It is the second week of July: the last two Thursdays of DBSC have been blown off due to unseasonably high winds, we enjoyed a glorious Monday this week with real sunshine, followed by two autumnal days when fog caused the DBSC dinghy racing to be cancelled on Tuesday evening. So, a brisk northerly wind, choppy waters at the harbour entrance and initial grey skies that gave way to some late sunshine, wasn't anything to get too intimidated by. And yet there appeared to be some reticence about getting afloat. And the RO for the Flying Fifteens, John McNeilly, flew a postponement flag, with advice to the fleet, to allow boats to get to the start area. During the course of the race, he would record a maximum of 20 knots on the committee boat, but he set a testing course for the 13 Flying Fifteens, 4-5 SB20s and a similar number of Sportboats.
With a wind bearing of 10° he made use of the flexible "Zebra" mark to set the weather mark and a course of Zebra – Battery – Zebra – Battery – Bay – Finish. And the beats from Battery to Zebra were LONG. However, the runs from Zebra to Battery were great with good breeze and good waves to make a for a quick passage between the marks.
With an ebbing tide, the challenge was to get onto the line, but the consequence was a clean start with a small group at the far end of the line comprising Shane McCarthy & Hugh McNally (4116), Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley (3753) and Tom & Peter Murphy (3774). These three went left for a good distance before deciding that they could make the layline for Zebra, with McCarthy & McNally peeling off first. Galvin & Bradley were pinned by the Murphys and could only tack once the Murphys had tacked themselves. The balance of the fleet worked the right-hand side of the beat and among those to feature prominently was Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey (3955), Phil Lawton & Neil O'Hagan (3803) and Alan Balfe & Frank Miller (3995).
At Zebra, McCarthy led, followed by the Murphys and Galvin and all three set off on a lively starboard tack run to Battery. However, Dumpleton, Lawton and Balfe tucked into the latter two to create a five-boat chasing pack. McCarthy extended away from the chasing pack all the way down the run and in real terms his race was over he got so far ahead. Galvin's downwind progress was hampered by the fact that the umbilical cord for the chute-launched spinnaker was snagged inside the spinnaker guy which limited the efficiency of the spinnaker, limiting his ability to stay with the Murphys and causing him to lose a place to Lawton.
McCarthy, Lawton and Galvin all went left, parallel to the shore after rounding Battery while Dumpleton and Balfe went out to sea. Lawton was the first to abandon that tack and headed out to sea to find himself in close company with Balfe . The Murphys and Galvin would also find themselves in close company at a couple of stages on this beat from Battery to Zebra.
With McCarthy doing a horizon job, the focus of the race became the five boats of Lawton, Murphy, Dumpleton, Balfe and Galvin. In the final approach to Zebra for the second time, Lawton was ahead in second place, Murphy and Galvin were snapping at each other's heels, Dumpleton was coming up the port layline to the mark and Balfe was threatening to outdo the latter three boats. However, in the last tack to go into the mark, Balfe went overboard which halted his momentum, Dumpleton sneaked in ahead of everyone to go into third place and the Murphys and Galvin rounded together with the Murphys hanging right and Galvin going slightly left down the run. Out of the corner of my eye, I could also see David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028) closing on the chasing group.
The run to Battery for the second time was largely uneventful apart from Galvin getting some distance on the Murphys and closing marginally on Dumpleton. Having untied the umbilical from the spinnaker, Galvin had a much-improved downwind performance.
The leg to Bay was a two-sail fetch with most boats tacking immediately on rounding the mark. The Murphys took a short windward hitch first before joining everyone else in a starboard tack leg across to Bay. Having seen McCarthy sail all the way to the harbour wall before tacking onto port for the finish, Galvin took the same approach while the others put tacks in to sail a more seaward course. This gave Galvin a long port-tack leg to the finish and as the committee boat came into closer perspective it looked as though this tactic might pay dividends. An increased effort to "keep her flat" resulted in a situation where both Lawton and Dumpleton were within much closer distance than might have been expected.
Lawton & O'Hagan crossed the finish line second but only by a couple of boat lengths, relative to Galvin & Bradley and Dumpleton & Hickey who crossed in an overlapped situation with Dumpleton getting the nod!
Finishing sequence:- McCarthy, Lawton, Dumpleton, Galvin, Murphy (P), Mulvin, Balfe, Colin, Alastair Court, Geraldine O'Neill, Peter Sherry, Jill Fleming.
