The 48th hosting of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series got underway yesterday, Sunday 4th November with an entry of 93 boats confirmed during the morning of the first Sunday. This represents a huge increase from last year and is due in substantial part to a big influx of Lasers which are in such number that they are now split across two separate starts; Standards & 4.7s followed by the Radials. Another fleet with good numbers was the Fireball Class who had nine boats on the water

After a review of last year’s Frostbites and a survey of the participants a number of changes have been made which will be assessed as the season progresses. Among these are;

• A desire for more races on the day
• A move away from the reaching legs of the trapezoid
• Shorter duration races and faster turnaround times

Yesterday Dun Laoghaire harbour was more akin to “Piccadilly Circus” the Frostbite fleet racing mid-harbour, a group of Toppers being coached in front of the National Yacht Club and a group of INSS sailors sailing in the vicinity of the green pontoon off the western bight. The fact that there was very little wind to achieve any of these ambitions is testament to the perseverance of those who had organised them and those who took part!

Race Officer for the Frostbites, Ben Mulligan, of the Flying Fifteen fleet, had his work cut out for him in trying to set a course for the first race with the wind being very fickle and in very short supply! Eventually, he settled on a triangular course with the committee boat set up in the middle of the harbour and a weather mark in the direction of the East Pier.

With a single PY Class the first start of the day, we were treated to a fleet that had Shane McCarthy’s Solo, the K1 of Tom Murphy (Flying Fifteen), the Enterprise of Aidan Geraghty & Bernadette Fox, the RS Aero 9 of Paul Phelan, RS200s, RS400s, Frank Hamilton’s IDRA, a two-handed Mirror and a single-handed Mirror, the returning Kona Windsurfers of Robbie Walker & Des Gibney, a 2.4m sailed by Patrick Hassett, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaefer, one of at least three, and the “Sailing in Dublin’s” Laser Vagos and the aforementioned Fireballs.

What had been set out as a beat, turned into a two sail fetch about halfway up the first leg and at the fore was the combination of the Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854). Another, all-lady combination from the Fireball Class was also well placed in the leading bunch, Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (FB 14691) taking advantage of a good start and the lighter winds. After missing last year’s Frostbites due to medical issues, the serial winners of the Fireball Frostbites, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) were back on the water but found themselves in the unusual situation of being well back in the fleet and in the pecking order of the Fireballs. For those who were even further back, due to a poor start, the engagement was with the leading Laser who started 3 minutes after the PYs, the Enterprise and Schaefer’s Wayfarer.

Power & Barry maintained their lead down what was supposed to have been the first reach which had turned into a broader reach on the opposite tack and rounded the leeward mark in pole position, where they, like everyone else to follow behind them, was greeted with a rib flying the “V” flag and making sound signals – Go straight to the finish! They proceeded to do so, scoring a thirty second margin over the second Fireball and finisher – McKenna & O’Keeffe. On the water, the pecking order was Fireball, Fireball, Solo, RS Aero 9, Fireball (Court & Syme, 14706), Fireball (Butler & Oram), Fireball (Miller & Bradley, 14713), Fireball (Turner & Turner, 14362), Fireball (Colin & Casey 14775) and Kona Windsurfer (Walker, 1989). However, the leading Laser had also infiltrated that finishing sequence.

After a slightly longer break waiting for any worthwhile wind to settle in a second race got underway from a new direction, necessitating a complete change of course. The committee boat went northwards and the weather mark moved from a position approximately in front of the National and George Yachts Clubs to a position to the west of the HSS ferry gantry. However, it also had the decency to blow a bit harder and consequently, the PY fleet was able to get off the start line cleaner and more efficiently meaning that they were free of the Lasers.

“Proper order” was restored when Butler & Oram led the PY fleet into the first mark and proceeded to do what they normally do – stretch their lead over the rest of the fleet. To put this in context, in a race where their finishing time was 22:59 minutes, they had a 1:07 margin on the next boat, the Fireball of Colin & Casey. A two-lap triangular course was the recipe for the second race and all the component parts were in the right place, two spinnaker reaches and a gybe at the right location and despite the fickle wind some brief moments of off-wind trapezing!!

Further back the mid-class Fireballs were mixing it with the RS 400s and the leading Wayfarer…….again, but the breeze that had appeared meant that there was sense that one was in control of one’s destiny and some manoeuvres could be contemplated.

The finishing order of the race was; Fireball (Butler & Oram), Fireball (Colin & Casey), Fireball (Court & Syme), Fireball (Power & Barry), Fireball (Turner & Turner), Fireball (Thompson & Thompson, 15007), the beneficiaries of the Louis Smyth loaned boat scheme, Fireball (Miller & Bradley), Solo (McCarthy) and the K1 of Tom Murphy.

At the delayed daily prize-giving in the DMYC clubhouse, there was much anticipation – Could Cariosa and Marie win the first Frostbite Mug of the PY fleet (and the Fireballs) and disrupt an almost seamless sequence of opening race wins by Noel & Stephen? Given that the Fireballs were now racing in PY there was no guarantee that the opening race Mug would go to the Fireballs, but if it did it would be quite a coup for the girls! And the winner is…………Shane McCarthy in the Solo with a corrected race time of 14:23 relative to 16:11 of the Fireball! Cariosa and Marie were the leading Fireball but on corrected time were scored in 4th place behind the Solo, Schaefer’s Wayfarer and the IDRA of Frank Hamilton & Jennifer Byrne.

In the second race, the corrected time result also gave the race win to McCarthy but this time by a tighter margin of 3 seconds over the Fireball of Butler & Oram. As McCarthy had the Mug for race won, Butler & Oram took it for the second race and so, the effort to unseat Butler and Oram as the first Mug winners in the Fireball Frostbites runs for another year.

Suggestions that a recount was demanded are categorically refuted!!

In the Lasers, the pecking order of results showed an encouraging trend of mixes in the top end results with the 4.7s taking on the Standard Lasers in Race 1 and the Radials doing the same in race 2. The Radial fleet is also populated by Juniors coming out of other classes and the large numbers on the water yesterday was a very encouraging sight.

54 Lasers across three divisions, out of 86 overall entries to date has prompted a rethink of starts for tomorrow's first race of the DMYC Frostbite Series in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. An amendment to the Sailing Instructions has been made and it is downloadable below.

The Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs’ youth training programme is sending as many as eight Radials to this year’s Frostbites, along with a group of 4.7s. It’s being hailed as a positive sign for the class which has long experienced difficulty in persuading parents and coaches to encourage their children to compete in local racing rather than training.

"We contemplated an indicator for boats OCS before the start, but we remind all the One Minute Rule, operates on all starts" organiser Neil Colin told Afloat.ie

Entries for the series remain open and sailors can join the fun whenever they like, Colin says.

More than 40 Lasers have been registered thus far for the DMYC Frostbites, with entries still open online ahead of the series kickoff this Sunday 4 November.

The tally of 46 pledged for the latest Dublin Bay winter series is already way up on last year’s total — and even more interesting is that 24 of them are Laser Radials, showing a boost of interest among women, older and youth sailors.

In particular, the Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs’ youth training programme is sending as many as eight Radials to this year’s Frostbites, along with a group of 4.7s.

It’s being hailed as a positive sign for the class which has long experienced difficulty in persuading parents and coaches to encourage their children to compete in local racing rather than training.

The impact of the recent Laser Master Worlds in Dun Laoghaire will also be felt with a strong contingent of older sailors in the Radial class this year.

With the final numbers looking to be a field that’s one-third Laser Radials, it could be marking the resurgence of the class often thought of as only a youth boat as one for all ages.

Entries for the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Dinghy Frostbite series due to commence on Sunday 4 November are growing steadily and are still open at www.dmyc.ie.

The Notice of Race was published earlier this month. To date the latest series has a majority of Lasers out of 63 entries, of which 22 are juniors.

“We are delighted to see [juniors’] interest in participating in real races, as a compliment to the training schedules, and are confident the experience on the race course will improve skill levels,” the DMYC says.

The club also welcomes the participation of the Women on Water initiative, using the National Yacht Club's Wayfarers that will also be in training for their own World Championships in Greystones next year.

The cherished Frostbite Mug will be presented to the winner of the day who has not already received one, provided they are present to collect. Organisers hope to see everyone for refreshment after sailing in the DMYC.

The DMYC has published the Notice of Race and online entry system here for its long-running Winter Dinghy Frostbite Series on Dublin Bay.

In response to feedback from competitors over the past three seasons, gathered from a survey earlier in the year, the format is revised with the intention to;

• run two shorter races each Sunday, outside the harbour when it is practical
• run more windward/leeward courses, alongside the traditional triangle courses

Racing for centreboard monohull dinghies will be one design for the Lasers and based on PH handicaps for the mixed dinghy fleet.

In a further move to increase interest, there is an option to enter the pre and post Christmas Series, separately.

Racing commences on Sunday 4th November.

The DMYC Frostbite Series started in 1969, and has been occurring every winter since then.

Holding their nerve in the face of forecast stormy conditions for the weekend, the DMYC in Dun Laoghaire now report the weather conditions now look very favourable (if a bit wet) for the last major event on Dublin Bay this summer, this Sunday’s DMYC Kish Race, starting at approximately 10.30 from Dun Laoghaire's West Pier.

Earlier this week it was feared the event would be cancelled due to gales, a decision made all the more difficult as this year's edition also serves to commemorate the loss of the RMS Leinster near the Kish Bank 100 years ago.

Race organiser Neil Colin told Afloat.ie 'We have added a further detail to the event, in that all entries will be given a White Flower (biodegradable) before going afloat, and asked to take a moment as they round the Kish, and drop the flower in the water, as a memorial to the event almost 100 years ago".

It's a touching thought and a symbolic gesture to those who perished.

The entry system is open on www.DMYC.ie

The Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club has announced the 2018 edition of its Kish Lighthouse Race will be known as “100 Boats for 100 Years”, reflecting the forthcoming commemoration of the centenary of the sinking of the RMS Leinster with the loss of 501 lives on Dublin Bay in 1918. More details on that sinking here.

Together with the Dublin Bay Old Gaffers Association, the sailing event is planned to combine a regular format yacht race to and from the Kish, alongside a rally-style event for the traditional vessels and old gaffers, contributing to an exciting day of boating on the bay for everybody and a fitting commemoration of the tragic loss of so many lives.

DMYC's Neil Colin tells Afloat 'We hope to see the competitive racers, recreational sailors and traditional boaters all involved'. 

For more details and entry for the event click here

Andrew Algeo's J109 Juggerknot continues its winning run this season adding the DMYC 'King of the Bay' title to last weekend's Howth Yacht Club Wave Regatta triumph in Class One IRC.

Dawn broke, and the club web camera showed a sea as smooth as glass. Dublin Bay Buoy reported 1 knot, gusting 2. Would the forecast come true? Windy.com was reporting a possibility of as high as 9 knots, easterly. Race officers, RIB crews, timekeepers, shore support – all volunteers – started rolling into the club at 9 am; there was a promise of breakfast to get everyone into the clubhouse for a pre-regatta briefing. As the first gun time approached, the wind started to lift, and various weather stations agreed that the wind was matching what was forecast – somewhere in the east, and touching up around 8 knots. Racing would proceed on schedule, under blue skies and bright sunshine, with an ebbing tide.

Joggerknot crew Ruth Hite and Paul Nolan are presented with the King of the Bay prize at the DMYC

In Class A, first place went to Andrew Algeo’s “Juggerknot” (J/109), storming home – as much as one can storm in 9 knots of wind – with a corrected time of 2:20:41. Richard Goodbody’s “White Mischief” (J/109) came second, 12 minutes behind Juggerknot, and Frank Whelan in “Eleuthra” (Grand Soleil 44 race) placed 3rd on corrected time.

In Class B, Daly Melvin’s “Ceol Na Mara” (Hunter Sonata) placed first, followed by David Meeke’s “Alias” (Ruffian 23) in second, and Fergus Mason’s “Viking” (Shipman) in third.

In Class C, Justin Burke’s “alertpackaging.com” (SB20) took first place, Declan Curtin in “Jester” (J/80) placed second, and David William’s “Phantom” (Dragon) was third.

For the dinghy pursuit race, Simon Revill in “Dubious” (IDRA14) was first, Frank Hamilton was second in “Dunmoanin” (IDRA14), and Alan Carr placed third in “Starfish” (IDRA14). In the second race, “Dubious” was first, “Starfish” was second, and John Fitzgerald in “Doody” (IDRA14) placed third.

The race committee chose the Royal Irish yacht Juggerknot as the 'King of the Bay'. An on-the-day entrant, they attributed their win to having a Code Zero on board and having the perfect conditions to fly it for several miles of the race.

Full results are available here.

The DMYC would like to thank all volunteers and staff who made the day possible and Dublin Bay Sailing Club for the use of the hut on the West Pier.

During the latter half of last week few would have expected that by Sunday it would be “warm” enough to permit racing in Dun Laoghaire Harbour for the Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. While the “Beast from the East” and Storm Emma wreaked havoc in Irish (and UK) airspace from Wednesday through Friday, dumping inordinate amounts of snow on us all, the thought of “sailing on Sunday” must have been far removed from everyone’s mind. 

However, by Saturday the thaw had set in and by Sunday the temperature had gone up a notch or two to make racing semi-attractive from a shore-side perspective. Race Officer, Cormac Bradley, in consultation with Frostbites Co-ordinators Neil Colin and Olivier Prouveur decided that the challenge for the day was to get a race in and the fleet ashore promptly! In that regard a decision (in principle) to have a triangular course of three laps was taken before the committee boat left the pontoon at the DMYC.

A steady wind out of the East made the setting of the weather mark a relatively easy task. The committee boat anchored just beyond the exit from the marina which allowed a beat the length of the harbour to be set.  A gybe mark was set about 60m inside the harbour mouth but midway between the ends of the two piers while the leeward mark was about twenty metres off the transom of the committee boat. The ambition was to have two off-wind spinnaker legs but the normal guinea-pig for that test spent a large part of the pre-race period undoing wine-glass knots in their red spinnaker, leaving the acid test of spinnaker flying on the top reach to the RS400 of Niels Warburton and Peter Doherty. The appropriateness of the spinnaker leg was confirmed by radio via the gybe mark boat.

The Slow PY Fleet had nine starters – two KONA Windsurfers, the Enterprise, the Wayfarer, with a replacement helm, Norman Lee, the IDRA of Pierre Long, the Feva XL of Conor Galligan, the Hartley 12.2 of Odhran Prouveur and two Laser Vago XDs and in a very conservative start all nine went left initially before spreading themselves across the width of the course. The IDRA 14 of Pierre Long and John Parker led around the first weather mark and flew spinnaker. Behind them the red- sailed Kona of Robbie Walker and the Wayfarer followed. The IDRA led to the gybe mark but surprisingly dropped spinnaker which allowed the Wayfarer to close the gap. Up the second beat the Wayfarer took the lead which it held to the finish, recording a race time of 29:58. In 2^nd place, forty-four seconds later, was Walker in the first KONA, followed by his class-mate, Des Gibney, forty-nine seconds later, with the IDRA next, forty-one seconds behind. However, on handicap they were all outdone by the junior crew in the Feva XL, with Conor Galligan helming, who converted a race time of 33:18 into a handicap time of 26:51 and a 21-second winning margin over the Wayfarer.

The biggest fleet of the day were the Lasers with 13 boats on the water. Their start was more competitive than the Slow PYs but was still a clean start and again they all resolved to go left initially. However, they too spread themselves across the course going upwind and rounded the top mark with regularity to provide a well spread-out fleet with no single boat very far ahead or very far behind. At the close of the first lap, the lead was held by Chris Arrowsmith (201829) with Gavin Murphy (173062) about a boat-length off his transom. Sean Flanagan (177854) was in close proximity, waiting to pounce on any mistakes by the front two. In contrast to the Slow PY fleet the Lasers approached the leeward mark on a much higher line to windward before ducking off to leeward to round the mark. On the second lap, Murphy had moved into the lead with Arrowsmith the chasing boat.  The finishing order was Murphy (30:37), Arrowsmith (30:56), Flanagan (31:30), Coakley (31:32), O’Leary (31:53) and Ella Hemeryck (Rad) (31:54), but on corrected time the sequence changed to Murphy (27:55), Hemeryck (28:00), Arrowsmith (28:12), Shirley Gilmore (Rad) (28:32) and Flanagan (28:43).

Four fast PY boats took to the start – three Fireballs and the RS400. While it may have been the smallest start it was the most competitive in terms of the clock counting down. Yet again Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) had an easy race, leading from start to finish, but the other two boats, Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) had a race all the way round the course. Indeed, the position of “chasing Fireball” changed a number of times during the race. At the end of the first lap it was Miller & Donnelly, who had been relegated to third on the water, but by the time they were rounding the leeward mark for the second time, negotiating their way around Lasers, Miller & Donnelly had gone into the “chase boat” position. They retained that positon for the finish, but only by a margin of 15 seconds.  While the official results had the result the other way round, I heard Miller claiming afterwards that he and Donnelly had finished second……..the ladies didn’t appear to be challenging that assertion. The favourable spinnaker legs – spinnakers were flown on both reaches with the two chasing Fireballs going to windward of the committee boat on the second lap en route to the leeward mark –allowed a Fireball to take the fastest corrected time. That honour went to Butler & Barry by a margin of 14 seconds.

While the race had started in misty conditions and a cool enough temperature, once the mist lifted there was a sense that it got a bit “warmer” and the committee boat contemplated a second race. However, as no-one seemed to be unhappy at the lack of a signal for a second race, and one prominent helm indicated that he wasn’t unhappy with just a single race after crossing the finish line, it seems that an early departure from the race area was a welcome call. Indeed, only one partially “bare-legged” Laser helm had suggested at the start of the afternoon that two races should be sailed!

The Mug winners on the day were Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy in the Hartley 12.2 in the Slow PY Fleet and Evan Dargan Hayes in a Laser 4.7 in the Laser fleet. Frostbiters are again reminded that there will be racing, weather permitting on Sunday 18^th March; the day after St Patrick’s Day.

After the zephyrs of last week, the breeze was back yesterday for the DMYC Frostbites and another fleet of 26 boats made the effort to get out and enjoy a brisk afternoon on the water. The wind was projected to be from the SSE with wind strength of 12 – 17 knots and that was how it appeared on the water. However, as we were rigging there was a great deal of whistling through the rigging! A five lap trapezoid curse was sailed under a sunny sky but a coolish air temperature. The beat traversed the harbour with a weather mark up towards the East pier and Marks 2 & 3 in the vicinity of the harbour mouth. Mark 4 was in the vicinity of the Block House on the West Pier.

Ten boats were on the start line for the Slow PYs with both KONA Windsurfers back in action. They managed to foul each other with both their skippers taking an early swim just off the start line. The majority of their fleet went left towards the harbour mouth with the exception of Pierre Long and John Parker (IDRA 14) who very early on were ploughing a solitary furrow up the right-hand side of the beat. This appeared to stand them in good stead as when the balance of the fleet came across to that side of the course, led by the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and Miriam McCarthy, the Wayfarer tacked underneath the IDRA into a leeward slot. The IDRA led the Slow PY Fleet around the weather mark chased by the Wayfarer and the Enterprise of Aidan Geraghty & Eilis O’Driscoll. Thereafter this correspondent lost the action as he has his own hands full racing a Fireball. However, in terms of finishing order the sequence was Wayfarer, KONA 2677 (Des Gibney), IDRA (Long & Parker), Enterprise (Geraghty & O’Driscoll) KONA 1989 (Robbie Walker) and the RS Feva XL of Conor Galligan. Schaeffer’s winning margin on the water of 2½ minutes was enough to hold onto first place on handicap, with the Feva going to second and the IDRA third.

Ten Lasers were on the start line with some single-handers returning from ski breaks in Europe. Others had the ambition of just trying to be ranked as a finisher in terms of the starting procedure having been ruled OCS for the past two Sundays. Interestingly, the banter in the changing room of the Royal St George after the racing was he number of capsizes that had been recorded in the race with at least one Laser helm owning up to two capsizes on the water. Conor O’Leary, back from a week on the white stuff, led the fleet home by 59 seconds from Mark Coakley who was followed home by Sean Flanagan, Chris Arrowsmith, Gavin Murphy, Shirley Gilmore (Radial), Michael Delaney and Hamish Munro. With a better PY for the Radial, Shirley Gilmore leapfrogged three places to record a third on handicap behind O’Leary and Coakley.

Tom Murphy in his K1 was the odd-man-out in the Fast PY as he was the only one not sailing a Fireball. Five Fireballs made the star and four of them went left towards the harbour mouth off the start line. Having watched the IDRA of Long & Parker steal a march in the Slow PY by going left, this correspondent persuaded his helm, Louise McKenna, to go right as well. She did and while they weren’t too far off the pace with the other four boats crossed them two-thirds of the way up the first beat that was as close as they got to them. When the four Fireballs crossed from left to right across the course, Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) were the furthest to windward and when they reached the starboard lay-line and tacked for the weather mark, they found themselves leading the fleet. However, by their own admission, post-race, they sailed the first reach of the trapezoid too deep and two of the chasing pack went over them – Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) went in to first and second respectively. Behind them, Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775) stayed ahead of McKenna & Bradley (14691). And on a day when Butler & Barry only needed a sniff of the lead they proceeded to romp away from the rest of the fleet, eventually winning by a 1:35 margin though it looked a lot more comfortable distance-wise on the water. Miller & Butler finished second passing Court & Syme when they went opposite ways on one of the subsequent beats. Despite the stiff breeze, spinnakers were flown on all the legs where they should have been. The wind direction was such that all the Fireballs sailed past Mark 2 to put in a gybe at Mark 3 for a tight reach under three sails to Mark 4. All the Fireballs saved their time on the K1 to give a finishing order of Butler & Barry, Miller & Butler, Court & Syme, Colin & Casey and McKenna & Bradley.

Across the whole fleet, the first two Fireballs took the fastest races time on corrected time, followed by the Wayfarer, another Fireball and the Laser of Conor O’Leary.

With six races completed the results are as follows;

Frostbites Director, Neil Colin announced at the prize-giving that there would be racing on Sunday 18^th March, the day after St Patrick’s Day.