Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Race Officer John McNeilly was able to create another excellent night of Flying Fifteen racing last night when a good breeze from slightly south of East manifested itself and we were able to have a good windward-leeward race using Bulloch and Island as the upwind marks and Pier as the leeward mark. Sixteen Flying Fifteens answered the starter's call and with wind and tide coming from the same direction, staying on the right side of the start line wasn't a challenge for either this fleet or any other in the Thursday Red Fleet.
Our view was to get in out of the tide at the first opportunity and a slightly delayed arrival at the committee boat end of the line accommodated that ambition, leaving us free to tack onto port to head for the shore.
At this early stage of the race, we were joined by Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028) with the Colemans, Niall and Susan (4008) doing likewise. The balance of the fleet from my perspective went to sea initially but then started to cross the course to pursue an inshore approach to Bulloch. The line to Bulloch also necessitated keeping an eye on one's position relative to the yellow marker buoys off the 40-foot such was the quest to stay out of the stronger tide.
The first of these was Phil Lawton & Neil O'Hagan (3803) who crossed Galvin & Bradley by a short distance before tacking onto starboard to make their way to Bulloch. That necessitated a short hitch by Galvin to clear his air and that in turn brought him into the company of Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary (3753), Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey (3955) and John O'Sullivan & Pat Kiersey (3792). Bulloch wasn't a turning mark, it just had to be left to port and the leg to Island was really a two-sail fetch. Lawton initially extended his lead and Galvin lost places to Court and Dumpleton before reaching Bulloch Island saw the fleet gybe-set for the long run down to Pier with the majority sailing an inshore line to Pier to avail of the flooding tide. The wave height and interval also made for good downwind conditions and despite being a long leg, it passed quite quickly. At this stage Lawton had a comfortable lead with Dumpleton in second and Court in third. Galvin however, manged to claw back some distance on Court.
Tide, again, was to be a decisive factor for the long beat back from Pier to Island. Having benefitted from going inshore on the first beat, Galvin repeated the tactic while the other three tacked out to sea. This diverse approach paid dividends for Galvin who closed in straight line terms on the boats that had gone to sea all of whom were off to his leeward side. The difference was that while Galvin had a shot of making Island with one tack, and did so, the others needed a second and third tack to get onto the layline. Thus, Lawton's lead was shortened, without being in danger of losing it, Galvin rounded on Court's transom at Island and Dumpleton lost two places to round in fourth.
Court and Galvin sailed the second downwind leg in very close company with at times only a boat length between them with Galvin in the windward berth. Each took a lead only for the other to come back and it was only when they both had to avoid going through the finish line, with the blue flag flying, that Court gained a more favourable position to get ahead of Galvin, but by no more than a boat length.
A snagged spinnaker drop by Court seemingly opened the door for an advantage to Galvin which he took but when the two boats went onto starboard tack to go for the line, with Court to leeward, Court managed to sail out from underneath Galvin to escape the "check" situation he had been put in. Galvin now had to give attention to Dumpleton who had taken an inshore approach to the finish. Two tacks, onto port and back onto starboard, in this correspondent's view, shared by his helm, allowed Galvin to "pip" Dumpleton & Hickey on the line with the boats overlapped for the second Thursday in a row. Two sound signals were heard!
Later, ashore, the results had Galvin scored as a DNF which is rather curious as both boats would have been in easy sight of the committee boat in the final approach to the finish.
DBSC posted results; (Subject to Appeal by Galvin 3757): Lawton, Court, Dumpleton, O'Sullivan, Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774).
With two discards kicking in Phil Lawton and Neil O'Hagan lead the Thursday Series with 16 points ahead of Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey (21pts) and Peter Murphy & Tom Murphy/Ciara Mulvey (31pts). Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey close out the top five overall with 34 and 36pts respectively.
