#flyingfifteen – The third of the waterfront clubs summer regattas turned out to be a fantastic day on the water after a wet morning, with a nice building breeze from N/NE and sunshine most of the afternoon. With a good Flying Fifteen turnout for the DMYC event there promised to be some exciting racing. Gerry Donleavy was back in action sailing with Alan Green, other favourites included National Champions Ian & Keith, the Meagher's, David Gorman & Chris Doorly who won last week's NYC regatta, Brian Maguire & Frank Burgess and Tom & Diego were also back after a rest weekend last week.
The wind was from the north at about 10-12knots, but was forecast to build during the day and flick more N/NW and for the first race the tide was still coming in.
In race 1 there was a bias to the pin so all the boats were blasting out to the left hand side, it was a short starboard tack and it looked like a procession in peeling off on the lay line, this was not good for those to leeward. Gorman made a quick decision to tack and duck four boats, as he pointed back up there seemed to be a small lift, enough to point him at the mark and stay above Alan Balfe and just ahead of Ben & Maryjane Mulligan, the others on the left had by now over stood the mark. The reach was a bit of a run really and some of the back places changed, on the next beat it was shifty and sloppy, Ben stayed close to Gorman, while Balfe dropped back as Tom & Diego made large gains by going left, Mathews & Poole came back up to fourth. This was how it stayed to the finish.
There was a very long break between races as all classes were given 3 laps, crews were getting cold with the northerly winds. With the winds now more northerly the PRO reset the course. Again the pin end was biased, Gorman mistimed his start and was left behind on the line, Maguire, Mathews and Donleavy were all flying up the beat out to the left. As in the first race there was actually very little time to be on starboard and soon all the boats were heading out to sea on a long port tack. Gorman had recovered and was sailing fast through the waves to somehow get his nose in front as the boats approached the weather mark. He was closely followed by Donleavy & Green, Murphy and Mathews. Down the reach (run really) and at the gybe mark Murphy started to take down his spinnaker to the surprise of those around him, on realising his mistake he had lost three places- expensive mistake! However he kept battling and soon caught up with the group ahead. On the second beat Donleavy went more right and was right up with Gorman, Gorman headed even further left while Donleavy went right, left paid as there was more wind and Gorman kept the lead to the gun. These two were well ahead of the rest, Mathews came in third with the Meaghe'rs fourth.
Overall then it was David & Chris in first place with two wins, Ian and Keith in second and Tom & Diego in third. Well done to all who participated and to PRO and his team, it was an interesting and challenging days racing. Once ashore it was down to the DMYC for the usual regatta festivities and prize giving, the club had a great bbq and music. Next week is the RStGYC Regatta. Details of that event are here.
