Another benign Sunday for Viking Marine DMYC dinghy Frostbites! With the BBC Weather forecasts on Thursday and Friday suggesting that one high pressure system was going to move away from Ireland………to be replaced by another high-pressure system, the forecast for this past Sunday was for more light winds and higher than average temperatures. Usually, this column makes reference to the XCWeather App in terms of making decisions for Sunday racing, but on the basis of lessons learned from a presentation by John Leech at the Race Officials' Conference in Galway Bay Sailing Club on the Saturday, the forecast that should be the primary reference for events in Irish waters is Met Eireann. And on that basis, Met Eireann was suggesting light winds for the East Coast and XCWeather was predicting 5 – 7knots from a westerly direction going northwards as the afternoon wore on.
Arriving at DMYC, the forecasts seemed to have got it right though XCWeather might have been a couple of knots shy.
Fifty-three boats turned out for the first race of the day, a three-lap Windward-Leeward set in accordance with the prospect of a shifting breeze. Wind was at 8/9 knots from a westerly direction and from the Committee Boat it stayed reasonably steady from a direction perspective. Competitors would advise otherwise at the end of the afternoon, but nobody was actually complaining, just making an observation. The weather mark was set about halfway along the western breakwater from the outer end to the joint with the West Pier with a spreader mark. The leeward gate was set on the fringes of the swinging moorings off the East Pier with one of the two marks tied to a hand-buoy. And, having placed the committee boat poorly the previous Sunday, this was set with ample navigable water around both ends of the line.
Paul Phelan in an Aero 7 at the weather mark at the Viking Marine DMYC dinghy Frostbites Photo: Alyson Orr
Day 2 of Series 1 and the fleets have already upped their comfort zone in terms of the starting line. The PY fleet had a very tight start relative to the line, but they just about managed to "stay legal" though some of the single-handers were very, very close. While the Aeros were prominent on the line, the first boats to show at the weather mark were all carrying spinnakers, with a procession of Fireballs led around by Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915). For the second Sunday, Nicole Hemeryck & Michael Keegan (14676) were also at the head of the fleet, and this has all the making of a very competitive combination, certainly in the winds experienced to date. Another new combination in 14641, Alan Blay & Hugh McNally, of "significant GP14 and Flying Fifteen stock" with Hugh the current Flying Fifteen Nationals winning crew (with Shane McCarthy) and Alan being a topflight GP helm, are starting to look comfortable in this company. And, another combination GP14 stalwarts in Alan Leddy (crew) and Norman Lee (14143), were also well up the pecking order on the water.
The Aeros have been joined by a longstanding Fireballer, Neil Colin and making his 2024 Frostbites debut on the second Sunday was Roy van Maanen.
The Fireballs enjoyed leading the PY fleet around the three-lap course with Miller & Cramer having a comfortable lead throughout, finishing in a time of 31:34. Four more Fireballs finished with 1:41 minutes of the lead pair in the form of Hemeryck & Keegan, Blay & McNally and the all-lady combinations of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (15019). Lee & Leddy (GP14) had a finish time of 36:54. Stephen Oram (Aero 7) led the single-handers home in 34:35 with Noel Butler the first of the Aero 6s in 35:23.
However, on corrected time, the finishing order was Butler (32:06), Lee & Leddy (32:26), Oram (32:36), Sarah Dwyer (Aero 6) (32:37) and Roy van Maanen (32:40). Miller & Cramer had a corrected time of 33:03.
In the ILCA 7s, John Marmelstein led the nine-boat fleet the whole way round to finish ahead of Niall Cowman and Conor O'Leary. In the 6s, Sean Craig also had a lead over twenty-one other 6s that lasted the whole race followed by Harry Dunne, Conor Clancy, Brendan Hughes and Darren Griffin.
As the end of the first race approached, the sense was that the wind was starting to comply with the forecast and swing northwards. Fortunately, it still had its strength, so while others manged the finish of Race 1, the RO re-jigged the course to match the swing in the wind. The weather mark moved closer to the end of the West Pier, a gybe mark was located just north of the dolphins of the former ferry berth and the starboard half of the leeward gate, tied to a hand buoy, stayed in place for the leeward mark.
By the time the second race got underway, the wind strength had gone up a couple of knots and throughout the race there were instances where it got as high as 14 knots. However, the afternoon high was a gust of seventeen knots which impacted some of the tailenders on the course and some who were on their way home.
The PY fleet got away cleanly at the first time of asking and in the stronger breeze enjoyed great three sail reaches on the triangle part of the four-lap Olympic course. The Fireball contingent was joined by Barry McCartin and Harry Thompson sailing Barry's former boat (15114) which, after a sojourn to the UK, has been brought back to Ireland by the Thompson brothers, Daniel and Harry. McCartin & Thompson 37:05) romped around the four-laps to win by a 1:16 margin over the consistent Hemeryck & Keegan who squeaked ahead of Blay & McNally by six seconds at the finish with Power & Barry nine seconds further back. In contrast, the handicap "front-runners" of the fleet were home in 39:46 (Butler), 39:56 (Paul Phelan)(Aero 7), 41:34 (Roy van Maanen) 41:57 (Lee & Leddy) and 42:22 (Neil Colin) (Aero 6).
On handicap, in the committee room afterwards, the finishing order was established as Butler (36:05), Lee & Leddy (36:52), Phelan (37:38), van Maanen (37:43) and Colin (38:27). McCartin & Thompson's corrected time was 38:50.
There has been some discussion pre-Series on the relative handicaps of the Aeros and Fireballs and it is not a new discussion. Last year, the same issues were aired and we checked PY Numbers for events similar to the Frostbites in the UK, admittedly in smaller waters. While the numbers used in both fleets were the same, the freshwater Aeros in the UK don't appear to enjoy the same handicap success in the mixed boat fleets. Of particular interest this weekend then is the performance of the GP14 relative to the Aeros and Fireballs, with Norman Lee and Alan Leddy scoring two seconds relative to the Aeros and the Fireballs, where Miller & Cramer had a 7th and a 16th, Hemeryck & Keegan had 2 x 12th places and Blay & McNally had 2 x 13th places on corrected time. And this on a day when the offwind legs, certainly in Race 2, were ideal for the spinnaker boats.
Both the ILCA7s and the 6s had a General Recall for the first attempt at a start and they paid the price by losing a lap of the proposed 4-lap Olympic course. They might argue it save them time on the water. In the 6s, Sean Craig seemed to be enjoying a repeat of his first race by leading for a long portion of the race. However, as this fleet approached the leeward mark for the last time it was apparent that something had gone awry – he had been overtaken by not one, but two boats! The overall 1-2-3 for the race remained the same but places changed, with Conor Clancy and Craig exchanging their places form Race 1 with Harry Dunne holding onto second. Regatta-wise, over two races, all three would have four points at the end of the day.
To highlight the consistency that can be found in the ILCA fleet, two ILCA6s enjoyed a symmetrical day on the water – Judy O'Beirne had 2 x 7th places, while Shirley Gilmour scored 2 x 10th places.
The 7s only had one boat that remained in the top three for Race 2 – John Marmelstein who led from start to finish. The fleet freshened up the other podium places with Matteo Valentini second and Hugh Delap third. While the 7s have the smallest fleet, they seem to enjoy tight racing with some tight one-on-one situations being enjoyed by the observers on the committee boat.
After four races completed, on programme thus far, the leaders across the fleets and classes are as follows;
Viking Marine Frostbites, hosted by DMYC.
ILCA 7s
John Marmelstein, 11pts
Hugh Delap, 13pts
Matteo Valentini, 17pts
ILCA 6s
Sean Craig, 6pts
Conor Clancy, 11pts
Darren Griffin, 16pts
PY Fleet
Noel Butler (Aero 6), 7pts
Sarah Dwyer (Aero 6), 16pts
Stephen Oram (Aero 7), 20pts
FB Fleet
Nicole Hemeryck & Michael Keegan (14676), 10pts
Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915), 12pts
Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (15016), 13pts
Aero Fleet
Noel Butler, 6pts
Stephen Oram, 13pts
Sarah Dwyer, 13pts.
At the daily prizegiving in the DMYC Clubhouse, Frostbite Mugs were awarded to;
- Noel Butler – Race 1, PY Fleet
- Alan Leddy & Norman Lee – Race 2, PY Fleet
- Hugh Delap – Race 2, ILCA 7 (John Marmelstein not present to collect for first race of the day.)
Noel Butler - PY Race 1 winner at the 2024 Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Conor Clancy, ILCA 6 Race 2 winner at the 2024 Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Alan Leddy (L) & Norman Lee with Race Officer Cormac Bradley (centre), PY Race 2 winners at the 2024 Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Hugh Delap - ILCA 7 Race 2 winner at the 2024 Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
