The DMYC has published the Notice of Race and online entry system here for its long-running Winter Dinghy Frostbite Series on Dublin Bay.

In response to feedback from competitors over the past three seasons, gathered from a survey earlier in the year, the format is revised with the intention to;

• run two shorter races each Sunday, outside the harbour when it is practical
• run more windward/leeward courses, alongside the traditional triangle courses

Racing for centreboard monohull dinghies will be one design for the Lasers and based on PH handicaps for the mixed dinghy fleet.

In a further move to increase interest, there is an option to enter the pre and post Christmas Series, separately.

Racing commences on Sunday 4th November.

The DMYC Frostbite Series started in 1969, and has been occurring every winter since then.

During the latter half of last week few would have expected that by Sunday it would be “warm” enough to permit racing in Dun Laoghaire Harbour for the Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. While the “Beast from the East” and Storm Emma wreaked havoc in Irish (and UK) airspace from Wednesday through Friday, dumping inordinate amounts of snow on us all, the thought of “sailing on Sunday” must have been far removed from everyone’s mind. 

However, by Saturday the thaw had set in and by Sunday the temperature had gone up a notch or two to make racing semi-attractive from a shore-side perspective. Race Officer, Cormac Bradley, in consultation with Frostbites Co-ordinators Neil Colin and Olivier Prouveur decided that the challenge for the day was to get a race in and the fleet ashore promptly! In that regard a decision (in principle) to have a triangular course of three laps was taken before the committee boat left the pontoon at the DMYC.

A steady wind out of the East made the setting of the weather mark a relatively easy task. The committee boat anchored just beyond the exit from the marina which allowed a beat the length of the harbour to be set.  A gybe mark was set about 60m inside the harbour mouth but midway between the ends of the two piers while the leeward mark was about twenty metres off the transom of the committee boat. The ambition was to have two off-wind spinnaker legs but the normal guinea-pig for that test spent a large part of the pre-race period undoing wine-glass knots in their red spinnaker, leaving the acid test of spinnaker flying on the top reach to the RS400 of Niels Warburton and Peter Doherty. The appropriateness of the spinnaker leg was confirmed by radio via the gybe mark boat.

The Slow PY Fleet had nine starters – two KONA Windsurfers, the Enterprise, the Wayfarer, with a replacement helm, Norman Lee, the IDRA of Pierre Long, the Feva XL of Conor Galligan, the Hartley 12.2 of Odhran Prouveur and two Laser Vago XDs and in a very conservative start all nine went left initially before spreading themselves across the width of the course. The IDRA 14 of Pierre Long and John Parker led around the first weather mark and flew spinnaker. Behind them the red- sailed Kona of Robbie Walker and the Wayfarer followed. The IDRA led to the gybe mark but surprisingly dropped spinnaker which allowed the Wayfarer to close the gap. Up the second beat the Wayfarer took the lead which it held to the finish, recording a race time of 29:58. In 2^nd place, forty-four seconds later, was Walker in the first KONA, followed by his class-mate, Des Gibney, forty-nine seconds later, with the IDRA next, forty-one seconds behind. However, on handicap they were all outdone by the junior crew in the Feva XL, with Conor Galligan helming, who converted a race time of 33:18 into a handicap time of 26:51 and a 21-second winning margin over the Wayfarer.

The biggest fleet of the day were the Lasers with 13 boats on the water. Their start was more competitive than the Slow PYs but was still a clean start and again they all resolved to go left initially. However, they too spread themselves across the course going upwind and rounded the top mark with regularity to provide a well spread-out fleet with no single boat very far ahead or very far behind. At the close of the first lap, the lead was held by Chris Arrowsmith (201829) with Gavin Murphy (173062) about a boat-length off his transom. Sean Flanagan (177854) was in close proximity, waiting to pounce on any mistakes by the front two. In contrast to the Slow PY fleet the Lasers approached the leeward mark on a much higher line to windward before ducking off to leeward to round the mark. On the second lap, Murphy had moved into the lead with Arrowsmith the chasing boat.  The finishing order was Murphy (30:37), Arrowsmith (30:56), Flanagan (31:30), Coakley (31:32), O’Leary (31:53) and Ella Hemeryck (Rad) (31:54), but on corrected time the sequence changed to Murphy (27:55), Hemeryck (28:00), Arrowsmith (28:12), Shirley Gilmore (Rad) (28:32) and Flanagan (28:43).

Four fast PY boats took to the start – three Fireballs and the RS400. While it may have been the smallest start it was the most competitive in terms of the clock counting down. Yet again Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) had an easy race, leading from start to finish, but the other two boats, Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) had a race all the way round the course. Indeed, the position of “chasing Fireball” changed a number of times during the race. At the end of the first lap it was Miller & Donnelly, who had been relegated to third on the water, but by the time they were rounding the leeward mark for the second time, negotiating their way around Lasers, Miller & Donnelly had gone into the “chase boat” position. They retained that positon for the finish, but only by a margin of 15 seconds.  While the official results had the result the other way round, I heard Miller claiming afterwards that he and Donnelly had finished second……..the ladies didn’t appear to be challenging that assertion. The favourable spinnaker legs – spinnakers were flown on both reaches with the two chasing Fireballs going to windward of the committee boat on the second lap en route to the leeward mark –allowed a Fireball to take the fastest corrected time. That honour went to Butler & Barry by a margin of 14 seconds.

While the race had started in misty conditions and a cool enough temperature, once the mist lifted there was a sense that it got a bit “warmer” and the committee boat contemplated a second race. However, as no-one seemed to be unhappy at the lack of a signal for a second race, and one prominent helm indicated that he wasn’t unhappy with just a single race after crossing the finish line, it seems that an early departure from the race area was a welcome call. Indeed, only one partially “bare-legged” Laser helm had suggested at the start of the afternoon that two races should be sailed!

The Mug winners on the day were Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy in the Hartley 12.2 in the Slow PY Fleet and Evan Dargan Hayes in a Laser 4.7 in the Laser fleet. Frostbiters are again reminded that there will be racing, weather permitting on Sunday 18^th March; the day after St Patrick’s Day.

#HYC - Conditions for Howth Yacht Club's  Laser Frostbites yesterday (Sunday 14 January) contrasted those of the opening weekend — with the sun shining and a southerly breeze rising from 12 to 19 knots over the course of the day’s two races.

Twenty-three boats took to the water, comprising 14 standard rigs, seven Radials and a pair of 4.7s. With significant shifts, a wind bend and the tide ebbing across the course, no one was comfortable in their position.

Ronan Wallace got ahead early in the first race and held on to to take a comfortable first, while long-term rivals Ronan Cull and Paul McMahon fought it out for second, Ronan getting to the line ahead.

The Howth Yacht Club website has more on yesterday’s racing HERE.

For the second round of Frostbite racing in Series 2, Race Officer Cormac Bradley set the 31-boat fleet a triangular course and with the assistance of one of the competitors tried to make sure that the top reach was able to be sailed as a spinnaker leg! Having watched the weather forecast on XCWeather from the start of the weekend, the wind situation inside the harbour wasn’t quite what was predicted. The forecast was for 14 – 17 knots across the afternoon with guts in the range 20 – 28knots. However, on arriving at the scene the flags inside the Coal Harbour were not suggesting those sorts of strengths. The direction of SSW was in accordance with the forecast.

31 boats took to the water, nearly 25% up on the previous Sunday but still with lots of room for more boats to join in. All the usual suspects were in attendance in the Slow PY Fleet; Shane McCarthy’s Solo, the two KONA windsurfers of Robbie Walker & Des Gibney, a second, club Wayfarer from the DMYC helmed by Dave Colman joined the regulars in Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy, the Feva of Conor Galligan was out along with Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy in the Hartley 12.2 and Frank Hamilton was the sole IDR14.
Twelve Lasers took to the water with Conor O’Leary making his 2018 debut after missing last week when taking his recreational activities to Europe.

In the Fast PY Fleet there was a 2018 debut for Hugh Sheehy in the Finn, Noel Butler & Marie Barry and Frank Miller & Class Chairman Neil Cramer and the Keegans, David & Michael in the Fireball Class and a total turnout of ten boats.

Top reach action between two Fireball dinghies Photo: Bob Hobby/DMYC Facebook

With the committee boats situated just to the West of the harbour entrance, the beat was to a mark in the approaches to the marina and a gybe mark that was to the east of the former docking facility of the high speed ferry but towards the middle of the harbour. Amazingly for the first couple of rounds, the wind appeared to be reasonably steady at 190˚.
Off the start line, the trend across all three fleets was to start on starboard and work one’s way to the left-hand side of the beat before taking a long port tack into the mark. In this respect, the Solo led the Slow PY fleet and rounded first followed by the KONA of Walker and the Wayfarer of Schaeffer. These three occupied the first three slots all the way round with the KONA working its way into the lead. The Solo and the Wayfarer had a closer race but the Solo eventually won out but only by a margin of 10 seconds – 39:30 to 39:40 after five laps.

Shirley Gilmore leads in the Lasers. The NI helmswoman won the DMYC Laser Class mug. Photo: Bob Hobby

In the Laser fleet there were also three boats that were jostling for the podium positions throughout the race – Justin Geoghegan (165512), Sean Flanagan (177854) and Conor O’Leary (190745). Until, that is the final approach to the leeward mark when O’Leary went through the start/finish line and decided that he had to unwind himself. That dropped him to 6th with Geoghegan taking the win, followed home by Flanagan and Alan Hodgins.

The Fast PY fleet had an OCS in the form of Fireball 14706, Alistair Court & Gordon Syme and like the previous starts, the trend was to go left first before working the middle to left of the beat to get to the windward mark. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) did that to best effect to lead at the weather mark and retained that lead to just before the first leeward mark when taking a more upwind line, Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) powered over the top of them to take the lead. They subsequently “walked away” from the fleet, leading by just over a leg and 3:44 at the finish. Behind them, the places seemed to be in a constant state of flux, with Court, Miller & Cramer (14713), the “pink ladies”, Louise & Hermine (14691) changing places all the way round. Court & Syme recovered from their premature start to claim second place on the water followed by Colin & Casey, McKenna & O’Keeffe, Miller & Cramer, the Finn of Sheehy and the 470 of Ryan & McAree.

In Frostbite Mug terms, the Fast PY award went to Niels Warburton in the RS400, to Shirley Gilmore in the Lasers and to the Enterprise of Bernadette Fox & Aidan Geraghty in the Slow PY Fleet.

DMYC Frostbites 2017/18: Series 2
Round 2. 

Slow PY

1 Shane McCarthy (Solo)
2 Conor Galligan (Feva)
3 Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy (Wayfarer)
4 Robbie Walker (KONA)
5 Frank Hamilton & Crew (IDRA14)

Lasers

1 Justin Geoghegan

2 Sean Flanagan
3 Alan Hodgins
4 Gavan Murphy
5 Shirley Gilmore (Radial)

Fast PY

1 Noel Butler & Marie Barry (Fireball)
2 Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (Fireball)
3 Hugh Sheehy (Finn)
4 Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (Fireball)
5 Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (Fireball)

A modest fleet of 25 boats opened the second half of the 2017/18 Frostbite Series hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club earlier today, Sunday 7^th January writes Cormac Bradley. While XCWeather had a forecast for 14:00 of 11 – 16 knots Easterly with an air temperature of 5˚, the weather station inside the harbour was showing 17.3 knots with a maximum gust of 22 knots at 13:45 with a wind direction of 105˚ and an air temperature of 6.4˚. On leaving the my commentary position to repair to the DMYC clubhouse, the wind strength recording was 16 knots gusting 19knots and considering the number of capsizes, I think that this was the more accurate assessment.

Race Officer Ben Mulligan (Flying Fifteens) set a five-lap trapezoid course for the day’s proceedings with his committee boat stationed just to the east of the entrance to the marina and a weather mark in the middle of the harbour. No.2 was situated in the middle of the harbour mouth but probably of the order of 60m inside the mouth itself, while No.3 was close to the West Pier and No.4 was about 30m to leeward of the committee boat.

Of the 25 boats on the water the breakdown was as follows – 10 Lasers (of assorted rigs), three Laser Vagos, three Fireballs, two IDRAs, a Solo, a Wayfarer, a 470, a K1, a Kona Windsurfer , an RS400 and the Hartley 12.2. 

In the Slow PY Fleet, Shane McCarthy in the Solo led for the majority of the race, losing the lead for a short time to the solitary Kona Windsurfer of Des Gibney. Shane started the race on starboard tack towards the pin but not on it and sailed about half the distance from the pin to the end of the West Pier before working his way up the left-hand side of the beat. The majority of the other Slow PY starters were towards the committee boat end and tacked much earlier to work the opposite side of the beat. For most of them this was as close as they got to McCarthy who led comfortably around the weather mark and proceeded to sail away from the other “Slow PY-ers” with the exception of Gibney. Behind the Solo (5302) the pecking order at the first mark was Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy in the Wayfarer (11152), Frank Hamilton & crew, Jenny, in the first IDRA (140), Pierre Long & John Parker in the second IDRA (161) and the KONA (2677) of Gibney.  By Mark 4 of the first lap, the KONA has risen to second and Hamilton had passed out Schaeffer. The places behind McCarthy remained in a state of flux with Long passing out Hamilton in the duel of the IDRAs before Hamilton regained that lead and Long retired. The Wayfarer exercised caution on the off-wind legs by not flying the spinnaker and this left Gibney as the sole chaser of the Solo. Downwind he was able to close significantly and indeed on the penultimate lap he actually overtook McCarthy, albeit briefly, before McCarthy pulled away over the last lap to win by 2 minutes and twenty seconds.  In the Slow PY Fleet the day’s Frostbite Mug went to the first Laser Vago, registered to Nigel Russell but sailed by two others. 

The Fireball turnout was very modest at three boats – work robbing the fleet of one boat, hospitalisation and holidays another boat and a possible sixth boat not appearing.  Despite two late arrivals in the starting area, one of the latecomers seem to get the best start with Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) commanding the committee boat end of the line with Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) to leeward and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691) astern. All three headed left initially with Colin going over the top of Court and being the first to tack on to port for a long leg up the middle of the course. Court followed shortly thereafter but now occupied the windward berth relative to Colin. They rounded Mark 1 with Court leading by half a boat-length but neither flew spinnaker down the leg to No.2. McKenna had another challenge with the 470 rounding on her transom and for the rest of the afternoon she was unable to get any significant distance away from the Olympic Class boat. Spinnakers broke out from Mark 2 to Mark 3 but Colin dropped at Mark 3 while Court held it for the early part of the leg, but fell off to leeward relative to the mark as the price. For the second beat all the Fireballs stayed right and left the hitch to the windward mark to much later. By this stage Court had opened up his lead on Colin and both were comfortably ahead of McKenna who was having an alternative race with the 470. No spinnakers featured on the top reach of the trapezoid all afternoon and only sporadically on the bottom reach, with Court the only proponent of that exercise.  Court progressively pulled away from Colin who then went swimming on the third lap between 1 and 2 – a squall arriving with not enough kicker released. This prompted an early retirement, leaving the field wide open for Court & Syme. In the Fast PY Fleet the day’s Frostbite Mugs went to Gerry Ryan & John McAree in the 470.

The tightest racing of the day was in the 10-boat Laser Class. While the fleet was led all the way round by Sean Flanagan (177854/Full Rig) he was closely chased by Alan Hodgins (175809/Full Rig) with Shirley Gilmore (204762/Radial) lurking with intent in 3^rd place. The “lurking with intent” paid off, for although she was 1:57 down on Sean Flanagan at the finish and 1:16 down on Hodgins, on corrected time she finished just 25 seconds behind Flanagan and 13 seconds ahead of Hodgins who recorded the same corrected time as Evan Dargan Hayes in a Laser 4.7 in fourth. Thus, the first four Lasers on corrected time were covered by 38 seconds.  The Frostbite Mug went to Sean Flanagan.

In elapsed time the Fireball of Court & Syme was the fastest boat on the water, sailing the five laps in 34:40 with Flanagan’s Laser taking 38:47 and McCarthy’s Solo going round in 39:01. Physically, the finishing order on the water was Solo, Fireball and KONA. 

The postponed prize-giving for Series 1, from 17^th December, took place in the DMYC Clubhouse after racing with prizes being in the form of calendars with photographs by Frostbite stalwart Bob Hobby. Calendars were liberally handed out to winners and volunteers by “Frostbite Director” Neil Colin – Happy New Year!

The forecast was for wind! The Frostbite organisers were expecting wind as they posted on Facebook that although the wind in the earlier part of the day was strong, it was due to moderate by the start of the afternoon writes Cormac Bradley. In the dinghy park, as we rigged, there was a sense that the gusts were strong as they whistled through the rigging and on looking out on the seascape of the harbour; it was obvious there was wind on the water. Wind direction was WNW in the range of 280 - 295˚.

In the warmth of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club, post-racing, a review of the wind records for the dlharbour website showed that the base wind strength was in the range of 18 – 20 knots with gusts getting into the high twenties; 27 – 30knots. So much for the moderation!

The Fast PY fleet was made up of five Fireballs, the 470 and the single-handed K1. In the Slow PY fleet the “usual suspects” were present; the Solo of Shane McCarthy, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and Miriam McCarthy, the RS Feva XL of Conor Galligan, the two KONA Windsurfers of Robbie Walker and Des Gibney and the Hartley 12.2 of Odhran Prouveur & Helen Sheehy. The Lasers had a reasonable turnout as well.

A five lap trapezoid was set as the order of the day and the favoured route up the first beat was a starboard tack exit from the start line, across to the left hand-side of the course before a decision to tack onto port and make one’s way to the weather mark which was again located in the area of the “knee” of the West Pier.  On a windward to leeward basis, Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) were closest to the committee boat at the gun and thus occupied the windward slot, below them were Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775), David & Michael Keegan (14676), Louise McKenna & Cormac Bradley (14691) and Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713). While Miller was furthest to lee, it also meant that h was the first to reach a theoretical port lay-line and thus he had the comfort of being able to tack and clear the fleet. Butler had gone earlier, favouring a middle of the beat approach and these two led the fleet around the first weather, with Miller leading. Behind them the order was McKenna, Colin and Keegan.

In the blustery conditions, particularly around the weather mark, the top reach was too tight to fly spinnaker until the last 50m so most people two-sailed the majority of the leg and started the hoist procedure just before reaching Mark 2 which was situated just outside the approach to the marina. This left the leg from 2 to 3 as a broad spinnaker leg and indeed as the afternoon progressed the gybe into Mark 3 was taking place earlier and earlier up the leg. At Mark 3, most people decided that “flying the bag” was not the way to go………but as the leader, Miller had to set an example so he and Ed flew it to great effect until it came to getting it down when they were forced to fall off to leeward. That gave Butler and Barry the opportunity to power over the top, into the lead. For the balance of the race, Butler stayed well ahead and as usual his race on the water was determined by how many of the earlier starting boats he could pass. Miller too had a comfortable remainder of the race – no-one got close to him. Colin and Casey and McKenna & Bradley were in close company for the first lap but Colin’s race came unstuck when he had the first of two capsizes at the bottom end of the course. However, he got back into the race and indeed caught McKenna on the next beat until a second capsize in the vicinity of the weather mark brought his race to a premature close.

The Keegans set an example for all of us by flying the spinnaker across the bottom reach on all bar one of the laps. However, upwind they lost ground to McKenna & Bradley so that for each lap the gap opened and then closed.  However, up the last beat the distance between them closed dramatically and in the final approach to the weather mark, with Keegans charging up the port lay-line and McKenna closing in on the mark on the starboard lay-line, McKenna got blown over, allowing the Keegans to slip into a well-deserved third place on the water and the daily Frostbite Mug.

At the daily prize-giving afterwards, Principal Organiser, Neil Colin, made the comment that all the starters had finished the race with the conspicuous exception of two Fireballs – a most unusual occurrence. 

(Scores have changed in accordance with final entries – thus a DNC now counts as 14 points whereas in earlier tables this was a lesser score.)

Thus Noel Butler almost made a clean sweep of the Fast PY Fleet and the banter in the club afterwards was to the effect that the only race he managed to lose on the water was when he had the World Champion GP14 helm as his crew. You just can’t rely on reputation!

On the water the only boat that Butler & Barry didn’t pass was the KONA Windsurfer of Robbie Walker which went round the 5 laps in 41 minutes. Noel was next at 46 minutes, followed by the second KONA of Des Gibney and the Fireball of Miller & Butler at 47 minutes while Shane McCarthy took 49 minutes.

This concludes the pre-Christmas Frostbites with racing due to resume on January 7^th when the prize-giving for Series 1 is also due to take place – it had to be postponed from yesterday. Accordingly therefore, this correspondent signs off by wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful & Prosperous New Year.

After having to call off last Sunday’s racing due to an excess of wind at the DMYC dinghy Frostbite Series, the challenge today was to get a race in in a dearth of wind writes Cormac Bradley. Though the forecast was for 10–knot southerlies, the water inside the harbour was mirror-like though that too proved deceptive as, on launching, there was enough wind to get out to the race area unassisted. Direction-wise it was also out of synch as a southerly was predicted but it was in the eastern quarter for the entirety of the afternoon.

A fleet of just over thirty boats took to the water with the Lasers and slow PY the largest fleets. A reduced fast PY fleet was made up of a Finn, three Fireballs, a 470 and an RS 400. Race Officer for the day was Ben Mulligan of the Flying Fifteen Class who set a course of 4 laps of a triangular configuration, with a weather mark in the vicinity of the HSS docking station and a gybe mark just inside the end of the East Pier. The first two starts suggested that the place to start was at the committee boat end which is where the three Fireballs located themselves. Unusually, Noel Butler, crewed by sailing globetrotter Shane Diviney, was late to the start but it turns out this was due to the later finish of the keelboats who were also adversely impacted time-wise by the light winds.

His late arrival only served to delay his assumption of the lead, halfway up the second beat. He trailed behind Frank Miller & Cormac Bradley (14713) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706). Initially, Miller & Bradley pulled away from the other two and Butler & Diviney were the first to break ranks, going right for a short distance. Shortly afterwards, Court & Syme did the same while Miller & Bradley persevered with a starboard tack approach to the weather mark.

Court was able to close the gap and then take advantage of the proximity of the Finn to Miller’s weather, blocking a tack by Miller, to round the weather mark first. Going down the two spinnaker legs Miller was able to eke out a short lead and surprisingly Butler wasn’t able to close the gap too Miller.

On the second beat Butler went hard left, whereas the other two went right. Court broke first but Miller went that bit further. When he crossed tacks he was still ahead of Court, but Butler was gone!

Court managed to recover to round the weather mark marginally ahead of Miller but just behind the Finn. A luffing match then ensued between Court and the Finn which took them on a course almost at ninety degrees to the straight line to the gybe mark. This allowed Miller to assume second place which he held to the leeward mark. Up the third beat and Miller managed to hold off Court to the weather mark, but only just. Court “powered” over Miller and was never passed again.

The finishing order over the line was Fireball, Fireball, RS 400, Fireball, and Finn. However, on corrected time the win went to the Finn and the first two Fireballs filled the podium positions. The 470 beat Miller to fourth and the RS 400 closed it out.

In Fireball terms this leaves Butler with two first places followed by Miller with a 2nd and a 3rd.

In the slow PY fleet, the handicap win was taken by the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer & Miriam McCarthy ahead of the Solo of Shane McCarthy and the Kona (windsurfer) of Robbie Walker. What makes McCarthy’s performance all the more commendable is that he sailed the second lap as a sausage but sailed all the way back to the gybe mark to correct his mistake.

In the Laser Class, six full rigs led the charge before the first Radial and first lady featured – Shirley Gilmore. The Class win went to Jeff Brouder, followed by Alan Hodgins and Luke Dillon.

The Fireball Class have their end of season dinner and prize-giving this Friday coming in the National Yacht Club. Due to a coinciding event a number of Fireball regulars will be attending another Class dinner at the same venue so they will play a part-time role in the Fireball occasion. If you want to come along to the Fireball dinner, please let us know so that we can add you to the numbers. In terms of the regatta planning for next season, a number of options have been developed and we are hopeful of getting the calendar closed out in the reasonably near future.

The 47th running of Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series got underway yesterday in blue sky, sunny conditions and a brisk N-Westerly that reduced in strength as the afternoon wore on writes our special correspondent. Stalwart of the event, Olivier Prouveur, who announced at the conclusion of the 2016/17 Series that he would be taking a less prominent role in the managing of the event was in attendance, but in an observer role!

The Race Officer duty was undertaken by Frostbite RO debutant Cormac Bradley of the Fireball Class and for his first foray into the Frostbite Race Management the first decision was to decide if racing would take place. An early departure from DMYC with a suggestion that a postponement would be advised, if necessary, was vindicated when the assessment was that racing could proceed.

In a departure from previous formats, three starts were provided – Slow PY, (PY1), Lasers and Fast PY (PY2). And in a significant development, two windsurfers of the KONA Class joined in the racing.

Given the conditions and the “first day back” nature of the day, a single race was proposed and sailed with 5 laps of a trapezoid course used to wash away the cobwebs. Given that the keelboats, sailing their Turkey Shoot Series earlier in the morning, did not seem to be excessively hard pressed and taking into account the physical condition of the waters inside the harbour, the postponement wasn’t required and racing got underway on schedule, at 14:00.

Solo sailor Shane McCarthy (left), the Slow PY Class winner with DMYC's Neil Colin Photo: Frank Miller

As an experiment the two windsurfers were put in PY1, the argument being that if they were as fast as we thought they might be they would get away from the rest of the fleet and have less traffic to deal with on the race course. Their contemporaries on the first start were a Solo, an IDRA 14 and four Laser Vagos. One of the Konas led at the first weather mark, sitting about 60m inside the harbour mouth and closer to the end of the West Pier, but the Solo was not far behind. By the time they got to the end of the five laps, the windsurfer had a good lead on the Solo on the water, but was unable to save his time in handicap terms. In third place on the water was the IDRA of Pierre Long & John Parker. Marks 2 and 3 were in the vicinity of the approach to the marina and just east of the ferry terminal respectively and while spinnakers were a rarity on the top leg of the trapezoid, they were flown on the leg from 2 to 3. Again, only the asymmetrics had any real joy with spinnakers on the bottom leg of the course. Mark 4 was in the approximate location of the memorial on the East Pier.

The finishing order on the water was Kona, Solo, IDRA, but after handicap correction the win went to the Solo of Shane McCarthy with the windsurfer second and the IDRA third.
Ten Lasers answered the starter’s call, with three Radials in the bunch. And it was one of the Radials, helmed by Clare Gorman who set the pace for the first half of the course. Eventually she was reeled in by Gary O’Hare who went on to win on the water by 24 seconds, but after handicap correction, Gorman took the first Laser Frostbite Mug by a margin of 1:09. In third place was Richard Tate.

Fireballers Marie Barry and Noel Butler (right) the fast PY Class winners with DMYC's Neil Colin Photo: Frank Miller

Six Fast PYs populated the last start of the day, four Fireballs, a K1 and an RS400. Noel Butler with new crew, Marie Barry (15061) led the fleet from start to finish and won with a 1:24 margin. They weren’t seriously troubled at any stage of the race and even tired spinnaker on the top reach but the blustery nature of the wind coming over the wall suggested that discretion was the better part of valour. Behind them, the battle was for second and third and was populated by Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775). While the former pair had the better start and led during the early part of the race, they were undone by an incident with a Laser at one of the leeward mark roundings. The Laser went the wrong side of the mark and got his mainsheet snagged on the mark. This cause him to go into a slow painful capsize with his mast and main snagging the trapeze wire of crew Ed Butler who subsequently went swimming. However, Miller & Butler recovered to take second place back from Colin & Casey. They cut it very fine though, only six seconds separating the two boats. The Fireballs, Butler & Barry, Miller & Butler, Colin & Casey and son and father combination, David & Michael Keegan (14676), were the first four boats home and on handicap. Tom Murphy (K1) only just beat the RS400, helmed by Stuart Harris, on the water, but beat them more comfortably on corrected time.

During the hour’s racing the wind eased as forecast and the blue sky conditions made for a good day out. Frostbites 2017/18 is up and running.

DMYC’s Frostbites 2017/18 – Day 1.
PY1 – Slow Handicap
1 Solo Shane McCarthy Coal Harbour 5302
2 Kona TBA 1969
3 IDRA Pierre Long & John Parker DMYC 161
4 Kona Des Gibney 2677
Lasers
1 Radial Claire Gorman NYC 207800
2 Full Gary O’Hare RStGYC 201364
3 Full Richard Tate 186300
4 Full Gavan Murphy 173062
PY2 – Fast Handicap
1 Fireball Noel Butler & Marie Barry NYC 15061
2 Fireball Frank Miller & Ed Butler DMYC 14713
3 Fireball Neil Colin & Margaret casey DMYC 14775
4 Fireball David & Michael Keegan RStGYC 14676
5 K1 Tom Murphy NYC 59

For a first day of the series, the entries were down on previous years, this was assumed to be a combination of the forecast, the preceding week’s mid-term break for schools and the usual need to get momentum developed. The organisers would welcome more entries in the forthcoming Sundays.

The 2016/17 Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club Frostbites got off to a blustery start this afternoon in Dun Laoghaire. The weather station adjacent to my observation point had the various weather parameters as follows; Wind Direction - 345˚, Wind 19.6 knots, Gust 28.5 knots and Air Temperature 9˚. In truth it didn’t appear to be as cold as the Saturday when this correspondent sailed three races in a Flying Fifteen wind while there was more sunshine for that session, the weather today was cloudy but seemed to be a little warmer – but it wasn’t “shirt sleeve weather” by any means.

Three Fireballs graced the opening day of the Series – Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061), Conor & James Clancy (14807) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (14691). The overnight Met Eireann forecast didn’t hold out much hope of racing with a projected Force 5 – 8 for all parts of the Irish Seas and indeed by Sunday morning a Facebook post to the fleet suggested that some consideration had been taken as to whether racing would be possible.

Noel & Stephen comfortably won the race from Conor & James with the ladies finishing third. In truth I missed most of the action on the water as I was delayed getting to the harbour. It was a day of discretion being the better part of valour with respect to spinnaker flying.

The start area was in the vicinity of the dormant berth for the HSS with a weather mark towards the end of the West Pier. The top and bottom reaches of the trapezoid course were moderately short in comparison to the beat and run. Given the news of the revised planning permission for a cruise liner berth in the harbour this past week, it will be interesting to see how this impacts on the Frostbite and other sailing activity inside the harbour.

In other Fireball news the Class had its AGM on the Saturday night of the last regatta of the year. As had been signposted there was a change of Chairman with Marie Barry standing down after a three-year stint. In terms of falling numbers at events, Marie has not had it easy, but she has put a lot of effort into the Class and is due our collective thanks. Marie is replaced as Class Chairman by Neil Cramer of Skerries Sailing Club. Regatta participants would know Neil as the crew to Niall McGrotty. Margaret Casey had also indicated her intention to retire as Class Secretary. By my reckoning Margaret has been Secretary to at least three Chairmen, Marie, Neil Colin and I, and this period alone accounts for 9 years of service. Marie Barry has taken on the mantle of Secretary. Conor Clancy will continue as Treasurer.

Since the AGM there has been a committee meeting and individual activity in getting the calendar fixed for next year. In addition to our normal roster of events, with 2017 being an odd-numbered year, there will be a three day Volvo Dun Laoghaire event over the first weekend of July. Next year’s Fireball Europeans are scheduled for August in Lyme Regis on the English South Coast. Given their proximity, there is an expectation of Irish participation.

Finally, the end of year prize-giving will take place in the National Yacht Club on Friday 25th November.

With the normal Fireball scribes for the Frostbite racing in Northern Ireland for the day and in the Caribbean for at least a week, the reporting of the penultimate Sunday of the 2015/16 Frostbite Series fell on Neil Colin.

Neil reports thus;

The ladies in pink stole the show with two wins on a beautiful spring day, in gentle 5 - 8 knot breezes, racing inside the harbour.

The ladies started the first beat of race one with a hard turn to the right hand corner and took a healthy 10 boat lead at mark one, to a rousing cheer from their favourite mark layer, and even a photo opportunity, but by the time they had reached mark 4, the pack were upon them and Noel had stolen their crown. But not so fast, another hard right side put them back in the game and they led for the next 3 laps to take the gun. Meantime the rest of the fleet played snakes and ladders, with only Noel and Stephen maintaining a consistent place.

Between races the fleet encouraged the pink ladies to repeat the performance, adding the pressure……..  and they duly delivered a second race win around a smaller course, with fewer rounds in a dying breeze.  Well done!

The “ladies in pink” are Louise McKenna and Hermine O’Keeffe who during the winter months, at least, can be distinguished by distinctive pink woolly hats. We have yet to establish if the ownership and wearing of a pink hat is a prerequisite for sailing in 14691, Goodness  Gracious, but as Neil’s words above suggest they has a superb day on Sunday past.

There was a great symmetry about the results on this second-last Sunday of the winter season with Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) scoring two seconds, Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) scoring two thirds and Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire (14865) scoring two fourths.

Seven boats contested the first race of the day and the fleet was reduced to four boats for the second.

With the final Sunday of racing being March 20^th, the overall situation is as follows;

The prize-giving on Sunday will be at 17:00 if there is racing and at 15:00 if there is no racing.