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From midweek, the forecast for this past Sunday of Viking Marine DMYC-sponsored Frostbite racing was favourable from a wind perspective – westerlies of the order of 10 – 12 knots but with a cool temperature. However, the latter wasn’t as cold as predicted though it was cool when the sun went behind a cloud, but when it was available to shine, there was a pleasantness about it.

The three fleets responded with good numbers, twenty boats in the PY Class with ten Fireballs on the water, twenty-five ILCA 6s and eight ILCA 7s. Yet again, there were no ILCA 4s on the water.

With the wind in this direction, a good length beat was available to the Race Officer (Cormac Bradley) and he placed the weather mark north of the entrance to the marina. The layer of the gybe mark asked for a bearing to put this mark in place, which he got, and situated it in the proximity of the (redundant) dolphins for the HySpeed ferry and a leeward mark was laid off the obelisk on the upper deck of the East Pier. The committee boat was situated a bit further upwind of the leeward mark to try and give the fleet more of a beat to the finish when that time came.

For the first race, all three fleets got away first time on a three-lap Olympic course. All three fleets chose a starboard tack start to get across to the shore side of the beat, with some early defections tacking to go right up the other side of the beat.

The windward mark layer expressed the view that those who had gone right early had benefitted but as RO it was encouraging to see the fleet spread across the width of the course halfway up the beat.

The Fireball fleet chases early race leaders (out of shot) round the weather mark. From right to left – Glen Fisher & Michael Keegan (14676), Jack McNaughton & Jamie Malcolm (14101), Paul & Morris ter Horst (14790), Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915) and the “pink ladies, Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016) Photo Ian Cutliffe

A cluster of Fireballs led at the windward mark and red spinnakers were to the fore – with the combination of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) identified as the leaders when sail numbers became legible. Others to feature here were Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (15167), Jack McNaughton & Jamie Malcolm (14101) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775). A three-sail reach evolved for the spinnaker classes on the top reach and it looked very exciting from my perspective. The second reach was a little more genteel but proved to be competitive as well. The Aeros were not far behind the Fireballs at the weather mark, but the spinnaker reach allowed the Fireballs to pull away on the water. Noel Butler (Aero 6) led the Aero charge and, on the water, he was followed by Stephen Oram (Aero 7) and Sarah Dwyer (Aero 6). Also well placed, though it was only after the handicaps were calculated that we knew how well, were the IDRA 14 of Pierre Long and son Remy and the Finn of Brian Sweeney.

Ciara Mulvey & Peter Murphy (GP 14 11111) [blue hull], Pierre & Remy Long (IDRA 161), Damien Dion (Aero 3431) and Sean Lillis and Stephen Hawkins (Wayfarer 10449) at the weather mark Photo: Ian Cutliffe 

While Court & Syme came home in 27:05 and a further seven Fireballs came home before Butler, the Aero 6 took the race win on handicap by 1:42, 26:45 to Court’s 28:27. Sarah Dwyer took second, followed by the Long’s IDRA, Sweeney’s Finn, Oram’s Aeros 7 and Court’s Fireball.

Eight ILCA 7s had a relaxed start with the line length set for the bigger classes and a conspicuous absentee in the form of Gavan Murphy. That allowed Conor Byrne to take the first race win, followed home by Chris Arrowsmith, Niall Cowman, Sean Bowden and Conor O’Leary.

The ILCA 6s with twenty-five boats had a busier start line, not helped by an “in to windward” capsize on the second row of the grid. A second boat got tangled up in the spill but both boats recovered to get away. A late starter in this fleet only just made the start and was managing a great recovery until he rolled to weather (I think) and got himself fouled wit the limit mark of the finish line. He did finish, but his early work was undone by this incident.
Sean Craig led the fleet home, followed by the Williams, Peter and David in second and third, with Darren Griffin fourth and Conor Clancy fifth.

Mother Nature was at her co-operative best and gave the RO no cause to alter the course for the second race. Instead, he added a lap to the race to take advantage of the weather. From a high of 12 knots, the wind was now in the range 7 – 9 knots and nobody seemed to have a problem with an extra lap.

The PY fleet had their copy book blotted by a General Recall triggered by over-enthusiastic Fireballs and they went to the back of the starting queue as a consequence. The ILCA 7s were fine and the ILCA 6s produced a very close call on their start but got away at the first time of asking.

In the ILCA 7s Conor Byrne did the double, but the sequence behind him changed with Bowden, Cowman, Arrowsmith and Roy McKay filling places 2 – 5.

There was speculative evidence in the ILCA 6 start that two boats were eyeing each other pre-start. When both of them have been on the water, in time for the start, they have enjoyed a close race and there was a slight sense that one was watching the other in the final countdown to the start. That suspicion manifested itself at the first leeward mark when one of the two led the fleet around with the other a boat away, but as the race proceeded the order of the boats changed and they finished with a third boat separating them.

Sean Craig led early on, but at the line Barry McCartin took the win with Peter Williams second, Craig third, followed by Darren Griffin and John O’Driscoll.

With three Sundays to go – 12th, 19th and 26th, DMYC posted overall results (Series 1 & 2) to their website and the top places in each fleet are detailed here. Given that Scotland – Ireland is playing in Six Nations on Sunday rather than Saturday, the plan is to race as per normal, and make a judgement call on the day relative to the start of the rugby.

Viking Marine DMYC Frostbite Racing overall resultsat March 5 2023

Frostbite Mugs would have been awarded had the recipients been there…… but they weren’t!