Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#fireballsailing – While the Frostbites of 22^nd February were cancelled due to adverse wind conditions, though I spotted Shane McCarthy coming back in to the Coal Harbour through “hell’s gate” with a flogging main in his Solo, it may have afforded the Irish Fireball fleet an opportunity to contemplate summer sailing and the regattas that they will be attending writes Cormac Bradley.

As has been the practice in recent years we will have five of our own events and will be encouraging an attendance at a number of other events in a summer season that will span the period of April to October.  We will have regattas on both the north and south coasts of the island, one freshwater venue and two events where we will share the race area and club hospitality with other classes.

Communications are ongoing as to who will be providing the training in April, but the expectation is that a UK Fireballer will be the provider of this session.

Skerries, Dunmore East, Lough Derg and DMYC have all hosted us recently, but Cushendall represents a new departure. They have in recent years hosted the Flying Fifteens, but Barry McCartin, who hails from this club assures us that they are very excited at the prospect of hosting the Fireball fleet in what is one of the most dramatic backdrops to a race are anywhere on the island – the Glens of Antrim. While the club is located on the north coast, it is a relatively “short-hop” drive-wise from Belfast!

As I am sure you will all understand, sharing venues with other classes is a reality in Ireland today and thus two of our events will be in the company of other classes. We have sailed regatta venues with the Wayfarers before and they work well with us. Most of us have exposure to the Flying Fifteen fleet through Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) racing, so a big water venue like Dunmore East should not pose a problem. Going to Lough Derg with the 420s is intended to show the 420 race fleet that the Fireball can be a viable option for them when they step out of their class. Additionally, in John Leech, National Race Officer and Flag Officer of LDYC, we have an individual who has a strong connection with the 420 Class and after Lough Ree last September John was very quick to extend an invite to Lough Derg. Our last visit there was around 2009/10. 

There are no regatta events for the Fireball Class in August to facilitate participation in Fireball International’s International Week and World Championships in Pwllheli, Wales. The venue is approximately 45 minute drive from the Holyhead ferry terminal and the clubhouse and facilities are undergoing a major revamp in time for the event. My understanding is that Pwllheli is a RYA Centre of Excellence so the new facilities are in accordance with that aspiration. FI expects this to be a large-fleet event with entries from Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland and others hopefully and, of course, a substantial entry from the host nation.

For those who aren’t going to Pwllheli, there is a new event on the calendar this year, the Cork Dinghy Regatta, to be hosted by the Royal Cork Yacht Club in the second half of August. Fireballs have been invited to join, but Class and own start status will be on the basis of numbers attending.

Being an odd numbered year, the biennial, four-day Volvo Regatta returns to the waters of Dublin Bay over the first weekend of July and again Fireballs have been invited to participate. The programme is for 10 races spread over Thursday afternoon, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning and again we will need numbers if we are to have Class status and our own start. Of course this is a fiesta of racing, with every size of boat catered for, not just dinghies, with an extensive social programme spread over the four days. Fireballs have raced every edition of this regatta since it was established in 2005, so it would be a pity to drop the ball in this, the 6^th edition.