Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

On the eve of the fourth Saturday of the five-Saturday Flying Fifteen Frostbite Series at the National Yacht Club, five of the scheduled ten races have been completed. The fleet enjoyed sunshine on the first and third Saturdays, with racing interrupted by the gales of Storms Austen and Boelo on the second.

Seventeen boats have entered the series, including two entries from Dunmore East, Charlie Boland and Conor Cronin, and Lee Statham and Andy Paul, as well as Slava Luzhansky and Vivian Devlin from Carlingford Sailing Club (S-shore). The visitors are well placed in the overall standings, with Statham, Luzhansky and Boland lying first, second and fourth respectively. David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne, sailing their new boat, break up the visitors’ dominance in third place overall, while Joe Coughlan and Andy Marshall complete the top five.

Statham and Paul have finished all five races inside the top three. With three wins, a second and a third, they have a healthy eight-point advantage over the second-placed boat, which in turn has a four-point cushion over third. Mulvin and Beirne are one point ahead of Boland and Cronin.

Aside from Statham and Paul, who are showing a great turn of speed downwind in particular, two performances stand out. Luzhansky and Devlin have discarded a tenth place and are counting two fourths, a third and a second. On Day 3, some dynamic crewing en route to the finish line allowed them to gain places right at the death.

The other standout performance comes from Coughlan and Marshall, who have scored places much higher up the order than is their wont. They may be too far off the podium at this stage, but their individual race finishes see them challenging further up the pecking order than normal.

Jill Fleming had a pearl of a day on the first Saturday when, crewed by Caroline Hanniffy, she won the second race of the day — Jill’s first win in a Flying Fifteen race. She invited her fellow competitors to celebrate in style at the National Yacht Club afterwards. Caroline then put it up to dad Alan Green on the third Saturday, and he responded by helming them to a 1, 2, 9 scoreline on the day. The ninth place was substantially influenced by being OCS and having to return.

Other podium places so far have gone to Mulvin and Beirne (second and third in Races 3 and 5), Charlie Boland and Conor Cronin (third in Race 2), Ken Dumpleton and Joe Hickey (second in Race 1), and Tom Galvin and Cormac Bradley (third in Race 1).

The race management team has been led by Keith Poole, with support from other fleet members. Dave Gorman takes over this Saturday while Keith is on holiday.

Flying Fifteen Frostbite Series 2026 — Overall Standings

after five races and one discard.