After the four glorious days of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, fitting for its 20th Anniversary, the Flying Fifteens and all those other DBSC classes who race on a Thursday and a Saturday afternoon, found themselves in a completely different weather setting – partially cloudy skies with sunshine and more boisterous winds and these conditions provided excellent racing on both Thursday and Saturday past.
Thursday's Race Officer, John McNeilly, was at his best again, advising the fleet early on as to what the conditions were and how they might affect the race for the evening. He put particular emphasis on the condition of the tide – ebbing strongly – as an early warning to the collective fleets to be aware of not being OCS. Initially, his first line looked as though it had been set according to the tide. Freebird was swinging to the tide rather than the wind, and in my view, the limit mark for the line was down tide of this position. However, the line had to be reset, and the final configuration looked like it had been set to the wind (we discussed this on Friday evening), so he knows this observation is coming!
With a wind direction of 160°, the first mark of the night had to be Bullock, and the suite of courses was H. For the SB20s, the Dragons & Sportsboats and the Flying Fifteens, H2 was chosen – Bullock-Island-Molly-Island-Molly-Pier-Omega-Pier-Finish. While it has been a well-established view that when the wind comes off the Dun Laoghaire shore in a S/SE, the way to go is inshore, but in recent Thursdays that theory has become a little unstuck – a little like the theory of hitting the cliffs at Lake Garda, there is now a view that it doesn't always pay to go all the way.
And so it was with the Flying Fifteens on Thursday night; there wasn't a mass exodus to the inshore, right-hand side of the beat to Bullock, with a sizable section of the fleet staying offshore. The exception to that rule was Geraldine O'Neill & Mick Hanney (3706) who went all the way in and were rewarded by being well up the pecking order when the fleet converged at Bullock. Others to feature prominently at this first mark of the course were Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara (3896), Alistair Court & Conor O'Leary (3753), Alan Green & Caroline Hanniffy (4026), Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774), David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) and Peter Sherry & Mick Quinn (4056). The leg to Island was initially a two-sail fetch before spinnakers broke out at the latter stages of the leg. From Island to Molly it was a "full-on" downwind spinnaker leg in winds that got up to the upper teens in strength. By Molly, Niall Coleman & Cormac Bradley (4008) had closed on the lead group without actually taking any places.
On the beat back to Island from Molly, Coleman and Dumpleton stayed further offshore on this long leg and were rewarded by getting into the top group along with Cooper, Court and Green, with Murphy and Sherry lurking behind them with intent. The second spinnaker run from Island was just as good as the first and Cooper and Court led the fleet in close company with Dumpleton, Coleman and Sherry leading the chase behind them.
The leg to Pier from Molly saw Green sail a much deeper course than the rest of the group which saw him and Hanniffy get into third place at the bottom end of the course, behind Court and Cooper, with Dumpleton and Coleman closing out the top five. Sherry, Murphy and Mulvin were close by, however.
An offshore approach by Coleman to Omega did not pay off as he lost distance on the leading three, saw Dumpleton get ahead and suddenly had Sherry, Murphy P and Mulvin in "much too close for company" distance. The rounding of Pier for the second time proved pivotal for Mulvin and Coleman as a Beneteau 21, "Yikes" entered the inter Flying Fifteen fray. Colemand and Mulvin both hailed Yikes for water and Yikes responded to each in turn that they didn't. Coleman didn't pursue the cause initially, but Mulvin persisted and when the rounding of Yikes left an opening, Mulvin went through. Coleman tried to do the same but clipped the mark and took a penalty on the water allowing Sherry to beat him to the finish.
Ahead, there was a tight call on the finish as Cooper got the decision ahead of Court, with the sequence thereafter being Dumpleton, Green, Murphy, Mulvin, Sherry and Coleman.
After this race a meagre nineteen points covers the top ten in the Thursday Series.
DBSC Thursday Series: Flying Fifteens.
- Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey; 38pts.
- Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey; 38pts
- Neil Colin & Margaret Casey; 42pts.
- David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne; 43pts
- Alan Green & Caroline Hanniffy; 47pts.
- Keith Poole & Tom Galvin; 51pts
- Adrian Cooper & Joe McNamara; 51pts.
- Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary; 52pts.
- Niall Coleman & Cormac Bradley; 53pts.
- Frank Miller & Cathy Booth; 57pts.
On Saturday, Race Officer Declan Traynor gave the Fifteen fleet two three-lap windward-leeward courses for the afternoon's entertainment. David Gorman & Chris Doorly (4099) returned to the DBSC fray and scored a 1,2 in winds that reached the upper teens from a S/SE direction. In Race 1 a new combination took to the water with Cormac Bradley standing in for Joe Hickey at the front of Rodriguez (3955). Ken & Cormac were quick upwind to lead at the first weather mark in Race 1 and held the lead for most of the way down the offwind leg. A "too late" spinnaker drop allowed Gorman and Arrowsmith initially to get through them. Upwind, they recovered but were finding that downwind they were a bit more vulnerable. That led to a drop down the pecking order by the time the race concluded.
Frank Miller & Cathy Booth sailed very well in the conditions to register a second place in Race 1 with Ian Mathews & Tom Galvin (4093) third, Chris Arrowsmith & David Cahill (3920) fourth, and Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary fifth.
A steady wind direction meant that there were no course changes for the second race, and again, Dumpleton & Bradley led the way up the first beat and down the run. They stayed in the lead group for longer but slowly gave way to Court & O'Leary after a number of crossed tacks, who then went on to take a close win from Gorman & Doorly. Arrowsmith & Cahill claimed third place, followed by Dumpleton and Mulvin.
DBSC Saturday Series: Flying Fifteens.
- David Gorman & Chris Doorly & others; 31pts.
- Keith Poole/Ian Mathews & Tom Galvin; 73pts.
- Chris Arrowsmith & David Cahil; 3920pts.
- Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey; 89pts
- Neil Colin & Margaret Casey; 95pts
- Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey; 98pts
- Niall & Laura Coleman; 99pts
- David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne; 109pts
- Alastair Court & Conor O'Leary; 133pts.
- Tom Murphy & Carel LeRoux; 145pts.
Three hard races spread over three days was an exciting physical challenge after the relative comfort of the Volvo Dun Laoghaire regatta!
