The 2026 DBSC Flying Fifteen summer season has opened…………with a very challenging evening of racing on 23rd April!
For the past few days Dublin Bay has been characterised by big swells, lots of white horses and rather brown water. However, on Thursday, those conditions seemed to ease and by mid-afternoon some observers were of the view that there might not be any racing as the Bay took on a very glassy appearance. XCWeather was predicting 6 – 9knots from NNE, going eastwards as the afternoon turned into evening.
But, emerging from the harbour, the sense was that there was more wind and it wasn’t NNE! There was also a very lumpy sea!
For the Flying Fifteens there was a good turnout of boats, possibly 10 – 12, with one new combination on the water – Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle, fresh from winning the PY Class in DMYC’s Frostbites in a GP 14 but sailing 3697 in the Flying Fifteens. Phil Lawton (3803) had a debutant crew in the form of Owen Laverty. There was a strong representation from the RStGYC with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Brian O’Hare & Tonya McAllister (4043), Richard Tate (3747), Frank Miller & Cathy Booth (3845) and the afore-mentioned Craig and Lawton.
For the first race of the series, Race Officer John McNeilly set a relatively simple course – Bulloch, Island, Molly, Pier, Molly, Pier, Finish and advised that the wind was (I thought) 5 – 7 knots. I must have misheard because at the start there was more than that!!
While the SB20s and the Sportsboats and Dragons in the two preceding starts got away cleanly, with 5 boats in the first start and less than 10 in the second, the Flying Fifteens prompted a General Recall in their first start of 2026. However, the second start got away with Craig & Boyle commanding the pin end. Two-thirds of the line away from the committee boat, a cluster of five boats headed out to sea, possibly to avail of the ebbing tide. In this group were Craig, Miller, Lawton and one other with Niall Coleman & Cormac Bradley (4008) the last of the bunch with David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (4068) on their weather quarter. The balance of the fleet went inshore at the first opportunity with Mulvin & Beirne the last to take that direction.
Of the group that headed seawards, Coleman was the first to change tack and head inshore and when he engaged with those who had gone that way initially, it didn’t look bad. Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey (3774) crossed ahead of them and Coleman took Mulvin’s transom and Colin, sailing the innermost course to the shore passed ahead, but on looking towards Bulloch it didn’t seem if he would make the mark. Coleman then tacked to be the innermost boat to the shore and closed on the mark.
Craig led the fleet at Bulloch coming in late from the left and a group rounded behind him in very close company – Niall Meagher & Nicki Mathews (4128), Lawton, possibly Murphy, Mulvin, maybe Miller or Colin and then Coleman. Craig hoisted immediately, but the balance of the fleet “held fire” to two-sail to Island. Lawton also chose to hoist but much later than Craig and lost distance to those in his immediate company by doing so. The balance hoisted on the final approach to Island, thus rounding with spinnakers up. Craig gained distance but not dramatically so!
The leg to Molly saw the fleet split across a very wide expanse of the inner Bay. Craig, having sailed offshore initially gybed to go back inside after which I lost him. Mulvin also sailed a more inshore track as did the majority of the fleet. Coleman sailed an initial rhumb line, then gybed inshore, gybed back offshore and as the wind began to fade put in more gybes to try and stay moving. What prompted the gybe back out to sea? Post the race, Coleman said that he saw Miller and O’Hare making good progress offshore and decided there might be better wind there. With headsails and main flopping across the boats in the lumpy conditions minus any significant wind and all crew struggling to fly spinnakers, the challenge was to keep the boat moving. With maybe 80% of the leg to Molly sailed, the fleet was clutching to anything that might help the passage to the mark. The offshore group was now Coleman, John O’Sullivan & Pat Kiersey (3762), O’Hare, Alan Green & Caroline Hanniffy (4026) and Miller. I can’t place anyone else except to say they were inshore of this group. O’Hare ghosted into the lead position and Coleman found himself trying to fend off (poetic license – there wasn’t the breeze for that) Green and O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan then flirted with taking second, but Coleman held on and got past O’Hare as well.
It took an age to get to Molly, but from the inshore group, Mulvin picked up a zephyr to be able to sail a plausible port-tack approach to Molly. Coleman spotted Mulvin’s approach and rolled onto port tack as well. The slightest of breezes allowed him to break away from O’Sullivan, Green and O’Hare.
In the meantime, the RO advised the fleet that he was shortening course at Pier and instructed those still racing that Pier was to be rounded as per the course card and the finish line would be between the committee boat and Pier itself. That became amended when he
positioned, with advice to the fleet, Freebird to the north of Pier so the fleet could sail through the line and continue homewards. By this stage, boats across the different classes had already started to retire.
Mulvin sailed beyond Molly before tacking onto starboard. Coleman sailed a slightly shorter distance and on tacking found that he was a reasonable distance to windward of Mulvin but Mulvin was 60 – 70m ahead of him in straight line terms.
As they rounded Molly, the chasers sat to windward of Coleman, but as with Mulvin/Coleman, Coleman had straight line distance on them.
The zephyr of breeze stayed and Coleman reeled in the distance to Mulvin without conceding any windward/leeward distance to Mulvin. The trick was to play the headsail to the telltales without cleating the sheet and that helped to keep the boat moving, to the extent that Coleman was able to sail away from Mulvin and wasn’t threatened by the chasers.
Coleman crossed a very short finish line to simultaneous relief and satisfaction. In the pre-season fleet evening organised by Class Captain Tom Galvin, we had jokingly referenced the need to start the season with a win, something that took us three-quarters of the season to do in 2025.
I know that John O’Sullivan & Pat Kiersey finished second, but after that I am not sure (and I haven’t seen results posted yet and nobody ashore after the race seemed to be aware of the finishing order).
RO John McNeilly had lots of retirements to deal with and acted appropriately to save as much of the racing as was practical. He is to be commended for that, it would have been too easy to blow the entire evening.
It was a long paddle back to the harbour and we noted those boats who motored through the fleet without offering a tow – we know who you are! A tow was offered by a Shipman from just outside the harbour mouth which saw us get reasonably close to shore and a NYC launch brought us into the pontoon.
The National is now offering a hot food supper on Thursday nights after racing and five combinations of crews availed of the menu in the downstairs bar.
