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For the third Thursday evening of the 2026 DBSC Summer Sailing Season, the Flying Fifteen fleet had another light wind trial! The contrast between the closing Sundays of the DMYC Frostbites which saw three Sundays out of four lost to howling gales in February/March and the DBSC Series with light wind on the first night which saw a large number of boats in the Red Fleet retire, and no sailing at all on the second Thursday was extended further on the third Thursday when, again, light winds in the second half of the race were the dominant feature.

As with the first Thursday, Race Officer John McNeilly set a course from the H-suite of courses, Hotel 3, with the consequent course being Bulloch, Island, Molly, Pier, Bulloch, Pier, Finish, but this time John was able to have the fleet sail the entire course rather than shortening at Pier the first time.

A brisk breeze welcomed the sixteen-boat fleet, a doubling of the fleet size from the first race, to the start area where the tide had been ebbing since 16:11. The RO advised that he was getting a wind direction of 160 -175°at 16/17 knots, but the committee boat had recorded 21 knots while on station. But almost as soon as we went into the countdown for the first Red fleet start, SB20s, the sense was that the wind was starting to drop. 160 ° is tantamount to a S-Easterly, and the “convention” is to head inshore. However, with the tide ebbing, staying out might have some advantage, too. Bulloch would determine who got it right!

As expected, there was a split decision on which direction to take, with the majority heading inshore. But as with the race two weeks prior, staying out didn’t seem to disadvantage those who came into Bulloch late on port tack. Leading that charge was Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle 3697, (again, same as two weeks ago) and as before there was tight bunch behind them – David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne 4068, Phil Lawton & Neil Lennon 3803, Chris Arrowsmith 3920, Frank Miller & Cathy Booth 3845, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 4028, Brian O’Hare & Tonia McAllister 4043, Ken Dumpleton & Joe Hickey 3955 and Niall Coleman & Cormac Bradley 4008.

The leg to the island was a two-sail fetch, and this time Craig held off flying the spinnaker until much later in the leg. The chasing bunch were happy to follow suit (in terms of two-sailing), resulting in a late flurry of colour within single-figure boat-lengths of Island.

This correspondent’s spinnaker halyard malfunctioned with the inner core stripping away from the exterior cover, resulting in a spinnaker that wouldn’t stay hoisted and rendering the balance of this report very sketchy.

The distinctive spinnakers of Arrowsmith (brown/orange/white), Lawton (pink) and Craig (white/green) were at the front of the downwind leg to Molly accompanied by the slightly less distinctive spinnaker of Mulvin (orangey-red rather than pure red) and the blue spinnakers of Miller and Peter Murphy & Ciara Mulvey 3774, the yellow spinnaker of Colin & Casey and the white spinnaker of Dumpleton & Hickey. However, spread across a wide distance, it was difficult to see who was leading (from my perspective, in a goose-winged sail configuration to the rear of the primary action).

Molly to Pier was another two-sail leg, and Coleman’s loss of a spinnaker saw him being chased by Peter Sherry and Mick Quinn 4056 across this leg with Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe 3960 also in a threatening position. However, these three all gained a place when another competitor saw their spinnaker go under the boat.

At Pier, I believe Mulvin & Beirne were leading, and the consensus view for the beat back to Bulloch was to go inshore. The lead three boats (sorry, no names) set off on that course in a loose pack, and others followed. For some however, there was little point in playing “follow the leader” and these boats sailed a course that kept them out for slightly longer on starboard before going “inside”. Coleman & Sherry crossed tacks a number of times before Sherry won the race to Bulloch.

By this stage, the wind was starting to fade, and downwind approaches to Pier for the second time were very varied. Mulvin, Arrowsmith and Craig were well placed at the head of the fleet, but I don’t recall seeing Dumpleton’s white spinnaker. It may be that, on this leg, he went offshore because he referenced this ashore, but it got to the point where boats appeared to be sailing away from the pier to stay in the fading breeze. Some of us pursued an inshore course and there were occasions when there was better breeze than in the middle track or offshore track, with the wind direction starting to flick towards the west. And despite the sense that some boats appeared to get closer to us, they all ultimately got away again.

At the finish, Dumpleton & Hickey led the fleet over the line, followed by Craig & Boyle, Arrowsmith, Colin & Casey and O’Hare & McAllister. Coleman & Bradley hopefully sailed an early discard!

And with a building westerly filling in, we didn’t have to paddle home!