DMYC has announced that with ten days to the commencement of its annual winter Viking Marine sponsored Frostbite Series, the biggest mixed dinghy event in the country, it has received 95 entries, rapidly closing on the cap of 130 set by the Dun Laoghaire Harbour organisers.

The number has increased by 20 boats since Afloat's last Frostbite update just a fortnight ago.

Entry is online at www.dmyc.ie

Looking at the entry list, 40 ILCA 6’s (Radials) will make for a championship-level fleet and be sure to be very competitive. Equally, the Fireballs have 12 registered, and there is a very strong AERO fleet, even if it sub-divides on sail size, which will be interesting to see on the PY results where they will be racing. Looking back to last season, the overall results were dominated by RS Aeros benefiting from the tighter courses, whereas two-handed spinnaker boats needed bigger courses and longer race times to be able to make their time.

This year will see the reintroduction of the daily “Mug” Prizegiving, suspended last year due to pandemic concerns. The rule is, "you have to be there to collect” or wait until you are next entitled to one….. we keep a tight record of those who collect in each class to ensure fair distribution and no duplicate winners collecting", DMYC Frostbite organiser Neil Colin told Afloat.

"First gun 13.57 Sunday 6th of November, we look forward to the fun in the Harbour, and some of the best Dinghy racing in the country, during the “real” sailing season", Colin said.

The DMYC has announced its annual Viking Marine Dun Laoghaire Harbour Frostbite Series next month and already reached 75 out of a capped potential of 130 entries.

"The “real” sailing season is scheduled to commence on 6th November next, running through the coldest months until March 2023 with a week off for Christmas thanks to the generous sponsorship from our local chandlery, and kind permission of the Harbour Master", DMYC's Neil Colin told Afloat.

The format will follow the recent successful years, aiming to run at least two triangles or windward-leeward races in the harbour, starting at 2 pm, for all centre board dinghies, and potentially Kona boards.

Of entries received so far, the ICLA 6 (Radial) has already registered 29 entrants, and the Fireballs and RSAero are also registering a healthy entry.

This year will see the reintroduction of daily “mug” prizes for each class. Winners have to be present to collect their mug or wait until they are next entitled to win.

The final day of the 2021/22 Frostbites, sponsored by Viking Marine and hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club was bathed in sunshine from start to finish. Across Ireland and the UK we were bathed in sunshine (I was in N Ireland on the Saturday) and given that at one stage we went four Sundays without a race, to have a sunshine day for the Series conclusion was just reward for everyone’s perseverance. From early in the week the forecast had suggested we would have a genteel finish to proceedings and while the strength and direction of the wind for the first race of the day was NOT according to forecast, it didn’t prohibit starting of the race. Albeit we flew a postponement for a short period in case there had been any stragglers who had forgotten to change their clocks and watches overnight.

The wind was of the order of 5/6 knots as the committee boat took up station in the main part of the harbour, but it was much further northwards than had been forecast. Expecting a large fleet for the last day and with the weather we had, a triangular course was set for the first race with a start area set inside the transit from the gybe mark to the leeward mark – triangles make the recording a slightly easier task. The weather mark was set just off the red lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour with the gybe located towards the western breakwater and the leeward mark about 100m off the entrance to the marina and three laps were set.

Stephen Oram (L) (Aero 7) [3rd Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] and Ian O’Meara of sponsor Viking Marine

A modest fleet of 44 boats started the first race made up of PY (21), ILCA 7s (2), ILCA 4s (5) and ILCA 6s (16). All three starts got away cleanly at the first time of asking with a large number of all the starts going left initially. Frostbites Director, Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen (FB 14775) were first to show at the weather mark with their reddish spinnaker and they proceed to pull away from the rest of this fleet for the duration of this race.

Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5) [2nd Series 2, 5th Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC.

Behind them, the rest of the Fireballs were clustered but also in the mix, on the water was the Finn, the IDRA, the RS 400 and, of course, the Aeros.

Daniel O’Connor (ILCA 4) [1st Overall (Series 1 & 2)] with Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Colin’s elapsed time for the race was 33:28 and 1:16 ahead of the second Fireball of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14713) who had 5 seconds on Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854) on the water. Three minutes and thirty-one seconds later, the IDRA of Pierre Long and his son finished. Yet, on corrected time, Colin & Moonen dropped to 7th on handicap, losing out to the IDRA (Long), the Finn (Des Fortune), the K1 (Tom Murphy), the Aero 7 (Noel Butler) the Wayfarer (Monica Schaeffer) and the GP14 (David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne).

Conor O’Leary collects prizes for the ILCA 7s from sponsor Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Conor O’Leary took the ILCA 7s, while in the ILCA 4s who share the start with the 7s, the finishing order was Ava Ennis, Max Cantwell, Emily Cantwell, Zoe Hall and Dylan de Vreeze.

In the ILCA 6s Sean Craig led most of the way round to take another gun, followed home by Michael Norman, Conor Galligan, Conor Clancy and Brain Carroll.

Sean Craig (ILCA 6) [Winner Series 2] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC

By the second beat of this race, the wind has made a substantial shift to the east but given the space between the leaders and tailenders in the three fleets changing the weather mark during the race is well nigh on impossible. So, while another committee boat member finished the mid to late fleets, the Racer Officer reset the course, moving the weather mark closer to the obelisk on the upper deck of the East Pier, moving the gybe mark to a position close to the green lighthouse, leaving the leeward mark where it was. A three-lap Olympic course was then set for the last race of the Series.

Noel Butler (Aero 7) picks up a prize from the additional Christmas Race from Viking Marine’s Ian O’Meara

Again, all three starts got away at the first time of asking but in the ILCAs one of the younger competitors fell foul of one of the doyens of the Class and was obliged to take a penalty on the water for his efforts.

In the PY Class, Colin and Moonen dominated proceedings on the water, breaking out their spinnaker first and sailing away from the rest of the fleet. In the lighter winds of the mid-afternoon, the all-lady combination of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry were proving difficult to catch but weren’t able to lay a finger on Colin & Moonen, coming in just shy of two minutes after the leaders but 1:17 ahead of Miller & Cramer. On corrected time the three Fireballs finished 2nd, 10th and 14th respectively, with Colin giving 1:10 to the 2.4 of Patrick Hassett. Behind the Fireball there was the K1 of Tom Murphy, the Aero 7 of Noel Butler, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and the GP14 of Mulvin & Beirne. Special mention must be made of Noel Butler who finished his first day back with two 4th places after undergoing major (major) surgery in early February.

Frank Miller (FB 14713) collects the Fireball Class Trophy for the Frostbites Series Overall from Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

O’Leary scored a second ace in the ILCA 7s, the Cantwells Max and Emily led the ILCA 4s home followed by Zoe Hall, Dylan de Vreeze and Ava Ennis. And, in the ILCA 6s, Conor Clancy took the win from two ladies, Shirley Gilmore and Judy O’Beirne with the former winning by a “nose” with Sean Craig and Mark Henry closing out the top five.

As this is the concluding report of the 2021/22 Frostbites, there is a large number of results to declare, so they are in tabular form for ease of reading. 

 

As I was involved in hearing a protest that overlapped with the final prize-giving I am unable to give you the details of who got what, so I am assuming that prizes were awarded on the basis of the table above. I think there is an overall Frostbites prize but I would be wrong to speculate as to how it may have been awarded this year. I can confirm that Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine was present to hand over the prizes under the MC control of Frostbites Director Neil Colin and that Frank Guilfoyle deputised for current Commodore Ian Cutliffe who was unavailable due to illness.

As Race Officer for the Series and correspondent for the Frostbites, may I take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who give so freely of their time to run the racing. To try and name each of them would be dangerous, in that somebody could get left out, but for each Sunday there are at least 16 people who take to the water to provide the racing – 5 ribs with two people apiece and a committee boat of six. A seventeenth person helps with the computing of the results. A further three people help with providing soup and the bar in the DMYC after racing and the DMYC Boathouse crew makes sure everything is ready on a Sunday morning.

And to all those who were asked to sample my beats before racing began, my thanks as Race Officer.

Huge thanks must also go to Frostbites sponsor Viking Marine who were represented at the prize-giving by Ian O’Meara. As you will see from the photographs attached to this report, prizes took the form of glasses and vouchers for this prize-giving and Rick Tomlinson calendars for Series 1. While it might be easy to be blasé about having a yacht chandler on the doorstep of the four Dun Laoghaire waterside clubs, Ian and his staff provide a great service to the sailing community and the convenience of the shop makes life so much easier. Their sponsorship of the Frostbites is a very significant gesture and I would ask all of you to support them over the summer months as best you can.

I am going to revert to being a competitor for the next six months with a busy calendar ahead, including a Fireball Worlds in Lough Derg Yacht Club. I won’t be giving up the reporting though!
Best wishes to all for your summer sailing.

Cormac

Yet again, without there being a named storm in the vicinity of Ireland’s East Coast, the forecast from the middle of the week in advance of yesterday’s Viking Marine sponsored Frostbite racing in Dun Laoghaire wasn’t great. For the latter half of the week the forecast was for winds in the low twenty knots and gusts in the high twenties/low thirties. The Sea Area forecast at midnight on Friday and the hourly radio forecasts through Saturday, up to midnight on Saturday night (I was driving back from NI!) weren’t great. Indeed, the Regatta Director, on holiday for the past week WhatsApp-ed the Race Management Team on Saturday morning suggesting racing looked unlikely.
But, having had so many Sundays cancelled in 2022, we persevered in the hope that something might be possible. An early check (08:00) on Sunday morning suggested that maybe the wind was going to drop to mid-teens and low twenties in terms of base wind strength and gusts. And, from 09:00 onwards, the readings on Dublin Bay Buoy were showing 4knots gusting 15. A check with DMYC’s Polish helmed entry to the Spring Chicken entry for keelboats suggested that their race had started out windy but the wind strength had started to drop and then fluctuated up and down for the remainder of the trace.

Temperature-wise it was pleasant, apart from the odd sharp shower that blew over the harbour. A decision was taken that at least we had to try. And so, two races were sailed, each to the Olympic configuration, the first was three laps long and the second four laps.

In terms of the actual wind conditions, it varied from a low of 10knots to a high of 24.7knots, the latter recorded by a handheld about three-quarters of the way through the second race. A later check in at the DMYC clubhouse suggested that a 29-knot gust had been recorded in the same period on the harbour’s web-based weather recording site. There were capsizes during the afternoon and one ILCA lost its mast and in the Fireball part of the second PY race a lead was lost to a capsize twice – by different boats. However, despite the statistic that says a 29knot gust swept over the harbour there was no sense of a wipe-out of the fleet. Some spinnakers were not flown on the top reaches of the triangles, but it was more a case of discretion being the better part of valour.

Numbers on the water were down to a total fleet size of 36 boats, with the honours being split evenly between the PY Fleet and the ILCA 6 Fleet, each with 14 boats. The ILCA 7s and 4s had 3 and 5 boats respectively.
With the wind fluctuating around the 240° mark, the windward leg was the shortest part of the course from the harbour mouth to the windward shore, but two longer legs were set for the off-wind legs with the gybe mark set off the East Pier and the leeward mark just inside the end of the East Pier.

The Aeros and the Fireballs had their normal interclass challenge with the Fireballs leading on the water only to find that they lost out when the numbers were calculated back ashore. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (FB 14706) led this race from start to finish and were 1:46 ahead of the first Aero7 on the water. Yet they gave away time to the two Aero 7s and the Kona Windsurfer, another Aero 7 and the Finn were within 20 seconds of their corrected time.

Frostbites: Sunday 13th March; PY Fleet, Race 1.

In the ILCA 7s, Conrad Vandlik and Gavan Murphy enjoyed some close racing and Conor O’Leary after a late start closed the gap on them on the water.

In the ILCA 6s, Sean Craig led the fleet around the entire course, with Conor Flannigan and Marco Sorgassi chasing him all the way. Zoe Hall did well in the brisker breezes to hold off two male competitors in Daniel O’Conor and Donal Walsh.

Viking Marine Frostbites: Sunday 13th March

Race 1

PY Fleet, 14 boats
1. Paul Phelan
2. Brendan Foley
3. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme
4. Des Gibney
5. Mark Gavin
6. Des Fortune
ILCA 7s, 3 boats
1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Gavan Murphy
3. Conor O’Leary

ILCA 6s, 14 boats
1. Sean Craig
2. Conor Galligan
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Sean Flanagan
5. Stephen F.

ILCA 4s, 5 boats
1. Zoe Hall
2. Daniel O’Connor
3. Donal Walsh

Given that the first race had taken 47 minutes from first preparatory signal to last finisher, and that the wind was not getting dramatically stronger, a second race was signalled with a fourth lap added to the menu. I lip read a high-profile individual’s reaction to a fourth lap and then had him advise me, in polite terms, of course, that I should have due regard for his status in setting a four lap Olympic course. I hope he relented, in private, when on reading the corrected results, he found that he was in the top ten of the PY finishers with another credible result, carrying forward his momentum from the previous Sunday’s racing. As the weather mark couldn’t move any further upwind, the gybe mark was moved closer to the East Pier to give the course a bit more length.

For the Fireballs, the secret to success was staying upright. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) had a better start than in the first race and therefore gave Court & Syme (14706) more competition on the water. In the latter stages of the race, they went to opposite sides of the course having rounded the leeward mark in reasonably close company, but with Miller ahead. Out on the right-hand side of the beat Miller/Butler capsized giving the initiative to Court/Syme who converted their advantage to the length of the top reach. However, at the gybe mark they became a “cropper” capsizing under spinnaker and endured a number of “flip-flops” in trying to right the boat, thereby handing the race to Miller/Butler.

In all the ILCA classes the podium places were occupied by the same people, just in a different order. In the 7s, Gavan Murphy won it on the line from Vandlik with O’Leary not far behind, in the 6s, Craig took a second bullet but by no more than a couple of boat-lengths from Sorgassi. Hugh Cahill, a pandemic convert to ILCA racing from the Flying Fifteen fleet came in 6th, his best result to date (I think) behind the Conors, Galligan and Clancy and Sean Flanagan. And in the 4s the order was Daniel O’Connor, Donal Walsh and Zoe Hall.

Viking Marine Frostbites: 13th March

Race 2

PY Class
1. Brendan Foley
2. Des Fortune
3. Paul Phelan
4. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069)
5. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
Stephen Oram (Aero 7)
Miller & Butler’s elapsed time for Race 2 was 30:47 and converted to 32:20 on handicap, only good enough for seventh.

ILCA 7s
1. Gavan Murphy
2. Conrad Vandlik
3. Conor O’Leary

ILCA 6s
1. Sean Craig
2. Marco Sorgassi
3. Conor Galligan
4. Conor Clancy
5. Sean Flanagan
6. Hugh Cahill

ICLA 4s
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Donal Walsh
3. Zoe Hall

After 9 races and with two Sundays to go, the overall situation is as follows.

PY Class 50 boats registered.
1. Brendan Foley (13)
2. Paul Phelan (32) Both Aero 7s
3. Sarah Dwyer (36.5) Aero 5
4. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (41) FB 15093
5. Mark Gavin (42) Aero 7
6. Stephen Oram (48.5) Aero 7
7. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (56) Fireball 14713
8. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (61) Fireball 14706
9. Tom Murphy (66) K1
10. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (66) GP14 14069

ILCA 7s 15 boats registered
1. Conrad Vandlik (8)
2. Gavan Murphy (18)
3. Gary O’Hare (21)
4. Chris Arrowsmith (22)
5. Niall Cowman (36)

ILCA 6s 44 boats registered
1. Sean Craig (8)
2. Conor Clancy (33)
3. Conor Galligan (37)
4. Shirley Gilmore (38)
5. Marco Sorgassi (41)
6. Adam Irvin (47)
7. Sean Flanagan (49)
8. Justin Geoghegan (58)
9. David Williams (65)
10. Judy O’Beirne (66).

Within the PY Fleet there are 16 registered Fireballs and 11 Aero 7s, so an overall Series 2 has been scored for these two classes.

Fireballs – 16 registered boats
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (17)
2. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (17)
3. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (21)
4. Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (26)
5. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (37)

Aero 7s – 11 registered boats
1. Brendan Foley (10)
2. Paul Phelan (16)
3. Mark Gavin (22)
4. Stephen Oram (27)
5. Stuart Harris (40)

To conclude this report,

a) There will be “Frostbite style racing on Friday 18th, with a first signal at 13:00. A Notice of Race is available on the DMYC website. Entries to the Series 2 or overall Series are afforded free entry but the racing for “others” is accessible by way of a donation to the RNLI. (Check details in the NoR). Weather permitting, two or more races will be sailed. As off Monday 23:00 (as I conclude this report), the forecast for Friday is 11 – 16knots, SE, sunny with temperatures around 10/11°.

b) There are only two Sundays left in the Frostbites, 20th and 27th. I imagine, without specifically checking, that there will be a prize-giving.

The DMYC on the West Pier at Dun Laoghaire Harbour has announced a 'Pop Up' dinghy race for the Public Holiday on March 18th, in place of the weather-related, lost races in the club's Viking Marine Frostbite Series since Christmas.

The races will not count in the series results, but DMYC race mugs will be presented to daily winners.

The “Snakes Alive” Open Event will be held in the Harbour and details can be found here.

The race is free to registered entrants, non-frostbite entrants are encouraged to make a donation to RNLI, prior to participation.

Despite an intent to start a race, Mother Nature got the better of today's Viking Marine DMYC Dinghy Frostbites at Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Initially, the race area reconnaissance suggested a breeze in the order of 16.5 knots with gusts marginally in excess of that.

However, in the build-up to the start time the committee boat recorded a consistent 23-knots which was sufficient cause to cancel racing.

Three Fireballs, a collection of ILCAs, a GP14 and a few Aeros decided to go out and play for a while and DMYC's RIBs facilitated that for a short period.

Racing continues next Sunday.

Strong winds forecast for Sunday's DMYC Frostbites Race have led to the early cancellation of the Dun Laoghaire Harbour dinghy fixture.  

Gusts are forecast to reach 50 knots from the south-west for the afternoon in-harbour racing that has attracted a fleet of over 70 boats.

From late Thursday evening to as late as 10:00 on Sunday morning the prospects for the Viking Marine sponsored DMYC Dinghy Frostbites went through a series of iterations as to what might be possible. On Thursday the forecast was for a reasonable breeze but through Friday and Saturday the numbers on both XCWeather and Windy were taking on a distinctly red hue. It wasn’t so much that the base wind strength was the problem, more the gusts. During the course of Saturday, the projected wind strength was in the mid-teens, but the gusts were in the upper twenties and even the low thirties. Around 11:00 on Sunday, Dublin Bay buoy was recording 10 gusting twenty.

So, it was a slightly eerie sensation to see the flags in the Coal Harbour hanging limp from their flagpoles when the forecast suggested that racing might be in jeopardy. A decision was taken to try and get one race in and then play it by ear with respect to a second.

As with last Sunday, the wind was out of the south which presents problems with consistency but at least there was wind! A 3-lap Olympic was set wit the weather mark situated about 200m off the entrance to the marina, the gybe mark to the east of the ferry dolphins and the leeward mark just off the end of the West Pier. In the build-up to the start we had a number of gusts come through the race area, the highest of which was recorded at 23.9knots.

Participant level was down slightly on the previous Sunday, mostly I would imagine due to the forecast. The PY and ILCA 6s shared the honours in terms of fleet sizes with 20 boats each, and the breakdown of the PY fleet was 7 x Aero 7s, 1 x Aero 5, 6 Fireballs, the IDRA, the Kona Windsurfer, an RS 400, 2 x GP14s and the K1.

All three fleets had a clean start at the first time of asking and the dominant trend was to go left initially on the beat. The favouritism towards the left diminished as the race progressed to give a more even spread across the water.

In the PY Fleet, the Fireball of Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) was the first to fly spinnaker at the top mark but as the race progressed, he came under pressure from Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15106) with Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) lurking with intent a few boat-lengths away. Given the conditions one might have thought the Fireballs would have the advantage but a win on the water for Court & Syme of 36 seconds over the first Aero 7 turned into a deficit of 45 second on handicap, with another Aero 7 and the Aero 5 of Sarah Dwyer getting between the Fireball and the leading Aero 7. Mark Gavin led home the Aero 1-2-3.
In the ILCA 7s, with five boats, the finishing order was Conrad Vandlik, Gary O’Hare and Chris Arrowsmith, while in the UILCA 4s, the finishing order was Max Cantwell, Jessica Riordan and Daniel O’Connor in a fleet of 8 boats.

Fireball World caps arrived at the DMYC; L – R , Marie Barry, Ed Butler, Owen Sinnott, Cormac Bradley and Cariosa Power sporting the Worlds-logo branded caps for the August 2022 Fireball Worlds in Lough Derg.

In the 20-boat ILCA 6s, one senior member of the fleet was the last across the line, muttering that he had got his timing wrong. It didn’t seem to phase him as Sean Craig took the winning gun ahead of Conor Galligan, Marco Sorgassi, Adam Irvin and David Williams.

Race 2 saw a drop off in the entries as complicated capsizes, gear failure, temperature and tiredness (potentially) took their tolls. Three Fireballs dropped out, one GP14 was already ashore by the time the second start was underway, the second GP14 didn’t finish and the ILCA 6s lost a quarter of their fleet.

The wind had swung further eastwards so while the tailenders were being finished, the Race Officer reset the weather mark and gybe mark and another three-lap Olympic course was set.
Again, all three fleets got away cleanly and the feared wind that was forecast did not appear. Indeed, the sun came out again and those who had decided to stay out got another pleasurable race in. Yes, the upper area of the beat was fluky and there were shifts but when a southerly blows, that is the consequence.

In the PY fleet, the lead boat was an Aero 7, Brendan Foley, who shaved 1:37 off his elapsed time to have a one-minute win on handicap over the IDRA of Pierre Long and his son. Sarah Dwyer had another excellent race to finish third, giving her two podium places on the day. Stuart Harris, sailing under the burgee of Waterford Harbour Sailing Club was rewarded with a 4th to go with his 5th in the first race, while fifth went to Paul Phelan in another Aero 7. The first Fireball could only muster 9th place.

The ILCA 7s showed consistency with the same finishing order as Race 1 – Vandlik, O’Hare and Arrowsmith. In the ILCA 4s, the young ladies of the fleet showed their mettle with Ava Ennis and Jessica Riordan finishing 1st and 2nd respectively ahead of Daniel O’Connor.

In the ILCA 6s, former Fireball helm, Conor Clancy, led home the fleet followed by Adam Irvin, Marco Sorgassi, Sean Craig and David Williams. Another fleet stalwart, Shirley Gilmore claimed a second 6th place on the day.

Viking Marine Frostbites, Series 2, Round 5

Race 1

PY Fleet 20 boats

1. Mark Gavin
2. Brendan Foley (both Aero 7s)
3. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
4. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (Fireball 14706)
5. Stuart Harris (Aero 7)

ILCA 7s 5 boats

1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Gary O’Hare
3. Chris Arrowsmith
ILCA 4s 8 boats
1. Max Cantwell
2. Jessica Riordan
3. Daniel O’Connor

ILCA 6s 20 boats

1. Sean Craig
2. Conor Galligan
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Adam Irvin
5. David Williams

Race 2

PY Fleet 14 boats

1. Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
2. Pierre Long & Son (IDRA 14)
3. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
4. Stuart Harris
5. Paul Phelan (Both Aero 7s)
9. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (FB 14706)

ILCA 7s 5 boats

1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Gary O’Hare
3. Chris Arrowsmith

ILCA 4s 8 boats

1. Ava Ennis
2. Jessica Riordan
3. Daniel O’Connor
ILCA 6s 15 boats
1. Conor Clancy
2. Adam Irvin
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Sean Craig
5. David Williams.

An ever-present competitor in the Frostbites over many seasons underwent a (very) major procedure during the course of the past week that will see him off the water for a sustained period. I hope that as the Frostbite correspondent of recent years I can take the opportunity on behalf of the Frostbite community to wish him a full and speedy recovery and an early return to sailing.

Series 1 of the Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites hosted by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club closed yesterday in light and challenging conditions for the Race Management Team and the competitors alike. Having enjoyed very reliable winds for all of his sessions on the water to date, Race Officer Cormac Bradley had a different scenario to deal with yesterday, akin to the situation last Sunday.

Both XCWeather and the Windy App were predicting light N-Easterlies from midweek and so it proved, except that NE was just one of the directions the wind came from during the course of the afternoon. A north-easterly meant that the course would extend across the shorter dimension of the outer harbour with a weather mark situated in the area of the harbour mouth. The problem was that the wind was flicking between the Boyd Memorial on the upper wall of the East Pier to a position just west of the East Pier lighthouse – a distance of maybe 150 - 200m on the water. In the end the weather mark was situated between the Boyd Memorial and the weather station on the upper East Pier wall with the leeward gate situated upwind of the marine entrance.

A late decision to drop the weather mark just prompted another wild swing in the wind direction prompting the flying of a postponement flag and the re-setting of the course. However, it became apparent that the direction wasn’t going to settle and so, with all of the fleet in attendance a start sequence was initiated in the knowledge that it wasn’t an ideal course but in the spirit of giving a race to those who had made the effort to come out.

A two lap Windward-Leeward course was set, but that merely referred to the configuration of the ideal course, the wind making the first “beat” more of a two sailed fetch. Indeed, the subsequent leg for the spinnaker classes saw a few struggle to get down to the leeward gate. The wind direction moved constantly throughout the race, but I did witness some boats in upwind settings heading towards the weather mark. Strength-wise the “breeze” rarely got above 5 knots, though we did have a 7-knot reading during the start sequence.

With each start, the trick was to get onto port tack at the earliest opportunity and initially it looked as though it didn’t matter too much where that happened. An early tack by one of the Aero 7s looked as though it might pay huge dividends but by the weather mark, the GP14 of David Mulvin and Ronan Beirne (14069) was well up in company with Regatta Director Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen (14775). As they came back past the committee boat on their way to the leeward gate, there were more Aero 7s to the fore. All the fleets got away at the first time of asking.

The Fireball race within a race was dominated by Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen who went right up the first beat and found a reasonable breeze along the east pier side of the harbour. They were followed in the seven boat Fireball fleet by Louise McKenna/Hermine O'Keeffe (15016), Owen Sinnott sailing with Paul ter Horst (14865) and Cariosa Power/Marie Barry (14854). Taking up the rear with the other Fireballs were Frank Miller and Ed Butler (14713) who were caught napping too far upwind and were almost two minutes late for their start. Colin/Moonen appeared to have the two-lap w/l race in the bag but Power/Barry found wind on the final run and used the following breeze to slip inside the leaders by the final leeward mark to take the Fireball line honours from Colin. Miller/Butler were third Fireball having managed to claw their way past McKenna/O'Keeffe and Sinnott/ter Horst in the shifty and patchy wind. On PY Stephen Oram won on handicap in his Aero.

Viking Marine Frostbites 7th Round, Sunday 19th December

PY Class 22 boats.
1. Stephen Oram
2. Noel Butler (Both Aero 7s)
3. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP 14 – 14069)
4. Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
5. Roy van Mannen (Aero 5)
6. Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854)
7. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (FB 14775)
8. Pierre Long & son (IDRA)
9. Tom Murphy (K1)
10. Frank Miller & ed Butler (FB 14713)

ILCA 7s (Full Rig) 4 boats.
1. Conrad Vandlik
2. Chris Arrowsmith
3. Gary O’Hare

ILCA 4s (4.7s) 8 boats
1. Ava Ennis
2. Daniel O’Connor
3. Emily Cantwell

ILCA 6s (Radials)
1. Michael Norman
2. Archie Daly
3. Brendan Hughes
4. Sophie Kilmartin
5. Judy O’Beirne.

With discretion being the better part of valour, or the nautical equivalent, it was decided there was no real justification for a second race in the prevailing conditions and the fleet was sent to shore.
For Series 1 ten races were sailed with a total of four races lost to weather. On one weekend we had no racing at all and on two weekends we only had a single race. On that basis, two discards were available to all the fleets. Fleet totals in the section below reflect total entries relative to the 120-boat cut off declared before entries were opened.

PY Class 42 boats
1. Noel Butler 20pts
2. Mark Gavin 23pts
3. Brendan Foley 25pts
4. Stephen Oram 44.5pts (All Aero 7s)
5. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (FB 14713) 49pts
6. David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14 14069) 61pts
7. Pierre Long & Son (IDRA) 61pts
8. Roy van Mannen 65pts
9. Sarah Dwyer 74pts (Both Aero 5s)
10. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (FB 14775) 79.5pts

ILCA 7s (Full Rig) 15 boats
1. Gavan Murphy 12pts
2. Chris Arrowsmith 17pts
3. Gary O’Hare 36pts
4. Conrad Vandlik 40pts
5. Kei Walker 46pts
ILCA 4s (4.7s) 23 boats
1. Donal Walsh 24pts
2. Emily Cantwell 26pts
3. Daniel O’Connor 33pts
4. Ava Ennis 33pts
5. Brian Carroll 34pts

ILCA 6s (Radials) 43 boats
1. Brendan Hughes 14pts
2. Conor Clancy 40pts
3. Mark Henry 48pts
4. Archie Daly 53pts
5. Peter Kilmartin 54pts
6. Judy O’Beirne 56pts
7. Luke Turvey 68pts
8. Sean Flanagan 73pts
9. Hugh Cahill 80pts
10. Sophie Kilmartin 84pts.

Fireballs 14 boats
1. Frank Miller & Ed Butler 14713, 10pts
2. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen 14775, 24pts
3. Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe 15016, 28pts
4. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme 14706, 39pts
5. Owen Sinnott & Grattan Donnelly 14865, 40pts.

As the principal sponsor, Viking Marine provided Rick Tomlinson 2022 calendars as prizes to the podium finishers across all the Frostbite fleets and a similar token was given to the large group of volunteers required to make the Frostbites a viable regatta.

All those associated with the Frostbites, competitors and volunteers are encouraged to support Viking Marine as a thank-you for their sponsorship of this perennial series.

Readers of this column should also note that a “Christmas Cracker Race” will be held in the harbour on Monday 27th December as a charity fund-raiser for the RNLI. Viking Marine have again stepped up to provide some prizes for this event. Hosted by DMYC, the entry has gone live on their website this morning (Monday) and there should also be a piece on the Afloat website. This is an open entry to Series 1 & 2 Frostbiters and anyone else who is interested. A €5 entry fee applies to cover petrol costs and a link to make donations to the RNLI online is to be made available.

The race will be run on a PY basis on a course that will have marks situated around the harbour – not in Olympic, triangle or Windward-Leeward configuration – to maximise the spectator element. An upwind leg will be selected to the first mark and a F-flag will be used at the last mark, to be decided by the RO, to direct boats to the finish. In between, the intent is to sail laps of the harbour.

As this is the last Frostbite column for 2021, may I thank all the volunteers of the Race Management Team for their assistance in Series 1. Thanks to all the competitors who have contested the seven Sundays of racing. And most especially, thank you to Viking Marine for their generous sponsorship.

Happy Christmas to all! If I don’t see you on the 27th, we start Series 2 on the 2nd January 2022.

There is no doubt that weather forecasting has come a long way in that we can enjoy much earlier forecasts of what the wind is going to be doing – most typically seven days before the key date. This correspondent has often quoted a forecast from XCWeather in his reports and for the 2021 season, he has added the “Windy” App to his toolkit.

For Sunday 28th November, the early forecasting showed that while it would be blowing “hooligans” on the Saturday, by Frostbite time on the Sunday the wind would be down to 5/6 knots. And XCWeather and Windy were in agreement! From Thursday evening through Friday and Saturday this appeared to be the picture for Sunday afternoon. Then, on Sunday morning, XCWeather suggested 15 knots with gusts in the high teens. This was on the limit of wind strengths for the pre-Series briefing that we had agreed due to the ongoing Covid situation. On arrival at DMYC there was some “whistling in the rigging” but a handheld over the West Pier wall was suggesting 13 – 16 knots. Air temperatures were low in accordance with the forecast.

A final consultation with DMYC’s Neil Colin suggested that we would race one race and then review the situation. As the committee boat, “Goose” made her way out to the main part of the harbour it was obvious that there were more than the 13 -16 knots and on taking up station, just inside the harbour mouth, the handheld was showing gusts in excess of 20 knots of westerly blowing across the harbour. The base wind strength was 15/16 knots and so a radio consultation took place with rib crews and Neil Colin still on shore. By 13:40 a decision had been taken to proceed with racing but a Windward-Leeward of 3 laps was declared in view of the conditions. That was vindicated when the GP14 of David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne seemed to get upwind reasonably comfortably in the blustery conditions.

A weather mark was set well outside the wind-shadow of the western breakwater and a leeward gate was set up by attaching the marks to hand-buoys of the now vacated summer moorings. This gave a reasonable length of course for the 56 boats that answered the starter’s call. In the lead up to the first start countdown, the Fireballs were sporting spinnakers on the offwind leg and looking comfortable upwind. By this stage the high knot guts were less frequent, and the base wind was steady around the 15-knot mark.
A 22-boat PY fleet opened the proceedings with a healthy fleet of RS Aeros, a slightly reduced fleet of Fireballs, two Kona Windsurfers, the solitary K1, a solitary GP14, a couple of RS 200s and a couple of the double-handed Lasers. The Fireballs led on the water but were unable to do enough to save their time on handicap.

The ILCA 7s (full rig) had their regular seven starters, the ILCA 4s (4.7s) had nine boats to make up a single class of 16 boats and the ILCA 6s (Radials) had a start of 18 boats.

Viking Marine DMYC Frostbites 28th November 2021 (Round 4)

(Round 3 was cancelled due to high winds)

PY Class
1st Roy van Maanen (Aero 5)
2nd Noel Butler (Aero 7)
3rd Mark Gavin (Aero 7)
4th Stephen Oram (Aero 7)
5th Des Gibney (Kona Windsurfer)
6th Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (Fireball 14713)
7th Robert Walker (Kona Windsurfer)
8th Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
9th David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne (GP14)
10th Jemima Owens & Henry Start (RS200)

ILCA 7s
1st Gavan Murphy
2nd Chris Arrowsmith
3rd Conor O’Leary

ILCA 4s
1st Jessica Riordan
2nd Zoe Hall
3rd Donal Walsh

As the first race progressed, the blustery conditions subsided but the base wind stayed at the 15-knot mark. On that basis, a decision was taken to have a second race and the first triangular course of the Series made its debut. The wind direction had stayed fairly stable, so the windward mark was pushed further towards the western breakwater and a gybe mark was set about 100m downwind from the entrance to the marina. The remaining half of the leeward gate, after the removal of one mark to set the gybe mark, stayed as was.

In order to avail of the conditions a 3-lap course was set and a straw poll of boats sailing past the committee boat confirmed satisfaction with the first race and the decision to have a second.

For the PY Fleet, the Fireballs were to the fore again, on the water, but handicap-wise the results went to the Aeros. First-time starts were achieved by the PY fleet and the combined fleet of ILCA 7s and 4s but the ILCA 6s “blew” their first start and got away at the second time of asking under a “U” Flag.

PY Class
1st Noel Butler
2nd Robert Walker
3rd Roy van Maanen
4th Brendan Foley (Aero 7)
5th Stephen Oram
6th Paul Phelan (Aero 7)
7th Frank Miller & Neil Cramer
8th Kieran Harken & Michael Keegan (Fireball 14676)
9th Des Gibney
10th Jemima Owens & Henry Start

ILCA 7s
1st Gary O’Hare
2nd Gavan Murphy
3rd Chris Arrowsmith

ILCA 4s
1st Jessica Riordan
2nd Donal Walsh
3rd Brian Carroll

ILCA 6s
1st Archie Daly
2nd Brendan Hughes
3rd Mark Henry

While two boats had retired between the races, there was no on the water questioning of the decision to run a second race. So, on that basis, the decision to proceed seemed to have been vindicated. Always easier to go ashore under that assumption!