The traditional summer season opener for the Irish Fireball Class, the Training Weekend, takes place the weekend after next, 16th & 17th April and will be hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. In a departure from previous years, the training this weekend will be provided by one of Ireland’s Olympians, Ger Owens, from the 470s, but also, more recently on the domestic circuit, the GP14 Class where he has notched up an enviable run of provincial and National successes with Mel Morris.
Proceeding for the two days, Saturday and Sunday, are scheduled to get underway at 09:30 on the Saturday morning. Fireball members who are not taking part in the coaching will lend support to Ger in the form of rib drivers and general support on and off the water. The Classroom sessions will take place in the DMYC and participants are requested to bring their own food and sustenance for the weekend.
At this stage, we are expecting ten boats, but if you want to make a late plan to join in you would be most welcome.
The “lift-in” for the keel boats at the DMYC takes place this weekend (9/10 April), in common with the other DL Clubs, we believe, which means that the dinghy park at the DM should be free to accept Fireballs from the Thursday evening onwards.
Two days after the training weekend, there is an early opportunity to put Ger’s coaching to good use with the opening race of the DBSC Summer Series and a further five days later, the first Sunday afternoon race of DBSC takes place for dinghies. While we understand that Tuesdays will continue in their normal format (time and location), prospective weekend “DBSC-ers” should note that dinghy racing will now take place on a Sunday at 14:00. However, Fireballers should double check with DBSC race notices and documents for changes rather than rely exclusively on this notification.
Fireball Ulsters – Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club
The first provincial regatta of the season will be the Ulsters, to be raced in conjunction with the Irish 5o5 Nationals on Belfast Lough (southern shore), hosted by RNIYC. This is a repeat arrangement of a few years back which worked out very well for all concerned. My recall is that the racing area is very accessible and I also remember “Team Bracken” getting some very classy accommodation in the area late on the Saturday night at a very competitive price. Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club is a classic “red-brick” establishment which was founded in the heydays of industrial Belfast by the amalgamation of the Ulster sailing Club and the Cultra Yacht Club in 1899. In 1902, by command of King Edward VII, it became known as the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club.
Regatta documentation will be available for this event shortly.
Nationals
Our National Championships are scheduled for Howth Yacht Club over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of August 12 – 14. This is our premier event of the summer and needs to be a showcase for the Class. Regrettably this hasn’t been the case for the last two years so consequently the committee will be asking you to make a commitment to be at this regatta with this very early notice the first step to putting the event on your radar. We had hoped to share the venue with another class, with Howth’s blessing, but those plans have changed due to circumstances beyond our control. However, we, and Howth, are still open to sharing the venue over these three days so if there is a class or event that needs a home over these dates, please feel free to contact us or Howth.
DL Waterfront Club Regattas
As it is an even numbered year, there will be no 4-day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July which means that the four Dun Laoghaire waterfront clubs will each host their own club regatta. We will be supporting these events as a Class and are aware of some radical plans to make these regattas very much more interesting this year. Details will be advised as soon as we are made aware of them.
