#fireball – The gales of the last two Frostbite Sundays disappeared towards the end of last week which meant that racing was a distinct possibility as the weekend arrived. And so it turned out that 11 Fireballs were able to get on the water for the first time in three weeks. The winds however, were replaced by continuous rain, as predicted on the BBC forecast the night before, a blanket of rain coming in on Saturday night and covering the country throughout Sunday.

Another sporting event in Dublin, also subjected to rain, may have influenced the numbers on the water, because while the Fireball fleet was a respectable size, the overall sense was that the other fleets were smaller.

Rigging up in the harbour there was the sense that while the base wind strength was very manageable, there were much stronger gusts coming through as every so often the rigging in the adjacent boats started whistling as the breeze got up.

Looking at the Dun Laoghaire Harbour website this morning, as I was on the water yesterday, the record shows that we sailed in 12 knots of WNWesterlies that swung to the north by 15º as the race progressed. The website also recorded gusts of more than 20 knots in the hour duration of the race and while the thermometer might have been recording temperatures of 6.5º C, it felt quite a bit colder than that!

With the committee boat sitting off the east pier the conventional wisdom was to go right on the beats. Off a clean start, that's the direction that Kenny Rumball and Dave Moran (15058) took. Their closest rivals, Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) went left initially, but of the group that went that way they were almost the closest to the committee boat, the exception being Cariosa Power and Marie Barry (14854) who were marginally to weather of them. Conor and James Clancy (150**) were also going left as were the author, with Louis Smyth (15007), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) and Mick Creighton and Joe O'Reilly (14937).

About two thirds of the way up the beat there was a three-boat meeting of port and starboard tacked boats which left two crash-tacking and led to the first retirement of the day – Creighton & O'Reilly.

At the first weather mark the "usual" three boats were in close company – Rumball/Moran, Butler/Oram and Clancy/Clancy, with Team Clancy slightly behind the other two. The next group consisted of Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14953), Miller/Donnelly and Smyth/Bradley with a strong gust at the weather mark making rounding and hoisting a lit bit more "helter-skelter" than normal.

The combination of breeze and good angles on the two spinnaker legs meant that these legs were fast 3-sail legs. As the race progressed, the two bunches of boats stayed within their respective confines; Butler and Rumball always keeping an eye out for the other, Clancy waiting to pounce should either make a mistake.

A windward capsize early into the third beat caused the author to lose track of what happened to the leaders on the third beat, but by the time we rounded our third weather mark, the leaders were close enough to each other that a slightly oversized blanket would have covered the pair of them as they approached their last leeward mark (4th rounding). Butler had the inside berth and controlled the rounding to protect his lead into the very short hitch to the finish. Clancy took third with Doyle/Sweeney 4th and Miller/Donnelly 5th. This latter performance gave the pair the day's Mugs. With the pressing engagement of a rugby match with a 3pm kick-off, the decision to set a four-lap race was probably more influenced by rugby than weather, but in truth nobody was complaining. In addition to the early retirement from the first beat there were three other retirees, Smyth/Bradley and Power/Barry being two.

The rugby result didn't help the mood of those who hadn't had a good day on the water, but getting out for a sail was a good afternoon given the weather conditions of the past two Sundays.

 

 

 

 

* Provisional – haven't confirmed this on the score-sheet.

There was no Frostbite racing last Sunday, 3rd February, but Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran went out sailing and their "adventure" was videoed (above) by Calum Paterson, a Frostbite sailor racing a Laser Vago and a colleague of Kenny's at the Irish National Sailing School.

#fireball – A second Sunday in succession of the Frostbite Series was lost to high winds yesterday when an adverse forecast and blustery conditions made racing a victim of the weather. Having enjoyed Sunday racing every weekend since the end of October, it is unusual to have lost two Sundays in a row. It is also very unusual to have such a sustained period of heavy winds, and the suggestion is that they will be around for another few days at least. While there is bright sunshine in Dublin Bay this morning, the sea is covered in white horses with a stiff breeze coming out of the West. The Dun Laoghaire Harbour website is recording a steady 17 knots with gusts in excess of 30 knots.

So maybe the time has come to detail what the Irish Fireball Class has planned for the summer season of 2013.

With Easter early, the regatta season will be preceded by what is becoming the traditional opener for our season – a weekend training session by Adam Bowers, RYA Coach, World Champion sailor, excellent teacher and raconteur. This year the training weekend will be hosted by the Royal St. George Yacht Club over the weekend of 20/21 April. Adam has a preference for working with multiple boats in a fleet scenario and rounds off the teaching side of things with a 3-race regatta, back to back racing with no discard. The idea is to hone the skills that have been the subject of the weekend.

By early May the season should be well underway with DBSC racing on Tuesday nights. Our first away event will be the Open Championship, which will be hosted by Killaloe sailing Club. In a departure from the normal format this will be a one-day event with three races with the added incentive of sailing Killaloe's Spring Challenge on the Sunday. The Spring Challenge is a distance race sailed on handicap (if my recall is correct). A past winner of this event from outside the Killaloe community but a member of the Fireball fraternity is Mike Murphy from Waterford.

In June we travel northwards to Carlingford Lough and the host club of Carlingford Lough Yacht Club on the northern shore. The Fireball fleet has a long tradition of going to these waters – I still remember Adrian and Maeve Bell sailing the Fireball there (and their Enterprise before that) on these waters and our last visit was in 2008, which coincided with the club's 50th Anniversary. We also enjoy excellent hospitality here and with it being a "skip" across the border we are confident that we will get good numbers travelling over the weekend of 15/16 June.

July will be a busy moth with the Class supporting the 4-day Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta, hosted by the four Dun Laoghaire clubs every alternate year. Fireballs have been extended an invitation for all of the preceding editions of this event which had its inception in 2005. It will host boats from Class 0 all the way down, in size, to the Water Wags, a local design that has cult status here in Dun Laoghaire. The Dinghy fraternity will have their own dedicated course in Dublin Bay for the four-day, ten race event.

A ten-race series will allow the fleet to tune up for the Nationals which will be hosted in Skerries on the weekend immediately following the Volvo event. Skerries has been a stronghold of Fireball sailing over a long period of time and in 2000 hosted the Fireball Europeans.

At the end of July, the UK Fireball Nationals may prove to be an attraction for the Irish Fireball fleet. Due to be hosted in Looe, in Cornwall, over the end of July/start of August, the venue hosted the 2012 GP14 Worlds over a very breezy week.

A break of almost a month between domestic events precedes the Fireball Leinsters which will be hosted by the DMYC on August 17/18. Then it is off to sunny Slovenia for a two-week sojourn and the Fireball Worlds, before returning to autumnal Ireland and the season closing Fireball Munsters to be hosted by Lough Ree Yacht Club outside Athlone, over the last weekend of September. We haven't been to Lough Ree for a few years but we had a day blown out after one race the last time we were there. Great sailing waters with only a short distance to sail to get to the racing area!

While it might be argued that the Fireball fixture list is very concentrated on the East Coast, with only two inland venues on the roster, the reality is that we are a) trying to concentrate on clubs which already have Fireballs in residence and b) trying to cut down on travelling in order to keep the costs down. In recent years the Nationals, in particular, have gone west and south, but there isn't quite the same appetite for the more distant locales and by keeping the events closer to home we can cut down on travel costs, accommodation costs and time away from work. Carlingford Lough can be accessed by an early morning start on the Saturday and Killaloe and Lough Ree offer a similar advantage in terms of departure times.

 

Irish Fireball Regatta Roster 2013
April 20/21	Adam Bower’s Training weekend	Royal St. George Yacht Club
May 11/12	Open Championship & Spring Challenge	Killaloe Sailing Club	Travellers’ Trophy
June 15/16	Ulster Championships	Carlingford Lough Yacht Club	Travellers’ Trophy
July 11 - 14	Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta	Dun Laoghaire Combined Clubs
July 19 - 21	Fireball Nationals	Skerries Sailing Club	Travellers’ Trophy
July 27 – Aug 4	UK Fireball Nationals	Looe, Cornwall, UK.
Aug 17/18	Leinster Championships	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	Travellers’ Trophy
Sept 9 - 20	World Championships Regatta	Portoroz, Slovenia.
Sept 28/29	Munster Championships	Lough Ree Yacht Club.	Travellers’ Trophy

 

 

 

#fireball – Has it really taken the Fireball dinghy 51 years to become an overnight success in Dun Laoghaire? Not at all. They've been hugely successful here before. But there's undoubtedly a renaissance under way, and a very special re-invigoration it is too.

It was in 1962 that innovative designer and technologist Peter Milne eventually finalised the concept for a novel 16ft racing dinghy evolved from the classic American Class A Scow. By 1995 it was thriving to such an extent globally and in Ireland that the 1995 Fireball Worlds in Dublin Bay attracted 85 entries from 13 countries.

The winners of both the Europeans and the Worlds were the home talents, two young fellows from the National Yacht Club called John Lavery and David O'Brien. Wonder where they are now....probably stalwarts in some suburban bowling club. Yet in the 18 years since that Irish high point, the class at one stage almost faded completely from view, but now it is the hottest ticket in town.

Somehow, it has remained a novel boat concept ever since it was first conceived, and its minimalist and economical image fits perfectly with the needs of performance sailors in this era of acute recession. In the current winter season, the class's thriving frostbite series in Dun Laoghaire is attracting fleet numbers that other boat types would die for in summer, with an esprit de corps to match.

Minimalist boat, maximized sport – the Fireball is providing a cheerful and effective response to our recessionary times

The Irish Fireballs also have a busy summer programme, but there's another aspect to the class which makes them even more special. They're a hotbed for the growing number of sailors who are keen on the expanding two-handed classes which have become such an important feature of each summer's main offshore races.

Currently, the Dun Laoghaire Fireballers who have made the strongest mark on the two-handed international scene are Andy Boyle and Barry Hurley. Together, they were to win the double-handed division with Barry's JOD 35 Dinah in the Middle Sea Race at the end of October. But before that, Andy became part of an even bigger picture when he successfully stepped into a last-minute vacancy to partner Nick Martin on his J/105 Diablo J in the Round Ireland Race in June.

They won the two-handed class round Ireland, and placed 9th overall, a formidable performance. This then placed Diablo J nicely on track to win the two-handed division in the RORC's season-long points championship overall. And at the RORC's annual prize-giving in November, this all became stratospheric as Diablo-J was acclaimed Yacht of the Year.

So when you race with the Dun Laoghaire Fireballs these days, you're crossing tacks with guys who have taken on the best on the high seas, as other sailors include Brian Flahive who double-hands with Liam Coyne on the First 36.7 Lula Belle which – like Diablo-J with Nick Martin and Andy Boyle - is in the mix for this year's Fastnet Race, as too is another Dun Laoghaire Fireball Frostbite duo, Mike Murphy of Waterford and Alex Voy of Dromineer, who'll race the much-travelled JPK 9.60 Alchimiste round the rock.

The attraction of the class is that it provides so much for so little. A Fireball may be 16ft long, but look at her sideways and she's almost invisible. Be that as it may, she supports the full rig with spinnaker and trapeze, which gives the helm and crew equal status. And the Magic Ingredient is the class's supportive attitude to anyone who is involved, or maybe just thinking about joining.

They overcome the strangeness of the world of sailing for beginners or would-be Fireball sailors with an out-reaching and friendly approach which, in the final analysis, is just plain good manners and co-operation. Just what Ireland's needs to get out of the current slough. Meanwhile, the Fireballs are getting on with it, and they're attracting back former fans. Class Chairman Neil Colin is on his "second Fireball career", his enthusiasm renewed as he heads up an organization which gives all sorts of help to new owners, and knows where boats can be sourced on loan either for sailors coming from abroad to do one event in Ireland, or for a test drive for those who are beginning to think that the Fireball might just be the answer for dinghy sailing in our frugal times.

THE SECRET OF WMDWOOTY

Or Maybe Gaff Rig Wasn't So Great After All

Dublin Bay 21 in a breeze under the original rig, with the helmsman looking remarkably calm despite the potential mayhem of his situation

Following last week's piece about the Golden Jubilee of the Old Gaffers Association bringing a fleet to Dublin Bay this summer, and how it was a sad coincidence that the Old Gaffers Association was founded to preserve gaff rig in 1963 at exactly the same time that the owners of the Dublin Bay 21ft ODs were converting to a more easily handled but much less spectacular Bermudan rig, we've had a robust response from Paddy Boyd in Canada. His view of the DBSC 21s in their classical prime is free of the rose tinting of our own view, and as it fairly leaps off the screen, we'll let it rip:

"I was interested in the old gaffers article, particularly as I remember, albeit not very vividly, the change to Bermudan rig in 1963 as my late father was the DB21 class captain at that time. As I recall, he had to take some stick for abandoning tradition, not least from Seamus Kelly (Quidnunc of an Irishman's Diary in The Irish Times), who was a member of his crew on the Oola.

My earliest sailing memory is as pump hand/mainsheet trimmer on the Oola, perhaps the busiest job on board in anything over a Force 3! Removing the vast amounts of cold Dublin Bay brine was, in those days, by way of a brass bicycle pump affair that leaked, by way of small but vicious jet of the aforementioned brine from the badly sealed barrel cap, directly into the mouth and nose of the operator.

Meanwhile, because the main sheet was led down below, one was always ready for the scream to ease sheets from the skipper as the volumes of water coming over the coaming approached overwhelming levels.

I haven't yet decided what was the best day of my fledgling sailing career: the day my father invested in a Whale Gusher 25, or the decision to change to a smaller, more manageable sail plan. I'm tending towards the latter.

You wrote: But please believe that in their prime, the Dublin Bay 21s were just about the most perfect, the most beautiful, the most gallant small gaff cutters ever created. With their spectacular jackyard tops'ls, they were demanding creatures. They were thoroughbreds, a joy to sail, and the providers of tremendous sport.

Beautiful? – absolutely

Demanding? – for sure,

Gallant? - maybe,

A joy to sail? – not for the pump hand/main sheet trimmer

Providers of tremendous sport? – I can't comment, because I couldn't see anything when down below upwind, and even when we bore away I was put sitting on the boom facing aft. I hardly ever saw anything of the rest of the fleet, because my Dad's greatest sailing attribute was his unfailing optimism with a tendency to take flyers, so much so that his crew made a burgee with the acronym of his most spoken phrase WMDWOOTY – "we might do well out of this yet"

But most perfect? – here I have to disagree most vehemently. Am I the only person who thinks that they were a poor design, - overcanvassed, narrow side decks allowing huge amounts of water in at relatively small angles of heel, unbalanced and inefficient requiring too many crew in too small a space?

Sensible but prosaic – the new Bermuda rig kept the Dublin Bay 21s racing until 1986

The ease of handling under the new rig, allied to the extended headroom provided by the new doghouse, certainly made them more family friendly and, I believe extended their working life.

Beautiful though they were, you still needed two halyard hands to hoist the gaff main, and the use of the topsail was, in my memory, very limited.

Dare I even whisper the notion that perhaps we should finally provide a decent burial and live with the nostalgia, and not try to recreate the reality?"

Them's Paddy's sentiments. Those of us whose only experience of racing a gaff rigged DBSC 21 was in a carefully choreographed visitors race in which the sails had been set up beforehand, with all the hard sailing work then done by the regular crew, can scarcely argue against someone whose childhood development was so affected by the boats. Nevertheless, if a boat is an undisputed classic, enthusiasts will make allowances. Was a DBSC 21 uncomfortable? Certainly. But not nearly as uncomfortable as the Howth 17s, which are DIABOLICALLY uncomfortable except for the helmsman, who has an awkward cockpit seat of sorts.

As for the DBSC 21s being unbalanced, it could be argued that it was all to do with sail trim – the boat was only unbalanced if the sails were trimmed wrong, and of course with true classic boats you don't really expect to steer them, you sail them by trimming the sails, and the rudder is little more than a trim tab.

All our photos of the DBSC 21s under gaff rig show them setting cotton sails, which suggests that they never sailed with Dacron/Terylene gaff sails. It's likely they changed the rig when new synthetic sails became inevitable, and towards the end the baggy nature of the overworked old cotton sails must have added to any imbalance. It's difficult to tell from the photos just how heavy or otherwise they were on the helm, my own recollection is they were pleasant and manageable to helm.

Summer Saturday afternoon in Dublin Bay, and two DBSC 21s make smooth windward progress

Our final DBSC 21 photo today shows an idyllic Saturday afternoon scene in Dublin Bay in the late 1950s. Though the tiller on the nearer boat is quite markedly across the deck, that could be something to do with a loose arrangement with the head of the rudder stock - the wake suggests the rudder was not being heavily deployed as the boat makes sweetly to windward. In all, a poignant photo as we see the boats doing what they were meant to do, not what they're doing now.

NAOMH BAIRBRE IS BACK WITH A BANG

If you thought the original rig on the DBSC 21s was something of a widowmaker, wait till you see the gaff mainsail on the Naomh Bairbre. With the depths of February almost upon us, any images of Irish summer sailing are welcome, and TG4 has an intriguing 6-part series running on Thursday evenings at 9.30pm. It's about taking the Galway Hooker Naomh Bairbre along the Gaelic seaways from Conamara round the south coast of Ireland to the Isle of Man, then north to the Outer Hebrides before returning to Galway via Ireland's north and west coasts. The idea is that this will make clear the lively cross-water links maintained by the people along the Celtic fringe.

The Naomh Bairbre is named for St Barbara, the patron saint of sudden surprises and explosions, and at 47ft is probably the biggest Galway Hooker ever created. She was built in Chicago over a three year period by Steve Mulkerrins, and then in 2006 with the late great Tom Joyce of Inis Mor as skipper, she made an exemplary Transatlantic crossing.

The majestic Naomh Bairbre got a rapturous welcome when she arrived from America in Conamara in July 2006

She really is huge, but since that voyage six years ago we've heard little about her, so it's good to see the big lady in action again. There have been some good sequences of sailing – the first episode particularly had keen camera work – but as so often happens, trying to link a cruise with the development of a narrative about the coasts being visited is a difficult business. Sometimes when cruising you have to accept that having a boat can be just about the least effective way of visiting anywhere. The needs of the boat take over the project, and any relationship with life on the shore is dominated by these immediate maritime requirements rather than following up gentle lines of enquiry about history and the local way of life.

Thus a passage through the Crinan Canal to take in a visit to the ancient fortess of Dunadd, former capital of the 6th Century cross-channel kingdom of Dal Riada, is rather taken over by the difficulties of getting the mettlesome Naomh Bairbre – still with her battering-ram of a bowsprit fully extended – manoeuvred through the narrow canal. She had certainly arrived in Ardrishaig with a bang, but that's St Barbara for you.

We left the crew of three just about to reach Iona on Thursday evening, and look forward to the remaining four programmes. It really is a challenge to take a boat whose design evolved to sail on a reach between Conmara and the Aran Islands through tricky rocky channels which run every which way, and we're with them all the way.

OUR FEATHERED FRIEND

Yesterday's item about the dolphin in Hawaii which successfully sought help from a diver in getting cleared of a fishing line caught tightly round its head, with a hook embedded in one of its fins, recalled a story told me by Dermot Russell, that wordsmith extraordinaire and ace fisherman of Blackrock, Cork.

Dermot and a couple of friends used to head seaward down Cork Harbour in a little boat for a spot of sea angling most summer weekends. As they were good at the fishing they were always accompanied by herring gulls, for herring gulls didn't get to be one of the most successful species on the planet by backing losers.

One day they noted one of their feathered friends was in distress with its beak clamped shut by a fishing line. The bird was so weakened by hunger that they were able to capture it, in fact they reckon the creature was actually seeking help. Clearing the line was managed despite the increasing hazard to the helpers as the razor-sharp beak was freed. But in the end there seemed to be an extra trans-species understanding about it all. As Dermot put it: "I don't suppose you've ever been thanked by a seagull, but I know we were".

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#fireball – Thirteen Fireballs braved the waters of Dun Laoghaire harbour yesterday on what must have been the coldest day of the series thus far. The Wicklow hills, viewed from the harbour were covered in a thick blanket of snow, while the closer Dublin hills were also covered in white but not to the same intensity. While temperatures hovered at 3º for the afternoon, there was neither snow nor rain for the race duration. The east pier weather station was recording winds of approximately 20 knots from the SE with gusts getting up to 25 knots, but on the water the wind didn't seem to be quite that strong and crews later suggested an ambient wind strength closer to 15 knots. There were lots of squalls on the water which meant that capsizes were the order of the day – not so much in the Fireball class, but in the other classes quite a few impromptu baths were taken.

Given the weather conditions, the Race Officer set a four lap race for the Fireballs and they had a clean start with the entire fleet heading left initially, in contrast to the preceding class starts, PY Classes and Lasers, who went exclusively right and a mix of left and right respectively.

Alexander Rumball & Conor Kinsella (14820) worked the left-hand side to best effect to round the weather mark in first place, chased by Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775), Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14937) and Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran (15058). Down the first spinnaker reach, Rumball/Moran appeared to take Creighton & O'Reilly to weather, but as the fleet went around the gybe mark and sailed off to the leeward mark and away from my vantage point it was difficult to see whether they retained this position to the bottom of the course. The first gybe mark was treated conventionally by the fleet - tight gybe on the mark – but the line to the leeward mark soon showed up as having a number of variants.

Sitting just inside the harbour mouth, the gybe mark was in relatively heavy swell which would provide fun and games later in the race.

By the second weather mark Butler/Oram had taken over the lead. They had worked the middle and left of the beat. Rumball/Kinsella, more easily identified by the red spinnaker that was not fully into the spinnaker bag after the leeward mark, took more of a right hitch before chasing the leaders up the middle. Team Clancy, Conor and James, were well back, by their standards, on the first lap but worked hard/got the second beat right to pop into 3rd place at the second weather mark. Colin/Casey and Creighton/O'Reilly closed out the top five.

In their first appearance of 2013 Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) made their seasonal debut and their position on the first lap suggested there might be some rustiness in their sailing. However, as the race progressed they made significant progress to join the group of boats chasing the lead bunch of five. An unscheduled bath on the third gybe mark put a halt to their progress.

The wind shifted as the race progressed so the gybe mark was no longer the significant turning mark of the first lap. Some boats chose to sail past it on starboard tack to the end of the west pier before gybing while others did the conventional thing, gybing immediately but then requiring another gybe to set themselves up for the leeward mark. Thus the fleet were criss-crossing each other (and the other fleets) on the second reach which had become that much broader. The growing swell at the gybe mark, with hulls disappearing in the troughs of the waves meant that gybe management took on extra emphasis. The off-wind legs were fast and furious without being overpowering.

Butler/Oram still had the lead at the third weather mark with two Rumballs chasing them, Alexander ahead of Kenny! The two "Rs" were then followed by three "Cs" Clancy, Colin and Creighton. Butler & Oram looked in a comfortable position but as the boats emerged from the melee of the leeward mark (from a visual perspective) it was the Clancy brothers who were in the lead, their distinctive 3-number main making identification easy. Where had Butler/Oram lost out? Post-race it turns out they had an interaction with a Laser in the approach to the leeward mark and rather than run the risk of disqualification they took turns. Team Clancy stayed hard right and rounded the fourth weather mark in the lead. Rumball/Kinsella, sailing a very consistent race, rounded in second followed by Butler/Oram with Alexander's older brother Kenny & David Moran in third. The battle of the remaining "Cs" was being led by Creighton in 4th with Colin in 5th.

These positions remained to the finish – a race that had taken less than an hour. Given the cold and wind chill factor there were no protests at the short duration of the race. Alexander Rumball has now sailed two races in this series and after last week's 5th place has followed it up with a 2nd. While we all know about the Rumball pedigree on the race course, these performances are significant for this fleet for a young man that we speculated afterwards is probably only 17 or 18! Unfortunately for Alexander, after yesterday's race a protest panel sat to hear the protest lodged by Team Clancy last week. Rumball & Kinsella were the protestees and the panel found in favour of Team Clancy.

42nd Frostbite Series, hosted by DMYC: Series 2, Round 3.

1 Conor & James Clancy 150** RStGYC

2 Alexander Rumball & Conor Kinsella 14820 INSC

3 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC

4 Kenny Rumball & David Moran 15058 INSC

5 Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly 14937 ISA/Coal Harbour

For the second week in a row, the Frostbite Mugs have gone to the northside of Dublin Bay and Howth Yacht Club. Luke Malcolm and Shane Divinney finished eighth on the water but were rewarded for their perseverance by getting the day's prizes.

42nd Frostbite Series, hosted by DMYC: Series 2 Overall.

1 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram 15061 DMYC 6pts

2 Conor Clancy & James Clancy 150** RStGYC 12pts

Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella/David Moran 15058 INSC

4 Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive 14934 RIYC 14pts

5 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey 14775 DMYC 16pts

6 Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe 14691 RStGYC 20pts

#fireball – On Friday afternoon, a visit to the XCWeather website suggested that the Frostbite Series on the following Sunday would enjoy 10 knot westerlies in Dun Laoghaire harbour in temperatures of about 3º writes Cormac Bradley. At 13:45 on the day, the little wind there was wasn't coming out of the west. However, the air temperature wasn't 3º either but more of a balmy 5º. The digits indicating the wind direction on the weather station on the east pier were in a constant state of change, starting at 207º, swinging to 176º, then swinging again to 303º. The wind strength meanwhile was dropping from 3.1 knots to less than a knot. Not surprisingly, the first sound signal of the day was to postpone the race. After a wait of nearly 30 minutes the race got underway with a wind direction of 288º and a strength of 3.8knots.

Twelve Fireballs contested the start and were evenly distributed along the line. The favoured end, in terms of numbers, was the committee boat, but it was significant that Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (15061) were furthest away from the committee boat. Andy Boyle and Brian Flahive (14934) and Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14953) almost immediately tacked off to work the right hand side of the course and soon Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775) were on the other side of the course. But in truth it was the sort of day where simply staying in any sort of breeze was the most important criteria. In that respect, Kenny Rumball, sailing with Seamus Moore, (15058) did best to round the first weather mark at the head of the fleet and caught a nice piece of breeze under spinnaker to open up a gap on his pursuers. Thereafter, the order was Butler & Oram, Colin & Casey, Boyle and Flahive and Luke Malcolm & Shane Divinney (14790). Given the variability of the wind overall it was no surprise to see that both reaches of the first triangle were tight. By the leeward mark, Butler/Oram had reduced Rumball/Moore's lead to two boat-lengths and these two would stay in close company for the rest of race. The top five at the end of lap 1 were closed out by Colin/Casey, Boyle/Flahive and Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691).

Of the lead boats most went to the right-hand side of the beat, but conspicuously, Boyle & Flahive went left and this paid dividends as they rounded the second weather mark in 2nd place, behind Rumball/Moore. Butler/Oram and Colin/Casey were third and fourth respectively and Doyle/.Sweeney sailed a very good 2nd beat to round 5th. The wind had picked up in strength to give the fleet a more exciting first reach and a change in direction saw the 2nd reach broaden out to the extent that people were able to sail inside the straight line between the gybe and leeward marks. Rumball and Boyle took this route whereas Butler and Colin took the conventional line between the two marks. Rumball/Moore still led, but Butler took over the chase from Boyle and Colin stayed in fourth place, with Doyle in 5th.

By the third beat, crews were able to trapeze and after two good spinnaker legs the leading two Rumball & Butler were overlapped going round the leeward mark. Colin had gone into 3rd place and Boyle was fourth but both had comfortable distance between them and their immediate pursuers. The next group of Fireballs was four strong, overlapped with each other and PY boats as they approached the leeward mark. Alexander Rumball and Conor Kinsella (14820) led the group around the leeward mark followed by McKenna & O'Keeffe, Doyle & Sweeney and Team Clancy who were having a difficult day by their standards.

By the last weather mark (4), Butler & Oram were breathing down the necks of Rumball & Moore. The reach appeared to have gone tight because although the latter combination flew spinnaker the full leg, the former combination seemed to half-drop it for the last 40% of the leg. On rounding the gybe mark these two went off on a tight reach towards the weather mark with Butler & Oram to weather. They went a good distance to the left of the course before they gybed simultaneously to approach the leeward mark on starboard tack, half a both length apart (windward-leeward) and overlapped, crews full out on trapeze. Meanwhile Colin & Casey had taken the conventional route to the leeward mark and as they enjoyed the same good winds that the lead two had used to conduct their match race, they were able to round the leeward mark into first place by a short distance. Butler & Oram as the leeward boat on the final starboard tack approach to the mark were inside boat and a successful gybe saw them keep Rumball & Moore behind them in the short hitch to the finish.

A quick check on the weather station on my way back from my vantage point on the east pier showed that the wind was blowing at 9 knots with a gust of 15 knots and a bearing of 280º. Seems XCWeather wasn't so far off the mark after all!

The finishing order was thus Colin & Casey, Butler & Oram, Rumball & Moore, Boyle & Flahive and Rumball & Kinsella.

The Frostbite Mugs went to Eamon Bourke and Robert Slater (14817) from Howth Yacht Club.

 

After the racing, there was a suggestion that a protest would be lodged by Team Clancy, but I have no detail on the circumstances of the protest or whether it has been formalized.

 

42nd Frostbite Series, hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. Series 2 Overall.
1	Noel Butler & Stephen Oram	15061	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	3
2	Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive	14934	Royal Irish Yacht Club	7
3	Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella	15058	Irish National Sailing Club	8
4	Neil Colin & Margaret Casey	14775	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	10
	Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe	14691	Royal St. George Yacht Club	10
6	Conor & James Clancy	15***	Royal St. George Yacht Club	11

 It is also apparent that some of the leading contenders are now starting to look at the overall standings (Series 1 + 2 combined), in terms of influencing their tactics on the water.

#fireball – Twelve Fireballs initiated the second half of the 42nd Frostbite Series hosted and organised by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club yesterday, 6th January 2013 writes Cormac Bradley. Sailed under grey skies that eventually gave way to some weak sunshine, winds were of the order of 8-9knots with a direction of 153º that moved to 136º and then back to 167º as the five lap race progressed.

Watching the PY start and first beat from close to the weather station on Dun Laoghaire harbour's East Pier two RS 400s went separate ways up the first leg with the RS on the right-hand side of the course rounding the weather mark first – implying that the RHS was the way to go.

On an even start, the 12 Fireballs were distributed across the start line with Team Clancy, James and Conor hogging the pin. They proceeded to work the LHS of the course to round in first place with Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14937), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) following immediately behind them. Thereafter the running order was Luke Malcolm & Shane Divinney (14790), Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14953), Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive (14934), Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella (15058). The latter combination appeared to take places on the first reach of the triangle, but they were further off the pace than this observer would have though possible given their performance in the first half of the series, before Christmas.

Rounding the first leeward mark in first place, Butler/Oram initially went to the right of the course and proceeded to work the middle, rounding the 2nd weather mark with a comfortable lead of 24 seconds on the second placed combination of Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe who had gone even further right. These two combinations simply sailed away from the rest of the fleet who scrambled between themselves for the last remaining podium place. On the second rounding of the weather mark the order was Butler/Oram, McKenna/O'Keeffe, Malcolm/Divinney, Creighton/O'Reilly, Rumball/Kinsella, Doyle/Sweeney and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865). A capsize after the gybe mark undid all the latter's good work in getting this far up the pecking order.

On the third beat, Butler and Rumball worked the right side of the course while McKenna stayed left-ish with the Clancys and Doyle. Butler's lead grew as a consequence of this different approach, rounding over a minute ahead of McKenna who had a 37 second gap on Malcolm/Divinney. The Clancys, Creighton and Rumball were the next boats in sequence.

At the top end of the fourth beat, Butler and Oram sailing on the port lay-line to the weather mark were both sitting inboard relative to McKenna & O'Keeffe who were steaming up the starboard layline, closing to 33 seconds on the leaders. By this stage the first reach had broadened to a run of sorts, allowing Creighton/O'Reilly to subsequently gybe twice in their approach to the gybe mark. Boyle & Flahive, making their debuts in the 2012/13 Series had meanwhile crept into third place, but they were almost ¾ leg behind McKenna/O'Keeffe who had closed to 12 seconds behind Butler/Oram at the fourth gybe mark.

Weak sunshine embraced the fleet for the final lap with Butler/Oram working the middle of the course in tandem with McKenna/O'Keefe to about halfway up the beat when Butler went left and McKenna right. This extended Butler's lead back to a one-minute margin by the last weather mark, with the gap to Boyle/Flahive in third at 1 minute 55 seconds. These positions stayed the same on the water allowing Butler & Oram to open the 2013 competitive season with a win. McKenna & O'Keeffe's performance was exceptional as they simply stuck to the task of chasing the lead pair and sailed away from the rest of the fleet as a consequence.

Debutants, Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive took the day's Frostbite mugs.

 

 

 

#fireball –  Cariosa Power and Marie Barry (14854) took the last set of Frostbite Mugs to be awarded for the 2012 half of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's 42nd Frostbite Series which concluded yesterday, Sunday 16th December writes Cormac Bradley. Tacking immediately on the start line to go to the right-hand side of the course, they rounded the first weather mark in 2nd place to mix it with the likes of Rumball & Kinsella, Butler & Oram and Team Clancy. They sailed well throughout the race to only concede ground to these three plus Colin & Casey securing fifth place, the day's Mugs and 10th place overall in Series 1 of the 2012/13 Frostbite season. At the Series 1 prize-giving, held after racing in the warmth of the DMYC clubhouse, with food served for the attendees, Frostbite Master of Ceremonies and Principal Race Officer for the event, Olivier Proveur, teased that this report should give proper credit to this performance. By dedicating this opening paragraph of the report to the performance of Cariosa and Marie, I will hopefully avoid excommunication from the Frostbite fraternity.

Early morning sunshine gave way to grey clouds by the time the 12 boats of the Fireball fleet were getting ready to go on the water. It was a milder day than some of the Sundays we have had and although we had a short rain shower in the middle of the race, conditions were generally favourable for the business of the day. The wind was blowing from the SSE (160º) with the committee boat tucked under the West Pier and the weather mark (yet again) just to windward of the ferry gantry. The limit mark for the start/finish was to starboard of the committee boat, due probably to a lack of sea-room relative to the harbour wall. For the first couple of laps of the 5-lap race the winds were strong enough to provide marginal trapezing conditions. The right hand-side was paying and at the first weather mark there were some newcomers in the leading bunch. The afore-mentioned Power/Barry and Eamon Burke & Robert Slater (14719) were mixing it with the perennial front runners Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella (15058), Conor & James Clancy (15***), with the likes of Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775), Alastair Court & Gordon Syme and Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) not very far behind. The first weather mark was as close as this correspondent got to the lead bunch as we had a "bad day at the office" with boats behind us being counted on one hand.

Rumball/Kinsella and Butler/Oram pulled away from the fleet and at times seemed to be sailing a match race all of their own so close were they to each other, particularly on the upwind legs. Downwind Rumball appeared to be that little bit faster as there was more distance between them on these legs. Team Clancy comfortably slotted into third place, while behind them there seemed to be some place changing as Colin/Casey and Power/Barry sorted out the running order. Further down the fleet one wag explained the day's proceedings as the battle of the "old guys" as Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14937) and Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley vied with each other to stay ahead. A good third beat for the latter combination which saw places recovered was undone when approaching the weather mark on the port layline when they had to give way to two starboard tacked Lasers and the three Fireballs they had managed to overtake on the beat, leaving them again with a "one-hand count" of boats behind them.

The wind went slightly further south as the race progressed to turn the first reach into more of a run with the consequent tightening up of the second reach. However, when the rain shower came in it had the effect of reducing the wind strength and with that the requirement for trapezing. Roll-tacking techniques became more of a requirement. By now the place changing seemed to be over and the fleet went around the course in an orderly manner. The first five boats home were all easily identified at the finish but I understand that from 5th to 8th the finishers may have been overlapped as they crossed the finish line.

 

 

This concludes the first half of the 2012/13 Frostbite Series where we have managed to sail all the races on the Agenda. Indeed, we may have sailed extra races as there were two races of each of the first two Sundays of the Series. Nine races have thus been sailed in a series that saw a maximum of 17 starters on the second Sunday of the season and a smallest fleet of 12 boats yesterday. It has seen some new combinations on the water and a refurbished wooden Fireball competing as well. It also attracted a visitor from Waterford.

 

At the Series 1 prize-giving there was a healthy attendance of Fireballers and sailors from the other two Frostbite fleets, Lasers and the PY Class (1 x 470, 420s, Laser Vagos, RS400s, IDRAs, 1 x OK, 1 x GP14, 1 x K1).

 

42nd Frostbite Series 2012/2013:- Series 1 Overall (2012 half of season)
1	Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella	15058	Irish National Sailing Club	7pts
2	Noel Butler & Stephen Oram	15061	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	12pts
3	Conor & James Clancy	15***	Royal St. George Yacht Club	19pts
4	Neil Colin & Margaret Casey	14775	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	36pts
5	Alastair Court & Gordon Syme	14706	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	40pts
6	Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley	15007	Coal Harbour (Dun Laoghaire)	46pts
7	Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe	14691	Royal St. George Yacht Club	49pts
8	Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney	14676	National Yacht Club	55pts
9	Mick Creighton & Joe O’Reilly	14937	Irish Sailing Association	59pts
10	Cariosa Power & Marie Barry	14854	Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club	63pts

 

Frostbite racing re-commences on Sunday 6^th January 2013!

 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS & A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FROM THE IRISH FIREBALL FLEET!!!!!!

#fireball – After 2 weeks of wind coming out of the East, yesterday's Frostbite Race in Dun Laoghaire saw the wind coming out of the West. While the pre-race period was dominated by a rain bearing squall, these conditions gave way to a blue sky afternoon with temperatures around 7ºC and winds of between 10 and 18 knots.

A slightly smaller fleet took to the water and was set a five-lap race with a windward mark set close to the green training platform in the lee of the wall of the West Pier and a gybe mark in the vicinity of the ferry gantry. Spectators would have enjoyed a good view of the action at the leeward mark by watching from the East Pier's bandstand. The approach to the weather mark was tricky, with variable wind conditions accentuated by the race being sailed at low water, thus increasing the wind shadow off the harbour wall.

A competitive start, with a heavy committee boat-bias, saw a clean start but a log-jam developed at the committee boat when Gavin Doyle (14676) snagged his rigging on the committee-boat's flagstaff. The first beat saw the majority of the fleet go left with Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly going further than most and benefitting accordingly. Noel Butler with a stand-in crew from his Laser II days went right and didn't seem to suffer particularly! Team Clancy, Conor and James, got the first beat more right than everyone else to round the first weather mark in first place, a few boat-lengths ahead of the fleet. In quick succession the pecking order was Creighton, Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella, Alastair Court & Gordon Syme, Noel Butler & Garth and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey.

Team Clancy held off their pursuers around the first lap and beyond, before they were eventually caught by Rumball/Kinsella at the 4th gybe mark. These two pulled away from the rest of the fleet who then indulged in the normal Sunday afternoon activity of place changing among themselves. After the first beat, a right side approach to the upwind leg was adopted by the majority of the fleet.

On the last lap of the race the leaders got caught up in PY traffic which afforded Butler the opportunity to attack Team Clancy on the last off-wind leg of the race. The attack was successful as it allowed Butler to secure 2nd place in the race.

 

  

Having extracted themselves from their self-created traffic jam at the start of the race to take 5th place, Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney were rewarded by taking the day's Frostbite Mugs.

 

The overall results are provisional as they have been computed on the basis of adding yesterday's scores to the overall points of last week.

Yesterday's race was the penultimate race of 2012 as there is no racing on the Sunday before Christmas. The Series 1 prize-giving will take place after racing next Sunday, 16th December, with food available as part of the festivities. Santa will arrive by lifeboat to DMYC on the day before, Saturday 15th.

As this correspondent was completely absent from Dun Laoghaire yesterday, not just off the water, the information that made this report possible was provided by Kenny Rumball and Neil Colin, to whom I offer my thanks.

The Frostbite racing of the 1^st Sunday of Advent, December 2^nd was held under grey skies with rain from the start, with the consequence that it was the coldest Sunday of the series thus far writes Cormac Bradley. Coincidentally, the fleet size was also the smallest to date with only 12 boats out in the Fireball Class, though Dun Laoghaire’s harbour was a “sea” of activity with Optimists, Toppers and Laser Radials in training mode on the fringes of the Frostbite course. The wind was in the SE sector of the compass which meant that the weather mark was in a similar position to last week, just off the ferry gantry, but closer to the eastern pier.

Hard left didn’t appears to pay quite as much as it had done the previous Sunday when the wind was from a similar direction, a middle and right approach seemed to pay bigger dividends when the fleet congregated at the first weather mark. Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella were in close company with the Clancys, Conor and James, followed by Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. Nothing unusual there then……….!

Behind them there was frenetic activity in the next group which consisted of Mick Creighton & Joe O’Reilly (14937), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713), Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14676) and Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007). While the first three pulled away from the chasing group this latter bunch of five boats criss-crossed each other for the next couple of laps until the third lap when Creighton & O’Reilly pulled away into a safe and secure 4^th place. Next to escape the close quarter stuff was Doyle/Sweeney and then Court/Syme. Miller/Donnelly then decided that trying to better their fellow Fireballs didn’t provide enough of a challenge and in the third rounding of the leeward mark decided to try and get inside two Lasers. The first part of the manoeuvre, the lead-in to the mark was executed well, but the actual rounding of the mark went awry when Miller lost control of his tiller and got tangled with one of the Lasers. A 720º penalty was taken! This allowed Smyth/Bradley to overtake them.

Luke Malcolm and Shane Divinney also had technical problems when a close and potential overtaking encounter with Smyth/Bradley went pear-shaped due to an errant mainsheet. They would recover to challenge briefly in the latter stages of the race, but it wasn’t their day. By the final beat of the race, Rumball and Butler were effectively match-racing each other even though Rumball had what appeared to be a comfortable lead. Tacking immediately at the 4^th leeward mark, Butler went left. Rumball was obliged to cover and as they rounded the fifth weather mark there was only a boat length or two between them. Within the first 50m of the 1^st reach Butler/Oram had gone through Rumball/Kinsella’s weather to take the lead. However, going into the gybe mark, Rumball was able to secure the inside berth and gybed inside the other pair to retake the lead which he held to the finish. This left Team Clancy and Creighton/O’Reilly as the most secure boats on the water position-wise. Court and Doyle were enjoying close quarter exchanges until Doyle capsized at the last weather mark to let Court into 5^th.

This correspondent took an unscheduled swim on the last beat when the trapeze hook disengaged from his harness. The water temperature was bracing!! Fortunately, the impromptu incident didn’t cost any places but allowed Malcolm/Divinney and Miller/Donnelly to close the gap. There was no place changing down the last two reaches for these three but Miller crowned a frustrating day by falling out of the boat at the last leeward mark, inducing a capsize which Donnelly was completely unprepared for……..and the proximity of a pontoon raft only added to their demise.

 

In writing these columns I try to highlight performances across the fleet, not just concentrate on the top guys. Last week, watching from the harbour wall, one would have thought that the records would be quite accurate as I had the advantage of a good position with a panoramic view of the course. However, I did miss a significant performance that was brought to my attention (in good humour) and necessitates a correction. Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire who have just defended their Silver Fleet Champions status of the 2011 season by winning the Silver Fleet again in 2012, were third around the first weather mark last Sunday, 25^th November.

 

 

 

#fireball – Fourteen Fireballs made the start of the sixth race of the 2012/13 Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. A clean start with the fleet distributed equally along the line saw those who were at the pin end in the early ascendancy. The first boat to break ranks was Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly who tacked off to the right hand side. Initially it didn't look as though this was going to be beneficial but when some of the others then followed suit, it appeared they weren't out of contention after all. The wind was coming over the East Pier and the weather mark was set just outside the ferry gantry.

The first lap of the race was sailed in light conditions with crews sitting inboard and at the first weather mark the fleet was led by Conor Clancy/James Clancy, with Kenny Rumball/Conor Kinsella in second who both came in from the LHS of the beat, with Gavin Doyle third. Doyle was seen to be doing turns immediately after rounding the mark which allowed Neil Colin/Margaret Casey to go into third. Thereafter the sequence was Eamon Bourke/Robert Slater (14719), Noel Butler/Stephen Oram and Cariosa Power/Marie Barry. The first reach of the course was quite tight but spinnakers were flown. At the first gybe mark, Clancy and Rumball gybed immediately, but Colin/Casey sailed on to the mouth of the harbour before gybing and this propelled them from third to first.

The leaders sailed for varying distances to the right hand side of the second beat before tacking onto starboard. Given that the left hand side had paid so handsomely first time round, I can only surmise that the reason for coming right was to avoid the procession of boats in the other classes coming down the 2nd reach of their triangle. Rumball/Kinsella seemed to have better boat speed and took over the lead from Colin/Casey, with Clancy/Clancy third. At the 2nd weather mark, the sequence was Rumball, Colin, Clancy, McKenna, Doyle, Butler, Murphy, Creighton and Power.

Clancy used Colin's tactics of the first lap on the 2nd reach by going to the harbour mouth and produced the same result, going from 3rd to 1st. Rumball held off Colin and McKenna stayed where she was!

At the 2nd leeward mark, the wind had increased and gone towards the north. This turned the third beat into a two sail fetch and reduced the first reach to a two-sail leg. This made the first two legs processional with Clancy leading, followed by Rumball, Colin, McKenna, Butler. The wind shift meant that the fleet went down the 2nd reach on starboard tack flying spinnakers. Rumball and Clancy kept close company with each other all the way down the second leg, with both boats pulling out distance on Colin. Rumball rounded the leeward mark as inside boat which allowed him to take the lead over Clancy and Butler replicated the manoeuvre to get past McKenna on the same mark.

The 4th "windward leg" was now a two sail fetch with crews comfortably on trapeze. Rumball sailed faster than the chasing pack to pull away. Overtaking opportunities were thus restricted to the 2nd reach. The final lap saw little change among the top five. Rumball was comfortably ahead, by 70/80m with Clancy also having some distance between himself and Colin. McKenna dropped a further place to Doyle and Creighton closed the gap on her but she held him off.

42nd Frostbite Series, 2012/13; Round 6

  

The race was sailed under grey skies that gave way to rain just after the start of the race, with single figure temperatures so this correspondent has assumed the crew combinations on the water, as woolly hats made individual identification difficult! The day's Frostbite Mugs went to Neil Colin & Margaret Casey.

As this correspondent wasn't present at the race prize-giving, the following assessment of the overall situation is provisional and assumes that no discards are applied.........yet!

42nd Frostbite Series, Overall Positions (Provisional)

 

The Irish Fireball fleet has their end of season prize-giving at the National Yacht Club this Friday evening, 30th November 2012. At this function, in addition to post-mortems on the season's racing, there will be the award of Class prizes, and recognition of success and contribution to the fleet.