For the fourth round of the Viking Marine-sponsored DMYC Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour, there were no surprises with the strength of the wind.
From early in the week, the projected windspeed was in single figures, and there was little variation in terms of direction. On the day, the question was whether it would stay steady direction-wise or would it turn through 180°, as advised by a late “on the morning” forecast. It had the Race Officer anxiously looking over his shoulder at the smoke from the incinerator to see if there were any tell-tale signs of change.
In the end, the forecasted change of direction didn’t materialise, and the wind stayed pretty steady direction-wise but faded as the afternoon wore on.
Initially, the wind strength was at 6 knots coming from a direction of 120° which allowed a three-lap Olympic course to be set, with a weather mark inshore of the obelisk on the upper wall of the East Pier, a gybe mark in the locale of the end of the East Pier and a leeward mark close to INSS’ green raft. However, while the wind was good enough at the start, it soon started its downward spiral and the committee boat abandoned its start position and motored (gently) to a position off the weather mark with an early intention of shortening after the second beat. However, in this new station, the RO decided, after consultation with the RIBS, that maybe we could squeeze another lap in.
The biggest fleet of the pre-Christmas series turned out with the ILCA6s boasting 23 boats, the PY Class 19 boats and the ILCA7s 10 boats.
ILCA7s
The 7s had their biggest fleet of the series thus far and had a clear start in the 5knots of breeze. The series leader, Theo Lyttle, didn’t have the best of starts, being tucked behind a few of his peers just off the committee boat. Gavan Murphy and Gary O’Hare had better starts in clear air, and these three led the fleet home with a finishing order of Murphy, O’Hare and Lyttle.
In overall terms, with five races completed, Lyttle (6pts) leads by two from Murphy with O’Hare 5pts adrift of Murphy.
ILCA6s
On a start line that was marginally too short for 23 ILCAs, the fleet got away cleanly, but only just. As the third start of the day, they had the least amount of wind to start, but by the time we got to the weather mark, they had started to infiltrate the 7s. Race 5 saw a partial return to the established pecking order with Sean Craig taking the win, followed by Daniel O’Connor, Conor Clancy and Owen Laverty, with Shirley Gilmore, Judy O’Beirne and Mary Chambers occupying the next three slots.
Sean Craig, DMYC Frostbite ILCA6 Frostbite Mug winner
In overall terms, Clancy (10) leads, with Gilmore (13), David Cahill (22), Justin Geoghegan (23) and O’Beirne (24) occupying positions 2 – 5.
PY Fleet
In a case of “you don’t know how good it is until it is gone” a high-profile Frostbiter, jokingly questioned the PY handicap of the two RS200s that finished second and third on the water behind the Fireball of Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775). The Tingles, Katie and Jamie, finished 0:56 behind the Fireball with Kenny Rumball, in a second RS200, a further 0:46 adrift. Noel Butler (Aero 6) was 6:07 astern of the Fireball and the IDRA 14 of Pierre & Remy Long finished 0:29 behind Butler. Rumball had led the fleet around the majority of the course, but I am not sure that he was leading at the first windward mark. He certainly led at the gybe and leeward marks but his spinnaker hoist at the second rounding of weather mark won’t have helped his cause. This allowed Colin & Casey to close and must also have helped the Tingles.
The RS200s each lost two minutes of their elapsed time on the water to take the first two places, with the Tingles winning by 0:44 on corrected time. In contrast, Colin & Casey had 2:13 added to their elapsed time, which relegated them to fifth on corrected time, with the Longs taking third and Butler fourth.
In overall terms, Butler still leads the PY fleet with 7pts on his scorecard, followed by Sarah Dwyer (Aero 6/14pts), the Longs (15), Brian Sweeney (Finn/18pts) and Alastair & Gordon Syme (Fireball/21pts).
Despite the fading wind, an attempt was made to get a second race underway with the wind keeping its direction, but for each start, there was that little bit less wind, and on seeing the ILCA6s come to a halt on their upwind passage to the weather mark and the balance of the fleet not doing much better going downwind, three sound signals were given, calling a halt to the proceedings.
At a pleasantly busy DMYC with Fireballs, Aeros, ILCA6s and ILCA7s in attendance post-race, two Frostbite Mugs were handed out – to Sean Craig for the day’s win in the ILCA6s and Theo Lyttle for previous wins in the 7s.
Absentees on the day were the winners in the ILCA7s and the PY Fleet.
Additional Class specific standings:-
Fireballs (9 boats): Court & Syme (5), Colin & Casey (8), Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (11), Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (11).
Aeros (10 boats): Butler (4), Dwyer (8), Stephen Oram (12.5).
