't always recognise his efforts for while he put the weather mark in the right place, during the races the wind would shift – significantly so in the second race when the second beat of the windward-leeward course became a two sail fetch.
Despite the "flexibility" of the wind, many of the names at the top of the page will be instantly recognised by readers of these Fireball Class reports.
Kenny Rumball & Brian Byrne (15058) may have got off to a slow start with a fourth, but they made amends by winning the second and third races to sit atop the "log" with a five point cushion. It was the sort of day when staying out of trouble and knowing how to keep the boat moving were the keys to success – Kenny & Brian shown those skills in spades – though they, like others, must have had some luck as well.
Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (15114) were slightly off the pace, by their standards, but showed progressive improvement by posting a 4, 3, 2 over the three races. A new boat beckons, but for the moment they are getting their current boat to go very nicely – admittedly with the sails of their new steed!
Team Clancy, brothers James and Conor (14807) started the day's proceedings with a very comfortable start to finish win. They worked the middle and right of the first beat and seemed to have that edge of speed to sail away from the chasing pack. They stayed on the same side of the course for the downwind leg.
When the wind goes light, the door opens to a number of additional combinations and there were lots of people who had at least one good race today. Michael & James Murphy (14908), a father and son combination scored a fourth in the difficult middle race. Alan Henry & Simon Revill (14645) also had their "moment in the spotlight" with a fifth place in the third race. Neil Colin and Margaret Casey led the last race at the leeward mark and were overtaken on the second beat, but still recorded a 4th place. This allowed them to occupy 5th place overnight.
However, the best performance outside the "usual suspects" was that of Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) who scored a 3, 2, 7 to occupy 4th place overall overnight.
It doesn't happen very often, in fact it is a rare occurrence, but today was a relative shocker for perennial pace-setters Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061). A very uncharacteristic 5, 5, 12 sees them down in 6th place overall. The 12th place represents a "get out of gaol" opportunity because at a late stage of what became the last downwind leg, there was a prospect of a much larger number of their score sheet.
Neil Colin and Margaret Casey lead the Classic Fireball Division.
