It’s for days like this that we sail Flying Fifteens on Dublin Bay, a sunny warm afternoon with a nice force 3/4 from the SE on excellent courses set by Suzanne McGarry and her team on Freebird. There were two races, the first won by Ian Mathews & Keith Poole in Gruffalo and the second won by Chris Doorly & Alan Green in Frequent Flyer.
It was the last Saturday of the DBSC summer series and the thirteen boats that turned out enjoyed great conditions and close racing. Coughlin & Marshal were in great form sailing particularly well having two thirds.
In Race 1 Mathews was out of the blocks quickly and led all the way, Doorly & Green were second close behind and chased Mathews all the way, these two extended their lead, behind it was a closer affair but Coughlin & Marshal managed to pull ahead of the Cahills to take third place. It was not a very shifty day so places tended to stay as they were over the four laps.
In Race 2 the line was square, most boats headed in to the right, Green helming this race, went more left out to sea hoping for more wind, it was close at the weather mark but Mathews coming from the right got the lead, Green was second followed closely by Coughlin and the Meaghers. Green and Mathews pulled ahead and Green got close on the second beat tacked inside Mathews to take advantage of one of the few shifts of the day to close the gap. On the last beat Mathews outhaul came undone, he managed to half fix it but Green took advantage and just nipped it on the line. Behind Coughlin and the Meaghers were having a great ding dong sail but Coughlin got into third.
It was great to see so many boats out racing, the turn outs this season has been fantastic. Thanks must go to Ronan Beirne and his committee for encouraging people to get out even it is isn’t with their usual crew or helm. Next week the NYC Frostbite Series starts and will continue into November.
The class travels to Lough Derg in October for the Western Championships. While other classes fold up their sails the flying fifteen class have two more events!
Results of the final DBSC 2015 race are here
