The eight-mark course set by RO John McNeilly last night gave the 13-boat DBSC Flying Fifteen fleet one of the longest Thursday night races of the season thus far and it was a very enjoyable evening as a consequence.
With a forecast that suggested winds in single figures to low teens with slightly stronger gusts (XCWeather) the scene before the start was rather more robust than that. And the sunshine that was forecast didn't really appear until a bit later on in the race itself. During the race the wind eased a little making for an interesting race.
The course – Harbour, Pier, Poldy, Pier, Poldy, East, Molly, East – Finish encompassed both the inshore and offshore aspects of the marks used by the Thursday night Red Fleet. The Flying Fifteens were delayed in getting away as the preceding start, Sportsboats and Dragons, were the subject of a General Recall, but got away on the second time of asking.
At the Flying Fifteen start the fleet was clustered in the committee boat half of the line with a solitary boat at the pin end – Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley (3757) – who took advantage of clear wind and water to work the left-hand side of the beat to Harbour before mixing it with the rest of the fleet in the final approach to the mark. They got around the mark first with Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774) and Alan Green & Shane McCarthy (4026) for close company. Just behind these three was Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey (3955) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028). Murphy and Green kept Galvin on his toes by routinely trying to go to windward but Galvin managed to fend them off. The consequence of this gradual easing to the shore was that the boats outside this trio were closing the gap which meant that at Pier, which Galvin reached first, but only just, Colin was on his transom with Dumpleton lurking with intent. Also in the frame was Brian O'Hare & Tonia (4043) and Phil Lawton & Niall O'Hagan (4083). Having sailed a longer course to Pier, Murphy and Green had conceded distance and places.
The leg from Pier to Poldy was a great spinnaker leg and Galvin managed to stay ahead of the fleet but not without having to fend off challenges from O'Hare. At Poldy it was drop and gybe for a starboard rounding with a beat back to Pier. O'Hare followed Galvin around Poldy but found himself to leeward of Galvin. In contrast Lawton who rounded third was able to stay high.
At Pier for the second time Lawton rounded first but with Galvin on his transom and O'Hare in close company with them both. At this stage Dumpleton too, had broken away from the chasing group to make a quartet of boats at the front. Galvin managed to get ahead of Lawton on the downwind leg to lead again at Poldy with Lawton second and O'Hare third.
The leg to East was a one-tack beat but East wasn't a real turning mark, it just had to be left to port as a waypoint en route to Molly. Galvin stayed in the lead at both these marks, avoiding the Ruffians rounding East and at Molly had O'Hare as the immediate chase boat. Having been buoyed by their earlier spinnaker work, it was challenging to Galvin & Bradley to find that O'Hare was going faster on the short spinnaker leg from Molly back to East where O'Hare took the lead. Galvin rounded second but Lawton was now a boat to be watched.
With O'Hare staying offshore. Galvin went the same way only to find that Lawton was heading inshore and Dumpleton also took a more inshore approach to getting to the finish. Galvin then headed inshore himself and only just crossed ahead of Lawton and suddenly, Dumpleton was getting a lot closer. A second crossing of tacks between Lawton and Galvin saw Lawton ahead heading offshore and Galvin followed shortly afterwards. Initially that left three boats further out to sea with Dumpleton ploughing a lone furrow inshore. The offshore trio approached the finish on starboard tack with O'Hare taking a comfortable win, followed by Lawton and Dumnpleton's inshore tactic paid off when he claimed third. Galvin finished fourth with Murphy & Mulvey fifth.
In overall terms, Lawton still leads on 24pts, followed by Dumpleton (35), Galvin (52), P Murphy (54) and Colin (55).
