#fireball – The majority of the eight-boat Fireball fleet in the second round race of DBSC Series 3 will have come off the water having had an entertaining evening writes Cormac Bradley.  I say the majority, for in the blustery conditions there were a number of costly capsizes, one of which resulted in a DNF and another that saw a 4th with a possibility of a 3rd become a 5th.

A westerly breeze was blowing with some quite hard squalls at the start of the evening but the viciousness of the squalls eased off as the evening wore on! An amendment to the sailing instructions saw the Fireballs promoted to the first start and a check of the ebbing tide before the race did confirm that it was pushing us away from the line. The Flying Fifteen fleet was on Race Committee duty tonight and they set an excellent Olympic course of three laps.

Messrs Butler & Oram (15061) went hard left on the first beat and worked the inshore side of the course. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) did the same, from the pin end of the line. Just up from the pin, Smyth & Bradley (15007) could be found, sailing a parallel course to 14775, with Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe (14691) also going left, but astern and marginally to leeward of Smyth. Nicholson & Besslar (14781) went right into the ebbing tide as did Miller & Donnelly (14713) and Power & Barry (14854). Miller & Donnelly broke away from the offshore side of the beat to mix it up with Colin & Casey, while Nicholson & Besslar left that manoeuvre to a little later and crossed ahead of Smyth & Bradley. Later, up the same beat these two would cross each other again with Smyth, on starboard very close to Nicholson's transom!

At the weather mark Butler & Oram were gone again! A cluster of boats rounded together, Colin & Miller having worked the port lay line were ahead of Smyth who rounded just ahead of Nicholson and McKenna. Applying the Adam Bower's mantra of WUMPETA, Smyth stole a modest march on both Miller & Nicholson to get out from under the lee of the one and over the top of the other to allow him to chase Colin & Casey.

The first reach was tightish, but the second one broadened out as the fleet went offshore. McKenna & O'Keeffe's night came to an early finish when Hermine appeared to come off the wire and the resultant capsize, with spinnaker, left them too far behind the pack. Smyth closed on and overtook Colin & Casey to round the leeward mark in 2nd place. However, Colin & Casey stayed offshore for the early part of the second beat while Smyth & Bradley went in and within a couple of hundred metres, the situation was reversed with Colin sitting in 2nd spot. The first four boats gybed at the weather mark to stay out in the ebbing tide and this allowed them to slide towards the leeward mark. Butler & Oram were doing another horizon job! Colin & Casey were in a comfortable 2nd while Miller & Donnelly had closed on Smyth & Bradley to challenge for 3rd. At the 2nd leeward mark the order was Butler, Colin, Smyth & Miller.

The third beat saw the lead boats stay out in the tide initially before crossing the course to work the inside track of the beat. There didn't seem to be any sense of boats closing on the boat ahead of them but Miller stuck close to Smyth. Around the third and final weather mark, Smyth was able to launch his spinnaker before a squall came across the water to stay high. Miller, on the other hand, rounded in the squall and was forced off to leeward trying to get the spinnaker up. This left him fighting to get up to the gybe mark and he ultimately paid the price with a capsize, under spinnaker before he got to that particular "holy grail". The finishing order seemed to be set!

Except down the two reaches, Smyth & Bradley closed on Colin & Casey to the extent that there were only boat lengths between them at the final leeward mark. Colin's rounding left him marginally to leeward of an IDRA (PY fleet) while Smyth was able to round to windward of a Laser (also PY fleet) and all four boats were within a distance of 10 – 15m. Colin tacked to go inshore, crossing ahead of the IDRA. Smyth went over the top of the IDRA and stayed out in what was a foul tide. Halfway up the final beat, with the committee boat relocated further to windward, Smyth & Bradley crossed Colin & Casey with a gap of about 30m and Smyth & Bradley ahead! The remainder of the beat saw Smyth & Bradley covering their opposition to the finish line where they were rewarded with a 2nd place that hadn't looked at all likely throughout the previous triangular lap.

#fireball – What can I write of last night's Fireball race in Dun Laoghaire? Cormac Bradley reports.

It was a pleasant evening, though not quite what XC Weather had predicted. There was a nice breeze when we went out, but that started to fade shortly after we had finished the first lap. The DBSC Race Committee set a great Olympic-sized course, with a three lap schedule. There was a strong tide, as evidenced by this correspondent having to takes two bites to round the second weather mark of the night. Despite the feast of Fireball racing over the past two weekends, 10 races in 3½ days at Volvo Dun Laoghaire and 9 races in 3 days at the Nationals in Skerries last weekend, there were 6 boats out.

The actual race and how it played out on the water left this correspondent bemused!

A clean start for the fleet as a strong tide, even with only a hour of flood, was pushing the fleet away from the line. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) tack immediately at the committee boat end to head inshore. As each of the next five boats follow suit, one after the other, the stacking order, leeward to windward, is Butler/Oram, Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854), Frank Miller & Ed Hyland (14713), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691), Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) and Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar (14891). Nicholson & McKenna peel off further up the beat to go further out to sea. Butler & Oram work the inside track to build a substantial lead at the first weather mar. The race for first place is over already! Miller/Hyland and Smyth/Bradley round in close company with Power & Barry a short distance behind them! Nicholson rounds next with McKenna in last place – a most unusual position for her on a Tuesday night.

Miller & Smyth stay in close company down to the gybe mark where Bradley slips off the windward deck just as the gybe beckons but they recover to close the gap marginally on Miller. However, Power closes on both Smyth and Miller as the three boats approach the leeward mark.

Butler/Oram are already heading inshore again so the next three boats follow suit. Miller is pointing significantly higher than Butler in the distance and Smyth is hanging onto his coat-tails. Power eases off to power (deliberate pun) out from underneath Smyth.

Nicholson tacks immediately at the leeward mark and heads out to sea – in theory sailing against the strongest aspect of the contrary tide. He will be beyond the gybe mark before he tacks again. McKenna tries to work middle and right but is strangely off-form.

Weather mark second time around! Butler & Oram are doing a horizon job on the rest of us. Miller& Hyland have held onto second, Power & Barry are third, but from far (far) left, Nicholson & Besslar have stormed into 4th place. Smyth & Bradley take two bites of the cherry to get round the weather mark, so strong is the tide, and by the time they do get round, Nicholson & Besslar in 4th place are more than halfway down the sausage. In 6th place McKenna has fallen further behind and must be pulling her hair out.

The order remains the same for the balance of the race. Then on the hitch from the last leeward mark to the finish it is apparent, from my distant view point that Butler & Oram have tacked immediately at the mark whereas Miller and Hyland went further inshore. In an amazing turnaround, given the lead that he had earlier in the race, Butler and Oram are forced to work their way inshore to cover Miller & Hyland to protect their lead. The margin of victory at the end was safe, but a barnyard of a lead had evaporated in the space of maybe 500m!
The next challenge for Smyth & McKenna was to make sure they weren't timed out – they weren't!

My sense of bemusement was confirmed by the others when we congregated in the DMYC clubhouse afterwards. Still a bad night on the water beats a good day on shore!

DBSC Fireball – Series 3, Race 1: Tuesday 23rd July 2013
1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC
2 Frank Miller & Ed Hyland 14713 DMYC
3 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC
4 Jonathan Nicholson & Vivian Besslar 14891 RStGYC
5 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb.
6 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe 14691 RStGYC

Series 2 was concluded last week and even though a query on last Tuesday's results was lodged, the results of Series 2, as posted are;

DBSC Fireball: Series 2, 5Races, 1 Discard.
1 Noel Butler & Glen Fisher/Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC 4pts
2 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe/Francis Rowan 14691 RStGYC 13pts
3 Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harb. 16pts
4 Cariosa Power & Marie Barry 14854 NYC 17pts
5 Conor & James Clancy 150** RStGYC 20pts

#fireball – As evidenced by the table below, the 2013 Irish Fireball Nationals was a tight affair with clusters of boats fighting it out right throughout the fleet. The competition between Kenny Rumball and Noel Butler and their respective crews was inevitable, this is a title that Rumball has wanted for a few years and as one would expect, Butler wasn't going to let it go easily. Between the two host club boats there is a family rivalry, father and son Niall and Simon McGrotty used to sail as crew and helm until Simon got his own boat. Niall held the upper hand on Friday evening and Saturday evening, but son Simon had the better last day to overtaken his father in the rankings.

Conor Clancy, and Gavin Doyle and their respective crews were also in the mix at the front end of the fleet and one of them would quite randomly influence the outcome of the regatta. But further down the order there were other "one on ones" going on! On the Friday evening, only 1pt separated positions 8, 9 and 10 and on Saturday evening only 1pt separated 7 and 8, 9 and 10 were tied on points and 12 and 13 were also tied on points and vying for the Silver fleet title.

There are signs of the middle section of the fleet closing on the upper end of the fleet but whether this was due in part to the smaller size of the fleet or due to a genuine improvement will be a subject of conjecture. Certainly in the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta of the previous weekend, albeit with another small fleet, the evidence supports the latter theory.

Trying to work out the right way to go on the Skerries racetrack was a constant source of conjecture. The diversity of thought was such that on the first race of the regatta, and probably in others as well, the two home club boats favoured different sides of the beat, Niall McGrotty going hard left, Simon going hard right. On the Saturday, Messrs Butler & Oram, normally so tidy around the race course in terms of upwind legs, admitted to overstanding the weather mark – more than once! It generated the most unusual site of them "back in the van", with the leaders well ahead. Of course, their regatta pedigree got them out of gaol and back to the podium places, but a very unusual 8th place finish, later discarded, is testimony as to how even the fast guys can get it wrong.

On the Sunday morning, in the freshest breeze of the regatta, Alan Henry & Louis Smyth went hard left when the rest of the fleet went inshore and right. Being off shore must have meant more wind because they rounded the weather mark in 1st and 3rd respectively, with only Kenny Rumball bucking the trend by rounding 2nd.

Most of the racing was run during the ebbing cycle of the tide which meant there was a run of tide heading southwards, in conflict with the onshore breeze, mostly out of the eastern quarter – not a "head-on" conflict but enough to throw up a lumpy sea. Thus staying offshore on the down wind legs of the sausage in the Olympic courses should not have been rewarding, but the reality was that with the bigger seas there was much more to work with in terms of downwind surfing.

Friday's racing was easily the lightest in terms of wind strength. It was the sort of day where smooth tacking was critical, wending one's way through the waves equally critical. There was some very marginal trapezing but this was definitely the minority activity. Some of the races wins on Friday were by very comfortable margins but the main body of the fleet was quite compact.

Rumball & Kinsella won the day with a 3,1,1, but only led by a margin of a point from McGrotty & Cramer, with Clancy & Devlin third. Butler & Oram were almost in unchartered territory in fourth place overall, 8pts off the pace.

Saturday was a sparkling day with wind and sea to work with. Some of the surfing sequences were superb with the boats driving through a succession of waves spewing white water to either side. Butler and Oram stamped their authority on the day with a 1,4,1,1, sequence to take a 3pt lead over Rumball and David Moran, with McGrotty & Cramer in third a further 3pts adrift.

Sunday morning arrived greyer and cooler than any of the previous days of July. The debate onshore was what to wear, so quickly unaccustomed we were to the absence of sunshine. The breeze came back with a vengeance, one helm speculating post the event that it was getting up to 18 knots during the first race of the day. Rumball took Race 8 with Butler second! Was there going to be a late change in the pecking order? There was – as Rumball took 2nd in the 9th Race to Butler's 4th, Clancy getting in between them to force the regatta into a count-back. Rumball & Moran, with input from Kinsella were the new Champions.

Race management for the event was provided by Liam Dineen and Kieran Brannigan, both National Race Officers. Liam "crocked" his back a few weeks before the event and his Friday duty took its toll. Kieran stepped in for the remaining two days. A combination of Olympic and Windward-Leeward courses were used over the three days and the time between races was kept to a minimum – indeed on a few occasions boats were caught out by the speed of turnaround. Sailing Secretary for Skerries Sailing Club, John Cook provided an excellent results service with the day's results posted very soon after the day's racing. Hospitality was of the usual Skerries standard.

The turnout of 15 boats was dominated by Dun Laoghaire boats of which there were ten. Skerries provided two boats, East Down Yacht Club (N.I.) provided two boats and Jon Evans sailed under the burgee of Sligo Yacht Club. It is the smallest Nationals for quite a few years and has probably resulted from a number of reasons – work commitments (at least 2 (specific instances)), other sailing commitments (potentially 2 – to double-handed keel-boat racing), holidays (at least 2), parties overseas (at least 1), other dinghy campaigns (maybe 2). Additionally, clubs that would have provided one or two boats in times past, especially for a Dublin-based regatta, are going through re-building phases and their members don't seem ready to travel just yet. This is not meant as a criticism but rather an attempt to explain why this event has seen such a small attendance. The other factor must be people's changed circumstances which we can do little about until there is an upswing.

Two ex-Fireballers, who are in temporary retirement mode (we hope), visited the venue over the weekend. A third Fireballer was helping out on rescue!

On the positive side, we had two boats from East Down Yacht Club on Strangford Lough, three people came down from Belfast (or thereabouts) for the regatta, one person flew in from London to do the event and we had a debutant Fireball from Howth.

The Class made a conscious decision to take events to clubs that supported Fireballs and venues that were within easy reach of the main Dun Laoghaire stronghold of the Class. Granted two major events on successive weekends, Volvo Dun Laoghaire and Nationals, is unusual but it is an attempt to take advantage of what is available on the calendar.

Fifteen boats thoroughly enjoyed great conditions at Skerries this weekend. Not all of them will have achieved their competitive ambitions but we all had a great three days..........come and join us!

#fireball – Kenny Rumball & David Moran representing the Irish National Sailing Club and the Royal St George Yacht Club respectively have won the 2013 Irish Fireball Nationals sailed at Skerries Sailing Club this past three days writes Cormac Bradley.

Today we saw the strongest wind of the Championship and a further two Olympic course races were sailed to complete the 9 race series.

Rumball/Moran scored a 1, 2 today as opposed to the defending Champions, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram who scored a 2, 4. This closed the overnight 3pt gap and forced the title to be decided by countback. That resolved the title in favour of Rumball & Moran.

Third place went to the home club's Simon McGrotty & Darach Dineen. Their first race was a 5th, but they closed out the regatta with a win. They were 6pts off the lead pair and ousted the overnight third place combination - Simon's father Niall and Neil Cramer who dropped to fifth overall. Conor Clancy & Jim Devlin were sandwiched between the McGrottys in 4th overall.

Outside the top five the best performance of the day was that of Alan Henry & Simon Reville (14645) who led the fleet around the first weather mark of the day and held on to register a 3. In the second race they got a five to jump to 8th overall. Michael Ennis and Marie Barry consolidated their 7th place overall with another consistent performance - 8th & 6th.

The Silver fleet prize went to Jon Evans & Aidan Caulfield who had a positive day with a 9, 7 relative to their closest rivals who had two retirals.

The Classic Prize went to Joseph Murphy & Cian Manley (14663) of Howth for whom this was their debut Fireball regatta.

Race management today by Kieran Brannigan was excellent and the legendary Skerries hospitality was in ample evidence.

Great weather, great racing and a new champion!

1. Rumball & Moran 14pts
2. Butler & Oram 14pts
3. McGrotty(S) & Dineen 20pts
4. Clancy & Devlin 23pts
5. McGrotty (N) & Cramer 25pts
6. Doyle & Sweeney 33pts
7. Ennis & Barry 50pts
8. Henry & Reville 51pts
9. Smyth & Bradley 55pts
10. McKenna & O'Keefe 65pts
11. Evans & Caulfield 68pts
12. Colin & Casey 68pts
13. O'Neill & Inan 78pts
14. Fisher & O'Gorman 92pts
15. Murphy & Manley 107pts

#fireball – The Irish Fireball Nationals fleet enjoyed champagne conditions today in completing another four races in their 9-race regatta writes Cormac Bradley.

Yet again wind conditions were better than forecast to the extent that many boats went out on medium settings in a breeze that probably got to top of Force 4 out of the east. With wind and tide fighting. each other there was another lumpy racecourse to enjoy.

Two Olympics and two Windward-Leewards were sailed and defending champions Noel Butler & Stephen (15061) pulled the irons out of the fire to go top of the leader board with. a 3pt margin on Kenny Rumball & David Moran (15058) who in turn has 3pts on Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938).

Butler & Oram finished the day with a 1, 1, 4, 1 and while they led races from start to finish they also had two races where, in the early stages they were well down the pecking order. However, their proven regatta pedigree was enhanced yet again today when they got out of bad situations to generate a single figure tally of points for the day.

The only race they didn't bag was won by one of the home club combinations, Simon McGrotty & Darach Dineen (14981). Their other results for the day sees them rise to 4th overall, just two points behind Dad Niall & Neil Cramer.

2nd placed Kenny Rumball & David Moran (15058) scored a 4, 5, 2, 4 today while McGrotty/Cramer in 3rd had a 3, 3, 6, 10 day.

Places 4 to 6 are separated by 7pts with the pecking order being; Conor Clancy & Jim Devlin 22pts (5th), and Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney 27pts, (6th).

Michael Ennis & Marie Barry (14854) are putting together a consistent series with places ranged from 6th to 9th, with one exception giving them a 1pt advantage over Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) who are in 8th. The top ten is closed out by Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691 & RStGYC) and Alan Henry & Simon Reveille (14645 & EDYC & SDC).

On a day when the ebbing tide was a constant across the race course, the swell and waves made for conditions that Fireballs were designed for. Upwind saw full on trapezing but off-wind was glorious. Staying out, sailing contrary to the tide, surfing off the waves was exhilarating.

In the Silver fleet the overall situation couldn't be tighter - Jon Evans & Aidan Caulfield (14748 & Sligo) are tied with Brian O'Neil & Ismail Inan (14595 & EDYC) on 65pts and 12th & 13th respectively.

Sunshine conditions prevailed yet again and the bodies will be in need of sustenance this evening.

1. Butler & Oram 8 2 3 1 4 1 1 = 12pts
2. Rumball & Moran 3 1 1 4 5 2 4 = 15pts
3. McGrotty & Cramer 1 3 2 3 3 6 10 = 18pts
4. McGrotty & Dineen 5 6 7 2 1 3 3 = 20pts
5. Clancy & Devlin 2 4 4 7 6 4 2 = 22pts

#fireball – Defending champions Noel Butler and Stephen Oram are lying fourth in a fleet of 15 after the first day of racing at the Fireball National Championships in Skerries, North Dublin writes Cormac Bradley.

For those of us who arrived early in Skerries there was a pleasant surprise - while Dublin Bay was a mill pond, Skerries had a healthy breeze

The flag on the nearby RNLI station was flying healthily. Regrettably as the morning progressed the flag condition wilted.

For the 15-boat fleet what followed was a light wind thriller in F2-3 winds . No serious trapezing, lumpy seas, and an ebbing tide. Liam Dineen, National Race Officer, set two Olympic courses and a closing Windward-Leeward course to get three races in.

Race wins were shared by Niall McGrotty & Neil Cramer (14938) of the home club and Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella (15058) of INSC, who took the 2nd and 3rd race wins. A number of different combinations flirted with the front of the fleet - Conor Clancy & Jim Devlin (RStGYC 14807), Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (RStGYC/NYC 14953), Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (Coal Harbour 15007) and defending champions, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (DMYC 15061). However, flirting only gets you so far and at the finish of the three races the 1-2-3s were shared between Rumball, McGrotty (N), Clancy and Butler.

The 15 boat fleet is made up of two host club boats, two boats from East Down Yacht Club in N.Ireland, a solitary entry from each of Sligo and Howth and 10 Dun Laoghaire boats.

The event continues over Saturday and Sunday at the seaside venue of Skerries Sailing Club with sponsorship support from Millfield Shopping Centre, Balbriggan. A further 6 races are scheduled.

1 Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella 3,1,1
2. Niall McGrotty & Neil Kramer 1,3,2
3. Conor Clancy & Jim Devlin 2,4,4
4. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 8,2,3
5. Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney 4,9,5

#VDLR2013 – The nine Irish Fireballs that contested a very successful Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta this past four days, had a great work out in advance of the Class Nationals which take place at the end of this week in Skerries.

The Fireballs, like the other dinghy classes were sailing on the Salthill Course, in an area to the west of Dun Laoghaire harbour and enjoyed exceptionally favourable conditions with blue sky days and enough wind to make the racing fair. Could we have done with more wind? Yes! But what we had was enough to provide good racing which turned out to be very tight.

A new combination, sailing an established boat, won the event by taking four of the ten races. Bryan Byrne & Stephen Campion (Royal Irish Yacht Club, 14934) haven't sailed together as an established Fireball combination but have lots of Fireball pedigree in their individual rights. Despite sailing the wrong course in Friday's middle race, necessitating a "Retired after Finish" they came back with a vengeance on the Saturday to score three bullets to open up the regatta to a two boat challenge.

Brothers Conor & James Clancy (Royal St. George Yacht Club, 150**), Team Clancy, also won four races but had a slighter wider range of results, after discard, than the winners. They dominated the early part of the regatta, claiming three race wins over Thursday and Friday, but given the small size of the fleet, their Saturday results didn't help their overall aspirations.

Louise McKenna and Francis Rowan (Royal St George Yacht Club, 14691) are another new Fireball combination with substantial experience and success in their respective capacities. Their scoring results were in a very tight range but the absence of any wins on the water meant that they would have a hard job catching the lead pair.

Positions four to seven were very tight with only three points separating them at the finish. Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, 14713) had a purple patch on Friday, scoring a 2, 3, 1, which at that stage left them in second place in the rankings.

Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (National Yacht Club, 14953) took the tenth and last race of the regatta to squeeze into fifth overall, just a point ahead of Class Chairman and Class Secretary Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, 14775).

The overall sense of the regatta is that the racing was very tight. While sailing trapezoid courses reduced the amount of tight spinnaker reaching to just one leg of the course, the offwind legs were just as tactical as the upwind workout. In one particular race six of the eight boats racing were spread across the course, each overlapped with the other, on their way to the leeward gate. Picking which side of the gate to use could be a springboard to heightened upwind success. While it may appear that the regatta was "carved up" by two combinations of Fireballs, in truth a number of boats led races but didn't register a win; Colin & Casey, McKenna & Rowan and Smyth & Bradley. While the National Champions were campaigning a "big-boat" for the regatta, the post-mortem in the DMYC after the close of the regatta was that the racing had been excellent because everyone was going for the race win. When our National Champions are on the water, there is a sense that the rest of us are racing for the minor placings. Two different individuals, from different ends of the competition/success spectrum, commented on how competitive the regatta was: - the first person stated how pleasantly surprised they were at the level of competition and the intensity of the racing, the other stated how much they learned from being in the "body" of the fleet sailing in close quarters – thus sharpening their tactical awareness.

The dinghy course was served exceptionally well by National Race Officer Harry Gallagher and his team who ran ten excellent races for the various fleets. Fireballs raced under his expert control for all four days, together with the PY Classes – IDRA 14s, Lasers, International 14 (1), International Moths (3) but he also "hosted" Squibs, Mermaids and Flying Fifteens who fluctuated between Salthill and another course. Separate start and finish lines were used which meant that harry could get one fleet away while another sailed up from their finish. This mechanism was used a few times to "declutter" the start line. Some of the other course may have had wind problems, but Salthill always had enough to keep things ticking over.

The sun shone for four days which meant that the atmosphere onshore was superb. The four host clubs looked after the fleet in the style to which Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta participants have become accustomed to!

In summary, an excellent 4 days! Let's hope Skerries can continue where we have just left off!

#vdlr2013 – Emerging into clean air from Mk2 (lap 2)of the inner loop trapezoid course was the key to success in today's final race for the Fireball fleet writes Cormac Bradley.

The fleet again concentrated their efforts on the left hand side of the course as another wind change prompted another rotation of the course towards Howth. The first beat had less of the bunching that characterised the previous two races but that phenomenon would return for the first three boats on the 2nd beat. At Mk1 the rounding order was Clancy, Byrne, McKenna, Doyle, Colin and at Mk4 only McKenna & Byrne had swapped places.

These three broke away on the 2nd beat and spent the leg eyeing each other. But the convergence of the Fireball fleet and the Flying Fifteens made Mk2 a very busy location.

McKenna rounded first followed by Clancy, Byrne and Doyle. McKenna temporarily dropped the spinnaker but rehoisted to emerge, initially, with her lead intact. What followed was a great divergence of thought on the best way to get to the gate at Mk3. Clancy went right. McKenna, Byrne and Doyle played the middle.

By the time they reached the gate, Byrne had taken the lead when at one stage he had been third. He went on to take his third bullet of the day and by this correspondent's calculations, the overall lead. McKenna finished second and Doyle third. Clancy finished fifth.

By my reckoning, assuming a single discard, the overall situation is;

Byrne/Campion - 15pts
Team Clancy - 16pts
McKenna/Rowan - 23pts
Miller/Donnelly - 27pts
Colin/Casey - 28pts.

#VDLR2013 – An extended game of cat and mouse! The seventh race for the Fireballs in this year's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta was a very close affair for the first half of the race - an outer loop trapezoid writes Cormac Bradley.  The wind had shifted northwards, necessitating a rotating of the course by maybe half a mile towards Howth.

6 of the 8 boats went left and offshore, the exceptions being Colin and Sinnot. But Miller emerged as the early leader from the pack who went left. But the fleet was tightly bunched.

At Mk 1 the order was - Miller, Byrne, Colin, Clancy, Sinnott, Doyle, McKenna & Chambers.. By the gybe mark (2), Doyle ha claimed two places back and on the run from 2 to 3 Byrne took Miller. By the gate at Mk 3 Byrne was comfortable but Miller and Colin were neck and neck at either end of the gate.

The second beat was slowed as the wind eased but at Mk 3 for the second time the order was Byrne, McKenna, Clancy, Colin & Doyle. The final spinnaker legs saw more change to yield a finishing order of; Byrne, McKenna, Colin, Clancy, Miller, Doyle, Sinnott & Chambers.

(Colin &. McKenna very tight on line - overlapped through my binoculars. So result might be other way.)

#VDLR2013 – Saturday's first race of the day saw a number of leader changes and lots of place swapping before the race was finished - with a win for Brian Byrne & Stephen Campion writes Cormac Bradley. The lead changed four times before the finish, the other holders of the lead being Team Clancy - Connor & James.

Behind them the three red-spinnakered boats of Louise McKenna & Francis Rowan, Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey had their own "ding-dong" race with place swapping aplenty.

An inner loop trapezoid of two laps was set for the Fireballs who worked the middle and left of the course for the beats. The second beat saw most change with Colin/Casey playing their get out of jail card on the second beat. McKenna/Rowan played the same card on the offwind legs of the trapezoid to finish 3rd, up from fifth at the last weather mark.

Conditions from my shore vantage point looked light with no serious trapezing evident.

R6: Byrne, Clancy, McKenna, Miller, Colin, Doyle, Chambers, Sinnott/Hyland.

Byrne leapfrogs Miller to 2nd but Clancy's margin stays at 7pts.