At 17:00 yesterday afternoon, no one would have been too put out if the DBSC Flying Fifteen racing for the evening had been “canned”. A day of heavy rain with very little wind, it was more akin to a late September day than a day that was closer to summer. However, between 17:00 and 17:30, the rain disappeared, the sun came out and what was revealed from the greyness was a light breeze from an easterly direction.
On the way out to the starting area, Race Officer Jack Roy advised the fleet that while conditions were light in view of the fact that we had lost the previous Thursday due to no wind at all, the race team were going to persist with the evening’s activities. He set, by his own admission, a shorter course to try and allow for the light wind and a strong ebbing tide and by way of the latter, warned starters that the tide would be pushing them over the start line.
This correspondent’s approach to the start was late due to the light winds inside the harbour and possibly a slightly late arrival at the club. The consequence was that two of the three DMYC entries on the evening were out late and missed the start by the order of 1½ - 2minutes.
However, they were joined by two OCS boats who returned late while there was a suggestion on the water that a third OCS had gone back much earlier relative to the start signal. That at least meant that we had some company on the water as we were ahead, on the water, of the late OCSs, but the majority of the fleet had a distinct advantage.
The majority view was to head out to sea on the way to East Mark and Dave Mulvin and Ronan Beirne (4068) led the charge in that regard. The rounding of East Mark was led by Mulvin with Dave Gorman & Chris Doorly (3920) in second – this identification based on spinnaker colours only. Also, well placed were Tom Murphy & Karl (4057) and Niall Coleman (4008). By East Mark this correspondent was nipping at the back end of the punctual starters and in the company of Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Frank Miller & Cas (3845) and slightly further ahead Alistair Court & Conor O’Leary (3573).
The two spinnaker legs to Molly and Bay didn’t generate much change, though the distances between the boats in our company did close. Molly to Bay was a “semi-tight” reach. After Bay, there was a long beat to Poldy and Mulvin/Bierne seemed to get even further ahead on this leg.
Having got back into the “middle body” of the race at Bay, this correspondent saw distance lost on the leg to Poldy to some of the boats ahead but retention of the boats behind. After Poldy, there was a spinnaker leg to Molly and onto Pier with the leaders staying out to the right-hand side of this latter leg before gybing back inshore and then again to round Pier. Mulvin & Bierne were comfortable throughout the race and were never challenged. Gorman & Doorly were in the same situation, but my sense is that there may have been some shuffling going on behind them. Regrettably, I was not close enough to the action to give a more detailed account, so all I can do is record the finishing positions.
- Dave Mulvin & Ronan Bierne, 4068, Ignus Caput II
- Dave Gorman & Chris Doorly, 3920, Betty
- Niall Colman & Crew*, 4008, Flyer
- Tom Murphy & Karl, 4057 Fflagella
- Adrian Alex & Crew*, 3198, Gulfstream.
*I was too far away to identify individual crews and some regular crews are on the “injury list”, so apologies to those whose names I have missed.
