The DBSC SB20 fleet had champagne sailing conditions on Dublin bay last Sunday. 8 boats lined up for 3 fantastic windward leeward courses set by Con Murphy of the National Yacht Club. Davy Taylor onboard Yachtsman.ie with a 2nd, 1st, 2nd had the best results of the day. Davy below describes the 3 races.
Race 1 saw most of the fleet starting at the committee boat end of the line in search for pressure on the right hand side of the course. Probably (Mark Nolan, Ian Simington & Gavan Murphy), positioned in the middle of the line were the quickest to make gains following the gun. After dealing with shifty conditions on the first beat, Yachtsman.ie (Davy Taylor, Marty O'Leary, Lisa Neary & Rachel Williamson) lead the fleet into the windward mark followed by Bad-Kilcullen (Stefan Hyde, Jerry Dowling & Jimmy Dowling) and Venuesworld.com (Ger Dempsey, Chris Nolan & Rory Groves). For the first downwind leg, the fleet returned to the right side of the course for more breeze. The fleet split at the leeward gate and boats who favoured the port mark gained an advantage on the rest. Bad-Kilcullen made their second windward mark rounding in first place followed by Yachtsman.ie and Sin Bin (Michael O'Connor, Owen Laverty & Kevin Johnson). The final downwind saw a final attempt from the fleet to take the lead position from Bad-Kilcullen without success. Crossing the finish line in first was Bad-Kilcullen, 2nd Yachtsman.ie and 3rd Sin Bin.
In race 2 the breeze shifted slightly right and all boats hovered around the starboard end of the line. An overly eager fleet led to a general recall (hats off to James Gorman on Bango for being the only boat not over the line). A quick pin reset and the boats were off again. A square line allowed for a good start apart from Sin Bin getting dizzy for fouling Yachtsman.ie and both boats giving the fleet a head start. For the first beat, the fleet went left and Yachtsman.ie went right, benefitting from a wind shift which saw the fleet under Yachtsman.ie's boom at the top of the course. Venuesworld.com slipped into a very close first at the windward mark followed by Yachtsman.ie and Bango (James Gorman, Ted Laverty & Henrik Olerud). Bango gained from an early set over Yachtsman.ie rounding the spreader mark. The fleet headed right with Yachtsman.ie gybing off for pressure. All of the fleet lined up for the leeward mark on port apart from Yachtsman.ie who came in on starboard getting around the port mark in front of the pack. For the next windward leg, the fleet played the unrelenting shifts and on the second downwind leg Yachtsman.ie repeated the gybe set routine in search of more pressure on the right hand side of the course. This didn't pay however, and Sin Bin and Bad-Kilcullen caught up at the finish with Yachtsman.ie winning by seconds over Sin Bin in 2nd and Bad-Kilcullen just pipping Bango on the finish line for 3rd.
The start line for Race 3 had a slight port bias but most boats chose the committee boat to begin. Sin Bin won the first windward leg profiting from stronger pressure on the port side of the course. They had a good lead over Yachtsman.ie in second and Venuesworld.com in third. Most of the fleet gybed early for pressure on the first downwind leg chasing Sin Bin. The fleet then split at the leeward gate and in challenging shifty conditions, the lead changed hands between the top 4 boats with Sin Bin eventually slipping back into first. There was a decrease in wind for the final downwind leg and an early gybe for pressure by Venuesworld.com and Yachtsman.ie allowed the two boats jump into 1st and 2nd as they reached the leeward gate. Crossing the finish line was 1st Venuesworld.com, 2nd Yachtsman.ie and Sin Bin 3rd.
Great to see Bob Hobby and his crew on Smoke on the Water back in action for their first sail of the season and Michael Galvin who normally does front on Seriously Bonkers helming. It was also great to see Ted Laverty back on the water for the first time since the birth of his first child.
This Sunday sees the final 3 races of series one taking place. Bad-Kilcullen hold just a one point lead over Sin Bin with Bango back in third & Venuesworld.com in fourth.
