David Gorman's 'Fomo' was the winner of Race eight in the Flying Fifteen race of tonight's AIB Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) Thursday night series.
Neil Colin, who leads the Tuesday night DBSC Fireball series, was second in Ffuzzy with DMYC clubmate Ben Mulligan third in Enfant de Marie.
Unusually, the Flying Fifteen Thursday night fleet was small in size but for those who did get out, there was some very close racing…….at least for the majority of the participants. Conditions on site in Johnstown, some 40 minutes inland from Dun Laoghaire suggested that a sea-breeze might be in play as we baked in 20° + heat under blue skies, but the racing in Dun Laoghaire took place under grey skies and an initially brisk South-Easterly that started to fade shortly after the start.
Race Officer, John McNeally, set a course with long beats and downwind legs, using Battery and Bullock as the upwind extremities of the course and Harbour as the downwind extremity. Battery was a passing mark to be left to port en route to Bullough.
With an incoming tide the fleet was able to start close to the line and at the pin end were Dave Gorman & Michael Huang (4099), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028), Tom Murphy & Frank Miller (4057) and Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081). Taking an initial shoreside hike were Jill Fleming & Joe Coughlan (3913), Niall Coleman & daughter (4008) and Mick Quinn & Mary-Jane Mulligan (3960). Of the quartet at the pin end, Gorman and Mulligan vied for the best start with Gorman marginally ahead but to leeward of Mulligan. Colin was astern of Mulligan and slightly to leeward. Gorman pulled out on Mulligan and Mulligan took his medicine and tacked off to go inshore. Gorman and Colin persisted a bit longer with the offshore course before they too headed shorewards. At this stage it was difficult to say which side was the better, because when the fleet congregated at Battery, only Gorman had a margin of distance on the fleet. An over-sized blanket would have covered Colin, Mulligan, Murphy, Coleman and Fleming.
Gorman stretched his lead on the leg to Bulloch and was able to get around clear ahead. The others managed the tide at the mark in different ways with the sequence of rounding being – Colin, Coleman, Murphy, Fleming and Mulligan.
These five spread themselves across the downwind leg with Mulligan sailing an inshore route down the left-hand side and Colin sailing an offshore route. At various stages some of the others flirted with Mulligan on the left but none stayed the pace and Mulligan dragged himself back into the reckoning at the rounding of Harbour. From Harbour, everyone took an inshore hike and used this as the basis for the attack on the remainder of the long haul to Bulloch. Colin, Coleman, Murphy and Mulligan were playing various forms of cat & mouse with each other, before Mulligan bailed and went off to sea. At this stage Gorman could watch the chasing pack from a very safe distance.
The wind was easing at this stage and while Mulligan was getting lifted on starboard tack towards Bulloch, the boats inside him were still in the ascendency – Colin, Coleman and Murphy. Again, managing the tidal race around Bulloch was challenging and at least one boat underestimated the tide and lost ground to the others.
For the second run to harbour, Mulligan persisted in playing the left-hand side and for the second time it worked. The others were to his seaward side and in the final run-in to the mark, the quartet of boats could be covered by that same oversized blanket – Colin, Murphy, Mulligan and Coleman. The latter had a spinnaker that wouldn’t come down so we were left with a trio of boats heading inshore on port with Colin watching two boats and Murphy watching one!
Murphy & Miller worked very hard to make sure Mulligan didn’t sail through their weather, so Mulligan bailed. A few hitches later, the three boats came together again with Mulligan in the weather slot. At this stage it was reasonable to set a final course for the finish situated on the Scotsman’s Bay side of the harbour entrance. With a final throw of the dice producing a six, fresh breeze arrived from Dalkey island which allowed Mulligan to pinch 3rd place on the line behind Colin and only just ahead of Murphy. Gorman, of course, was long gone!
DBSC Flying Fifteens, Thursday 16th June
1. David Gorman & Michael Huang (4099)
2. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (4028)
3. Ben Mulligan & Cormac Bradley (4081)
4. Tom Murphy & Frank Miller (4057).
Overall: (Eight races, two discards): Colin (13), Keith Poole (16.5), Gorman (22), Mulvin (26.5), Mulligan (29)
See full DBSC individual and overall results in all classes below.
Three live Dublin Bay webcams featuring some DBSC race course areas are here
