#fireball – Recent father Francis Rowan returned to the folds of the Irish Fireball fleet this past weekend, teaming up with Neil Spain to win the 2012 Irish Fireball Ulster Championships, hosted by East Down Yacht Club writes Cormac Bradley. While their winning margin of five points was comfortable by Sunday afternoon, relative to the one-point margin by which they led on Saturday night, the reality was that this regatta was very much a case of snakes and ladders, for everyone, and a watching brief had to be kept on Messrs Butler & Oram and Butler & Kinsella who were one and two points adrift on Saturday night respectively.

Sunday's two races were trying affairs with a wide range of interpretations on how to sail the beats. The problem we faced was that the forecast for the Irish Sea didn't manifest itself on the coastal waters of Strangford Lough. While Met Eireann was suggesting easterlies of F2 – 4 for Sunday morning, the micro-climate within the SW corner of Strangford was providing light and variable winds flicking from WNW to NNW, meaning we were sailing towards a windward shore. On both races the fleet was split, almost evenly between those going right and those going left. Some even tried the middle and saw lots of boats ahead of them at the weather mark as a consequence. Sailing the Olympic configuration, the beats were very challenging, the reaches became tighter that they were ever meant to be and Fireballs sailed down the second reach on opposing gybes to take "perceived advantage" of win and tide.

Francis Rowan (left) and Neil Spain were winners of the Fireball Ulster Championships at the weekend

Spain/Rowan took Race 5 on Sunday morning with Butler/Oram doing yet another "Houdini act" to finish second. One of the features of their performance this weekend has been their consistent ability to get out of poor positions on the first beat to finish inside the top 3. Rumball/Moran were third, allowing them to leapfrog Ed Butler & Connor Kinsella into third overall, the latter combination finishing fourth.

Thus Spain/Rowan had a two-point cushion in first place. A long period of time elapsed before race Officer Roy Edwards was able to get the final start underway. The wind had gone light again and flicked left and right by 10 - 15º. Yet again the fleet was undecided as to which way to go, left, right or middle! It seemed left paid, but the first reach was very tight and the leading boats struggled to get to the gybe mark with spinnakers. The leading bunch was populated by Niall McGrotty & Neil Creamer, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey, Simon McGrotty & Ruairi Grimes, Spain/Rowan, Michael Ennis & Marie Barry, Connor & James Clancy and a little off the pace, Messrs Butler and Oram. The downwind leg of the sausage started off as a tight reach and became the run it was supposed to be further down the leg. The subsequent beat was a "one-tack" strategy and the first beat of the second triangle was a very tight two sail fetch. By which time Messrs McGrotty & Creamer had gained an enormous lead (given the conditions). In second place were Neil Colin & Margaret Casey, Spain/Rowan had the comfort of third place with Butler/Oram down in 6th. Rumball/Moran who had tried to work the middle on the first beat, and paid heavily for the effort, worked their way up to 11th, ultimately their discard, but enough to give them third overall.

Saturday's racing had consisted of four races – two trapezoids and two Olympics. Due to the wind direction the course was set in the area between East Down Yacht Club and Killyleagh, with the weather mark (No.1) in open water, but the outside loop of the trapezoid parallel to the shore.

The first race was a Team Skerries, father and son benefit as Niall McGrotty and Simon McGrotty, with their respective crews of Neil Creamer & Ruairi Grimes taking first and second. Rumball & Moran finished third. Race 2 saw a new combination, Ed Butler (Jnr) and Connor Kinsella take the race win from Neil Colin and Margaret Casey, with Butler/Oram in third.

Races 3 & 4 went the way of Spain/Rowan with Butler/Oram scoring a 2, 3, Rumball & Moran a 3, 5 and Butler/Kinsella a DNF, 4. This left the pecking order as Spain/Rowan, Butler/Oram, Butler/Kinsella, Rumball/Moran, McGrotty/Creamer and McGrotty/Grimes. A point separated 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, with 2 points separating 4 to 5th and 6th with the McGrottys tied on 12 points.

A requirement to pass through the start/finish line on the upwind legs of the Olympic courses caught out quite a few people this weekend and there was a liberal sprinkling of DNFs on the final results sheet. Due to the vagaries of the wind, some people also had unusually large numbers on their score cards – Spain/Rowan discarded an 11th, Rumball & Moran the same, Colin/Casey got rid of a DNF, but counted a 15, Michael Murphy & Alex Voye shed a 17, Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe a 18, Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley a 17, while Owen Laverty & Ed Butler shed one DNF but carried another.

Aside from the overall and race winners, there were some other combinations who gave a good account of themselves, Connor and James Clancy finished 7th overall with all their results inside the top ten. Gavin Doyle and Richard Franck had four top ten finishes on their way to 9th overall. And newcomers (of a sort), Ed Butler and Connor Kinsella finished 6th with a race win, three 4ths and a 13th.

The Silver Fleet was a home affair with John Orr and Karen Caughey from EDYC winning from Brian O'Neil & Don Howes, with Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club in third. Orr and Caughey also won the Classics prize.

The venue was shared with the Wayfarers who were sailing their National Championships, a repeat of the arrangement on our first visit to EDYC in 2010. East Down was hospitality personified! The welcome was warm and genuine. They provided a self-serve buffet of packed sandwiches, fruit, chocolate bars and a variety of cold drinks to allow competitors to put their own lunch together. On the Saturday night there was a BBQ and live band, with the evening a social event for members and competitors alike. On the Sunday, soup and rolls were available in advance of the prize-giving.

Gordon Jess, of Wayfarer fame and persuasion, was responsible for the organising of the event from a club perspective (as well as being a competitor) and he and his team are to be congratulated on a great weekend. Race Officer Roy Edwards had his work cut out for him with the elements, but he manfully stuck to his task to get six races in.

#regattas – After a week of rain and gales there was a full programme of yachting round the coast at the weekend with one of the biggest fleets racing for RAYC Bloomsday regatta honours at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. From the same club the clinker Waterwags celebrated 125 years of racing on Dublin Bay with a 20–boat fleet and a Victorian high tea yesterday afternoon. There were celebrations too further up the east coast for K. Halliwell's 'She of the North' who won the fiftieth round Ailsa Craig race from the Royal Ulster Yacht Club.

Antrim sailor Chris Penney won the Laser Leinsters at Howth and in a possible sign of good things to come ISAF Youth Rep Finn Lynch of the National YC won the radial division. The Ruffian 23s raced for national honours on Dublin Bay and 20 Fireballs turned up to race for Ulster honours at East Down Yacht Club.

In Cowes, Royal Cork's Anthony O'Leary, who finished second last weekend in the 1720 Nationals on home waters, was second overall again yesterday in IRC one class at a windy British National Cruiser Championships. Great onboard action video from Cowes here.

And finally, if you are on the south coast this week and see a small half decked Mermaid dinghy take the time to say hello. She is currently in Crookhaven, West Cork heading east so expect to see her in Cork harbour this week or next! The clinker built Thumbalina is cruising round the coast from Foynes on the Shannon Estuary to Skerries in North Dublin as part of the eightieth celebrations of the traditional Dublin Bay class.

#fireball – Despite forecasts of much heavier winds in y'days Sea Area forecast of 6pm the Fireball Ulsters had to wait until the 4th race of the day to use trapezes in anger writes Cormac Bradley. 2 trapezoids (R1 and 2) and 2 Olympic races were sailed. We had 3 different race winners in Niall Mc Grotty and Neil Creaner, Ed Butler (Jnr) and Conor Kinsella, and Neil Spain and Francis Rowan (R3 and 4).

This gives Spain/Rowan the overall lead after Day 1 but only by a 1pt margin over Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. They together with Kenny Rumball and Dave Moran proved to be the most consistent over the four races scoring 7, 3, 2, 3 and 3, 4, 3, 5, respectively. Thus the top 4 boats are separated by a pont between each place with 5th and 6th tied on 12 points and 2 off 4th place overall. Niall and Simon McGrotty dominated R1 with Niall 1st and Simon 2nd. In thid place are Butler/Kinsella who scored a 4, 1, 4 but also had a DNF.

Almost everyone is carrying one bad result. Colin/Casey scored a 15, Smyth/Bradley a 17, Mike Murphy/Alex Voye a 17 and Laverty/Butler a DNF.

Conditions were light with grey skies but breeze came in as the afternoon wore on. There are 20 Fireballs here at EDYC and no doubt there will be many a post mortem over the BBQ this evening.

1 N Spain and Francis Rowan 7pts

2 N. Butler and Stephen Butler 8pts

3 Ed Butler and Conor Kinsella 9pts

4 Kenny Butler and Dave Moran 10pts

5 Niall McGrotty and Neil Creamer 12pts

6 Simon McGrotty and Ruairi Grimes 12pts

Leading Silver Fleet boat is Michael Ennis and Marie Barry in 13th overall from a 20-boat entry.

#FIREBALL– Nineteen Fireballs made the trip to Killaloe for the season opening Munster Championships of the 2012 Irish Fireball regatta season. As one of the few locations outside the greater Dublin area to have a resident Fireball fleet, the venue has been a permanent fixture on the Fireball circuit for quite some time. In addition to their easy access to the racing area, the host Fireballers always make their visitors very welcome and the attraction of the area with its scenery and the immediacy of Killaloe and its eating and drinking locations normally means there is a good turn-out.

This year, in an effort to promote the older Fireballs, the Munsters were chosen to host a Classic Fireball Regatta. In the rules for the event, a Classic was deemed to be a boat with a sail number lower than 14600. Four of these appeared with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey foregoing their Winder to add to the numbers.

On Saturday, four races were sailed in dull misty conditions with winds around the 8 – 10kts range. It had started slightly breezier but dropped off as the day wore on. This introduced some significant shifts.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram dominated Day 1 winning the first three races while behind them the other podium places were being shared out between Barry McCartin & Finbar Bradley, Neil Spain & Hugh Butler, Louis Smyth & Joe O'Reilly and Niall McGrotty & Neil Kramer. McCartin/Bradley took the fourth win of the day, followed home by Spain/Butler with Andy Boyle & Barry Hurley pushing Butler/Oram into an uncharacteristic 4th.

Thus after a four race programme, the overnight situation was as follows;

1st Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 3pts

2nd Barry McCartin & Finbarr Bradley 6pts

3rd Neil Spain & Hugh Butler 8pts

In the Classic Challenge, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey were comfortably ahead of Jim Ryan & David Tanner, while Cariosa Power and Marie Barry were in control of the Silver fleet.

On Day 2, the wind had eased off again with marginal trapezing being the order of the day. McCartin/Bradley continued where they had left off the evening before by taking Race 5, followed by Colin/Casey and Spain/Butler. Regatta leaders Butler/Oram slumped to a seventh, most unusual territory for them in an Irish context! However, in Race 6, order was restored when Butler/Oram won comfortably from McCartin/Bradley, Spain/Butler, McGrotty/Kramer & Laverty/Butler. This left a finishing order of;

1st Noel Butler Stephen Oram 15061 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club 8pts

2nd Barry McCartin Finbar Bradley 14820 University College Dublin SC 9pts

3rd Neil Spain Hugh Butler 150** Howth Yacht Club 14pts

4th Niall McGrotty Neil Kramer 14938 Skerries Sailing Club 23pts

5th Louis Smyth Joe O'Reilly 15007 Coal Harbour 26pts

Classic Neil Colin Margaret Casey 14330 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club 40pts

Silver Cariosa Power Marie Barry 14854 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club 51pts

Class Chairman Neil Colin, in his report to this correspondent advised that the event was a great success and was run very well. In particular, he noted that Race Officer, Geoff O'Donoghue, from neighbouring club, Lough Derg Yacht Club, ran an exceptional regatta with races started promptly and all under the regime of the "Blue Peter".

Three boats from Killaloe contested the regatta while the event also saw Michael Murphy from Waterford contest the event with his UL-based crew Alex Voye make their seasonal debut.

#FIREBALL – On the opening day of the Irish Fireball season, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram set the pace, bagging three race wins from four races and effectively continuing where they finished off in the Frostbite season writes Cormac Bradley.

19 Fireballs have made the trip to Killaloe for the Munster Championships and the Classic Fireball Championship. Sailing in dull misty conditions the day started in winds of about 15 knots which gradually dropped to 8-10 knots with big shifts.

In overall terms the 1-2-3 is as follows;

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 3pts

Barry McCartin & Finbarr Bradley 6pts

Neil Spain & Hugh Butler 8pts

In the Classic challenge, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey are fighting it out with Ciaran Harken. Colin/Casey have forgone their usual steed, 14775, in favour of 14330 in order to show his commitment to the cause of the promoting the older boats.

#DBSC – Light air dinghy skills were a pre-requisite to success on Dublin Bay tonight where the biggest waves were those from the wake of a passing lifeboat. Neil Colin was top in the Fireball class (read Cormac Bradley's observations below). Pierre Long's Dart was at the top of the IDRA 14 fleet. Full Dublin Bay Sailing Club results for 8 May are below:

FIREBALL - 1. Elevation (N.Colin/M.Casey), 2. Blind Squirrel (Frank Miller), 3. Winder (E.Butler/O.Laverty)

IDRA 14 FOOT - 1. Dart (Pierre Long), 2. Dunmoanin (Frank Hamilton), 3. Squalls (Stephen Harrison)

PY CLASS - 1. Gary O'Hare (Laser), 2. C Arrowsmith (Laser), 3. Hugh Sheehy (OK Dinghy)

And the first shall be last ........and the last......shall be first!

Tuesday night DBSC racing is always a time challenge – to get away from the office in time to get down to the Club, get changed and rigged and then to sail out to the start area. Invariably the challenge is worth it, if only to get the chance to get out on the water writes Cormac Bradley.

Tonight, the challenge was magnified when the wind that XC Weather had forecast for this evening didn't materialize. A suggestion of 7kts gusting to 10kts going from NE to N simply didn't happen – the wind was very light and was more easterly that anything else. Competitors and race management alike (Flying Fifteens) had challenges galore.

With an ebbing tide would it pay to go out to sea – DEFINITELY NOT! Would the slight breeze stay long enough to get a race in – ONLY JUST – thanks to a shortened course and even then some of us were too far behind to stay within the time limit for finishers.

Six Fireballs started within a reasonable time period of the start signal and one Fireball was very late. Of those who were in the start area at the start signal, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey were easily the last to arrive. Everyone else was already there, Frank & Grattan, pin-end on port, Glen & Dave, Mary & Brenda, Owen & Conor, and Louis & Cormac, the last combination having arrived in the start area in good time relative to their scheduled start.

A slow departure from the start line prompted the idea of going out to sea for this last combination. After all, the tide was going out and there was nothing to specifically suggest that there was less wind there than anywhere else on the course. A fatal mistake that saw the remainder of the fleet sail off over the horizon, never to be seen again!

Neil and Margaret sailed quietly into 2nd place behind Frank & Grattan, followed, I think by Owen/Conor, Brenda/Mary and Dave/Glen. The 2nd beat of the windward/leeward course saw the fleet head to shore to various degrees and Neil & Margaret sailed serenely into a huge lead. The masters of light airs had struck again.

Thereafter, the pecking order was – I think – Frank & Grattan, Brenda & Mary and Owen & Conor. Louis & Cormac? So far behind they were timed out!

And the first shall be last and the last shall be first!

#SAILING NEWS – Stormy weather continues to frustrate early season sailing schedules. Wind and waves that produced spectacular trawler photos off Howth last week abated sufficiently to get Saturday morning's first ISORA race away and on Dublin Bay the second race of the Saturday afternoon series took place in excellent surfing conditions.

The strong winds have returned this morning though leaving anyone planning a trip across the Irish sea, be they coastal rowers, tall ships or dinghy experts, with a reminder about how rough things can get. From San Francisco, a survivor of the yachting tragedy there has spoken out about the need for tethering.

Yesterday afternoon the first race of the revised SB3 season on Dublin Bay was scrubbed and in other small craft news the Fireball class held its annual training clinic. Royal Cork Optimists are heading for Waterford in a strong position. A Portrush man is heading to Spain to defend his kayaking title and in rowing news Monika Dukarska came out on top after a battle with Afloat's Rower of the Year Holly Nixon.

And is adventure sailing a new tack for declining dinghy numbers?

All this and lots more on Afloat's home page this morning!

#FIREBALL – The perennial primer for the Irish Fireball regatta season took place last weekend, 21/22 April in Dun Laoghaire when Adam Bowers brought his expertise, good humour and unique style of coaching to an eleven-boat audience writes Cormac Bradley.

Blessed with significant wind for the first time in his trips to Ireland (the fourth, I think), Adam was able to concentrate on additional aspects of racing that the presence of breeze facilitated.

As ever, there was a significant focus on starting with classroom emphasis on controlling position in the end stages of the countdown to the start and a demand that boats be accelerated off the start line rather than accelerating. The consequence of this requirement, Adam stated, was the early achievement of "gorgeousness" within a short distance of crossing the start line.

The achievement of "gorgeousness" has also to be matched with a significant injection of "WUMPETA" – energy and earnestness in the execution of boat and sail trim and helming to get the boat travelling at its fastest in the shortest possible time.

The recurrent theme of proper rounding of the leeward mark is another Bowers "hobby-horse". Adam perceives the leeward mark as a gateway to escaping from the boats immediately around you who have been tardy in their mark rounding. The quests for clean water and clean wind and the commensurate rudder movements at the leeward mark were drummed into his audience.

Held over two days in strong winds on the Saturday and more moderate wind on the Sunday, the session concluded with the "Porsche Cup" – a three race, no discard series, triangle-sausage-triangle course, sailed under black-flag conditions with a five-minute countdown.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram successfully defended their trophy, with Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney second and Frank Miller & Susie Mulligan third.

Thanks are due to Marie Barry (Treasurer) who made the arrangements for getting Adam across from the UK, Marie and Stephen Oram who hosted Adam and rib drivers and assistants in the persons of Neil Colin (Chairman), Mick Creighton, Alistair Court, Hermine O'Keefe and others.

A favourable window of glorious weather which started earlier in the week extended into the weekend and the final Sunday of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Frostbite Series. The author of these reports was yet again unable to sail the event but acquired enough information to post this report when he went to pick up results for this column.

Blue skies and a slight haze on the horizon were more symptomatic on a Sunday in June/July before a sea-breeze kicks in than the second last Sunday of March when we all lost an hour in bed due to the clocks going forward. Still nobody could possibly have begrudged the loss of an hour in bed in lieu of the day that evolved. Crowds thronged the piers of Dun Laoghaire as everyone took advantage of the sunshine and the daylight addition to the evening. The ice-cream vendors were in danger of running out of stock such were the crowds.

The Fireball fleet responded to the weather and the close of the series, one assumes, by mustering 17 boats for the day. Two races were sailed outside the harbour in what I believe were near perfect conditions....apart from an adverse tide that necessitated a slightly conservative approach to the start.

Race 1 was started under a General Recall while Race 2 prompted three black flags when people who should know better failed to restart when they were adjudged over the line. A healthy South-Easterly of 15knots (or thereabouts) gave the fleet just about perfect conditions and with the added bonus of being outside the harbour is sea-swells it must have seemed as if summer had come early. Indeed, Valerie Kinnear, part of the committee boat team told me that it was quite lumpy outside.

I can't give you a blow by blow account but I can tell you that one of our most intense, but friendly rivalries, (intense on the water, friendly off it) in the fleet ended as "honours-even" over the day's two races. Mick Creighton & Frank Cassidy are great mates who enjoy nothing more than baiting each other on the water and then adjourning to a nearby watering hole to conduct a post-mortem on proceedings. Yesterday, Mick was crewed by Ciaran Hickey, no shrinking violet himself, while Frank would have had his long-standing crew John Hudson on board. All four have contributed to the camaraderie of the Irish Fireball fleet and have provided the rest of us with lots of entertainment along the way.

At the "business end" of the day's proceedings, the race wins were shared between Neil Spain & Hugh Butler (14807) and Owen Laverty & Ed Butler (14990). Behind them, the runaway leaders in the series, Messrs Butler & Oram and Rumball & Moran scored two 3rds and two 2nds respectively, probably more content to watch each other than worry too much about race wins. Andy Boyle & Barry Hurley also had a consistent day with 2 x 4ths, while the 5th places went to Laverty/Butler in Race 1 and Louis Smyth & Joe O'Reilly in Race 2.

The days' mugs went to Dave Coleman and Glen Fisher in Race 1 and Cearbhaill Daly & crew in the second!

The day's events concluded not only the second series but the Frostbite season, though in truth, the weather over the period has been exceptionally good. We didn't lose any races to severe cold weather as we have done in recent years and any races lost to strong (or once, no wind) were recovered by having two races on the subsequent Sunday.

Reporting consistently on a set of races such as this can't be done single-handedly and I would like to thank, in this concluding report, Louis Smyth, Neil Colin, Noel Butler, Kenny Rumball, Hugh Butler and Mick Creighton for providing me with information for the column.

Thanks must also go to Olivier Proveur and his team for providing the racing over the winter. The Frostbites may be a staple of the Irish Fireball scene but it still needs volunteers to run it every Sunday – Cormac Bradley

#FIREBALL – The penultimate race in the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Frostbite Series was a sustained session of snakes and ladders for most of the fleet who took part in the 6-lap race writes Cormac Bradley. A reduced fleet, due probably to it being a Bank Holiday weekend with St Patrick's Day on Saturday and Mother's Day on Sunday, was set a six-lap course with the weather mark under the wind shadow on one of Dun Laoghaire's piers.

Noel Butler & Stephen Oram got to the first weather mark in first place and proceeded to do a "horizon job" on the rest of the fleet, winning by over a leg at the finish. During the course of the race, Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran worked their way into second place by the end of the third beat and they too disappeared generating a one-leg margin on the third-placed boat, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey. Despite being one of two boats over the line early, Neil & Margaret worked the port-hand side of the course to good effect on the first two beats to get into second place. The other starting miscreants, Frank Cassidy & John Hudson, were also rewarded for doing the right thing and restarting when they picked up the day's mugs.

The race was sailed in 10-12 knots, a marginal trapezing breeze under sunny conditions but with a chill in the air. Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe got intimate with the weather mark on their first rounding which left them with work to do to catch-up.

Mick Creighton secured fourth place over the line and were followed home by Andy Boyle & Barry Hurley.

After the race the fleet retired to the DMYC lounge to watch Ireland play Korea in the final of the Olympic Men's Hockey qualifier. Despite Ireland going into the lead twice, Korea won the game 3-2 with the winning goal coming with 2 seconds to spare. This qualified Korea for the Olympic tournament later in the year and provided Irish supporters with their second disappointment within 24hrs, after the rugby debacle in Twickenham.