In his "Ode to Autumn" Keats begins by describing it as "Season of mists". That being the case, last Thursday night heralded the advent of Autumn because it was a grey drizzly night, admittedly with very relatively little wind, an evening where the horizon between the sea and the sky was almost indistinguishable.
Weather aside, sixteen Flying Fifteens answered DBSC RO John McNeilly's call and were given course M2 for the evening's entertainment – Pier – Poldy – Battery – Poldy – Battery – Molly – Finish. In the conditions, the majority of the fleet were of the view that a start in the area of the pin would be the recipe for a getaway from the rest of the fleet. Shane McCarthy (4085), with Hugh McNally back from the GP14 Worlds in Wales, decided that he would up the ante by starting on port tack whereas everyone else decided to start on starboard. Thus, there was a raft of Fifteens sailing parallel courses on port tack heading towards Pier. McCarthy soon got into company with Phil Lawton & Neil O'Hagan (3803) sailing a line close to the port layline. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) sailed a lower course than most and managed to stay in marginally stronger breeze allowing them to quickly close the gap on the port tack boats on the opposite layline. They tacked onto port almost at the mark, very close to Tom Galvin & Cormac Bradley (3757) to round third behind Lawton and McCarthy. Galvin rounded fourth with Alan Green & Chris Doorly (4026) 5th, and behind them Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey (3955) and Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774) were in close company.
The leg from Pier to Poldy started off as a two-sail fetch, but halfway down the leg a spinnaker appeared from McCarthy and while it appeared to work (viewed from a distance) it also seemed to force McCarthy off the rhumb line to Poldy. Lawton eventually followed suit but from a closer position to Poldy. Mulvin also got the bug and flew spinnaker. Behind Galvin, Green & Doorly sailed higher and eventually flew spinnaker as well, meaning that Galvin was the only boat of the leading five not to fly the third sail.
Poldy to Battery was another two-sail fetch on the opposite tack and was distinguished by Keith Poole (4093) slicing through the fleet like a hot knife through butter with Murphy & Mulvey also closing in on the lead group. While Lawton kept a watching brief on McCarthy in the distance and with Mulvin comfortable in third, the next group of boats closed in on each other – Galvin, Green, Poole, Murphy and Dumpleton. At the latter stage of the leg, the boats behind Galvin took a starboard hitch and appeared to be rewarded with better breeze. Poole escaped the whole bunch by sailing around them into fourth place. Galvin rounded Battery fifth only to encounter Green and Murphy at the end of the rounding in no wind and finding himself having to take turns. Green escaped due to Galvin's travails, but Murphy was unable to claim a place on the water.
The leg back to Poldy was uneventful although it was a spinnaker leg. Lawton and McCarthy were gone as far as the rest of the fleet were concerned so the chasing pack were all looking for the one remaining podium place for the race.
Back to Battery and there was sense that Galvin had closed on Green and at Battery Galvin out-hoisted Green and managed to sneak a few boat lengths ahead of him. The leg to Molly was a run and Galvin manged to stretch out his lead over Green to a few more boat lengths. At this stage, Poole may have got ahead of Mulvin. With "Freebird" in transit between the Fifteens and Molly, there was a sense that there might be a shortened course but seeing the bright pink spinnaker of Lawton progressing to Molly put that idea out of my head. And of course, with a blue flag flying on Freebird, the finish line was a "no-go" area for the Fifteens.
Positions 1 – 4 were safe for the leg from Molly to the finish, but Galvin had to watch Green and behind Green, Dumpleton and Murphy were engaged in close quarter sailing. At Molly, Galvin tacked to stay out while Green went inshore. As they approached the finish on opposite tacks, Galvin was ahead, but not to an extent that he could be completely comfortable. Dumpleton's inshore approach to the finish allowed him to "pip" Murphy.
Thursday 22nd August – Lawton, McCarthy, Poole, Mulvin, Galvin, Green, Dumpleton, Murphy.
Overall: Lawton (25), Dumpleton (41), Galvin (57), Murphy (61), Colin (66).
