On Thursday night, the DBSC Flying Fifteens had another 20-boat fleet for their race, the second week in a row when numbers were very high. On Saturday, for the annual Facet Trophy, there were seventeen boats for the first race and fifteen for the second. Given that this was a Bank Holiday weekend, these are very good turnouts.
For Thursday's race, we had a flooding tide, which some of us assumed would assist in staying on the right side of the start line. Additionally, there was a good breeze of 10 – 12 knots coming from a direction of 150 - 155° as advised by Race Officer John McNeilly. For the second week in a row John split the fleets with the SB20s and the Sportsboats & Dragons getting a Windward-Leeward course while the Fifteens got a "Round the Cans" course – H2 – Battery-East-Pier-Bulloch-East-Pier-Finish.
With the flooding tide, the majority view was to go inshore as soon as possible and then work an inshore passage along the coast to get to Battery. Some boats decided to go for the pin first with the idea of getting clear air before heading for the shore. One of those was Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley (3757), who, having practised a dry run of getting to the pin in the conditions, blew the real thing by being marginally too early and "clattering" the pin in the process. We were called early and returned promptly but from a race perspective never recovered.
Having eighteen boats ahead of you makes any form of reporting difficult, so all I can report is that at Battery, the leader was Ian Mathews & Keith Poole (4093) with Shane McCarthy & Hugh McNally (4116) in second. Phil Lawton & Neil O'Hagan (3803) were also at the front end of the fleet, and by identifying spinnakers, so too were Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028). However, any additional identification is difficult with multiple blue and red spinnakers. The leg from Battery to East and from East to Pier were both three sail reaches, and there didn't appear to be much place-changing going on.
From Pier to Bulloch, the majority approach was to go inshore again, and post-race accounts suggest that McCarthy & Mathews got sufficiently close to each other that a tacking duel was conducted up the latter part of this leg. Bulloch to East was another three-sail leg where Galvin & Bradley gained a place while a competitor had a spinnaker issue. East to Pier for the second time was also a three-sail reach and McCarthy may have gone into the lead on this leg.
For the short leg up to the finish, Galvin tried a seaward tactic in a last-ditch effort to gain places, but while he closed dramatically on the two boats ahead of him, they had enough to spare to finish ahead.
The finishing order was: - McCarthy, Mathews, Lawton, David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) and Colin.
With four Thursdays left, Phil Lawton (22) still leads from Ken Dumpleton (3955) (40), Galvin (48), Peter Murphy (3774) (49) and |Neil Colin (53).
Facet Jewellers sponsor the Saturday racing of Flying Fifteen racing on the August Bank Holiday, and it is always well supported. This correspondent wasn't on the water this past Saturday, but for the first race of the day there were seventeen boats on the water with fifteen boats sailing the second race. Post-race there were a variety of comments on the day's proceedings – great racing, difficult wind conditions, very gusty, a day for the heavy weights (maybe reserved for me) huge wind shifts. Class Captain, Joe Hickey (3955) had alerted the fleet to the fact that two races would be sailed, no discard would apply and in the event of a tie, the tie would be broken on the basis of the second race result.
Race 1:
- David Gorman & Chris Doorly 4099
- Niall Meagher & Nicki Mathews 3938
- Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 4028
- Ian Mathews & Keith Poole 4093
- Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary 3753
Race 2:
- Ian Mathews & Keith Poole
- Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary
- Tom Murphy & Carl 4057
- David Gorman & Chris Doorly
- Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey 3955.
Based on the above results and the rules as advised by the Class Captain, the winners were Ian Mathews & Keith Poole, with David Gorman & Chris Doorly second and Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary third.
Joe Hickey opened the prize-giving at the National Yacht Club by welcoming Pat Shannon from Facet Jewellers and thanking him for their continued sponsorship of this event. He also welcomed the competitors and acknowledged their support for the event in the number of boats on the water.
In his opening comments, Pat Shannon applauded the Class for their attendance and the high level of competition on the day. He stated that he very much enjoyed watching the Fifteens and was pleased to be able to continue the sponsorship of the day. After the prizes were awarded, a small presentation was made by Joe Hickey to Pat Shannon to mark his support and attendance at the prize-giving.
Second place in the DBSC Flying Fifteen 2024 Facet Trophy race was David Gorman (R), who collects prizes for himself, and Chris Doorly (in absentia) from Pat Shannon Photo: Cormac Bradley
Third place in the DBSC Flying Fifteen 2024 Facet Trophy race was Conor O'Leary (L) and Alastair Court (R) with Pat Shannon of Facet Jewellers Photo: Cormac Bradley
