As one season draws to a close….another beckons! On a day when the forecast and the wind data from the Dublin Bay buoy prompted the Flying Fifteens to initially contemplate an opening race in their Frostbite Series inside the harbour only for the actual data to cause the total cancellation of racing, a team from the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club completed the penultimate activity of the summer season – lifting boats out of the water at their club site. Next weekend, the exercise will be repeated in the Coal Harbour to put the final nail in the 2025 summer sailing season.
With careful planning and manipulation of boats hanging off the jib of a sizeable crane, a team of dedicated volunteers, including flag officers, under the management and direction of Boathouse Captain, Denis Nolan, repopulated the lower dinghy park with keelboats and parked another five boats in the upper dinghy park.
After a 07:30 briefing on the Method Statement, and the lower dinghy park full, DMYC staff members provided sustenance for the volunteers with a mid-morning breakfast of bacon and sausage butties with biscuits, pastries and a special “lift-out cake” baked by one of the boat-owning wives – a long-standing tradition for this activity. Later, after the conclusion of the lift-out, a warm dinner and refreshments were available to all the volunteers.
The final lift-out takes place with a similar timetable next Sunday.
Viking Marine sponsored DMYC dinghy Frostbites starts on November 2nd Photo: Frank Miller
In two weeks’ time, we embrace the winter sailing season, with the first Sunday of the Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites down for November 2nd. To date (Monday 20th), we have 55 entries, broken down as follows:-
- ILCA 6s: 22 boats
- ILCA7s: 6 boats
- ILCA 4s: 5 boats
- Fireballs: 6 boats
- GP14s: 4 boats
- Aero 6s: 4 boats
- Aero 7s: 4 boats
- RS200: 2 boats
- 29ers: 2 boats.
While this is encouraging, at two weeks out, there is room for more boats to enter. There is at least one interesting entry, by a double-handed combination, that will set the cat among the water-bound pigeons when racing gets underway!
On the first Sunday, we will be joined by six International & DBSC 12-footers who have asked us to host their Nationals, after unsuccessful attempts at two other clubs earlier in the season. Championed by Vincent Delany, these single or double-sailed boats will have a separate, fourth start, after the normal sequence of Frostbite starts and will race the same number of races. They will be subject to the same Sailing Instructions as the Frostbite fleet.
The International & DBSC 12-footer National Championships will be held as part of the DMYC Frostbites
Vincent advises that the single-sailed variety was sailed in the 1920 and 1928 Olympics, and the two-sailed version has a modified foredeck adapted in the 1960s for Dublin Bay conditions.
