#frostbites – Dun Laoghaire harbour was quite a soggy scene when a downpour hit the DMYC Frostbite fleet just before the scheduled start of proceedings and whatever wind there might have been was killed off shortly thereafter writes Cormac Bradley.
From a waterside location, just on the seaward side of the Dun Laoghaire marina, the committee boat started off at the mouth of the harbour and progressively moved inshore until it was just to the west of the gantry for the HSS ferry. A substantial fleet of Lasers, RSs, IDRAs and nine Fireballs floated around the committee boat until, just after 14:30, three blasts of the starter's horn brought proceedings to a close.
By that stage the atmosphere was starting to improve, the rain had disappeared off to sea but stillness descended to replace it. The air temperature wasn't bad at 10˚, but the fleet would have a long sail home.

#dmycfrostbites – Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, with a gusty 15 knots in Dun Laoghaire harbour writes Marty O'Leary. A record 16 RS dinghies gathered on the startline for the first race of the series of the DMYC frostbites, enjoying exceptionally warm weather for this time of year. Dun Laoghaire welcomed several familiar faces, as well as some visitors from Greystones and further afield.

The race officer set the course at four laps of a trapezoid course based inside the harbour, and racing got off to a clean start, with just one 200 being called back for being a bit too keen.

The early leaders popped out from the left, however no one was safe, with lead changes every leg. First to the windward mark was Sean Clery and new crew Donal Murphy in the 400, followed by Marty O'Leary and Rachel Williamson in the 200. Both boats opted to gybe early at mark two, and were left to watch as the boats that continued on sped by on the right hand side of the run.

It was then the turn of Emmet and James Ryan to take the lead up the second beat, and were looking comfortable as they hoisted the kite - until they managed to get tangled up in a laser, leaving the way clear for George Kingston and Ian McNamee to nip in, and take the lead, chased hard by Andrew and Paul.

The 200s were having their own battles,with O'Leary and Williamson taking an early lead, as class president Frank sailing with Heather Craig, had to turn back and re-cross the line for being OCS. Frank and Heather sailed hard, and chased down the pack and had a great tussle with Conor Totterdell and Myles Kelly. They successfully climbed back to 2nd, but didn't manage to catch O'Leary and Williamson, who collected the weekly mug for the RS's.

#fireballsailing – Despite a Sea Area forecast on Saturday night that suggested sailing would not be an option on Sunday, nine Fireballs took to the start line for the first Frostbite race of the 2014/15 Series. My on the water reporter, Neil Colin (IRL 14775) advises that the combination of the southerly wind direction and a low tide meant that Dun Laoghaire harbour was sheltered from most of the wind, but experienced "mega-shifts".

Earlier in the day the Flying Fifteen experiences and reports from the Turkey Shoot for bigger boats along with the sight of the big red chopper and lifeboat activity suggested there was greater wind offshore.

It seemed like almost all the 75+ entries to date were there to take advantage of the exceptionally mild weather, with boats everywhere!

The standard frostbite square was used, with the committee boat just inside the harbour mouth and the weather mark close to the marina breakwater, to maximise the course size, and maintain some separation between boats close hauled and those downwind. The result was great variances in pressure and direction at the weather mark, tending to support those on the edges of the course, rather than those in the centre.

4 laps were sailed, with great place changing on lap one on every leg, until Kenny Rumball, crewed by Teddy Byrne (IRL 15058) and Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (IRL15061) powered through on lap 2 to make a gap, leaving Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (IRL 14775), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (IRL 14713), Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (IRL 14691) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (IRL 14706) to tussle for the mid fleet slots.

This group did not see the dice between Kenny & Noel, but expect it was a two way battle, with Kenny & Teddy winning out!

New players Peter Doherty and Ciaran Fitzgerald, sailing IRL 14120, and the re-appearance of IRL 14790 (Shane McCarthy & A.N. Other) made up the fleet.

(Report by Neil Colin, modified words by Cormac Bradley.)

#dmyc – Online entry for the popular and long running DMYC dinghy frostbite series is now open. Racing in the for 2014 - 2015 series will take place each Sunday on Dublin Bay or inside Dun Laoghaire Harbour from 2nd November 2014 right through to 22nd March 2015.

First gun is at 1357 hours, and classes will include PY, Laser, RS (200 & 400), and Fireballs.

The DMYC says entries are limited to 120 maximum on a first come first served basis!

View the NOR and enter online here

#idra14 – The IDRA14 National Championships at Carlingford Lough concluded on Sunday. A good representation from Royal St. George, DMYC, Clontarf Y&BC and Sutton Dinghy Club saw eighteen crews attending. Results sheet downloadable below.

Pat O'Neill and Jim O'Hara (pictured) of Clontarf Yacht and Boat Club sailed to an almost perfect score of 6 points with 4 bullets over the 6 races on board Delos II.
Second overall were former National Champions Alan Henry and Simon Revill of Sutton Dinghy Club scoring 12 points on board "Sunshine"
In third place just one point behind were Julie Ascoop and Heather Keenan of DMYC sailing "Chaos"
In the Silver fleet former Class Commodore Stephen Harrison took line honours along with crew Stephen Johnston on board "Squalls" also sailing out of DMYC.
In the Crew's Race Calum Maher of Sutton Dinghy Club was first home. Star of the future potentially.
Race Officer Ian Sargent with support from Carlingford SC volunteers ran 7 races over 3 days in sometimes very challenging conditions.
The IDRA14 Class wishes to acknowledge the great welcome, hospitality and assistance shown to members both on and off the water by all member of Carlingford Sailing Club. Vice Commodore Erin Finnegan has invited the class to return with the event again in the future.

#dmyc – Dominic O'Keefe's Graduate, a J80 class yacht, was the IRC winner of class 2 in the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's (DMYC) Summer Regatta on Saturday. Second was William Despard's Blakc Sheep from the National Yacht Club. The regatta attracted a strong turn out in most classes despite a clash with the 36–boat Round Ireland Race from Wicklow. 

In the dinghy classes, two more Royal Irish sailors took honours in the single–handed Laser class. Paul Keane won from Justin Maguire in a four boat fleet over two races. 

In the eight boat Ruffian class, Michael Cutliffe was the winner of a two race event from Frank Bradley's Ripples, both of the host club.

Regatta results supplied by DMYC are downloadable below as a zip file. The results can be opened with ms word, notepad or wordpad

#Laser - The final weekend of the Dun Laoghaire Laser Frostbite was a real cracker, as the high winds of the morning moderated around midday and the sun came out.

The race officer set his usual trapezoid with the windward mark just off the west pier, making for a shifty last third of the beat, and the 16 Lasers that made the start looked forward to a longer than usual five-lap race.

The pin end was marginally favoured, and the beat was a little one-sided, meaning that most boats soon tacked onto port for the long fetch across the harbour.

The fleet sailed hard up the first beat, hiking in a way that you only ever see on the last weekend of a series. At the windward mark it was Richard Harding who managed to nip round first ahead of Dwyer and a significant group containing David Cahill, Graham Elmes and Alan Hodgins. 

The first reach was tight and gusty, and the bear away at the end was dangerous. Harding led down the first run with Elmes and then Cahill threatening. At the leeward mark it was Harding from Cahill and Elmes.

The wind remained shifty and there were opportunities to make ground if you could pick the right spot to take the short hike across on starboard, but the large part of the upwind section involved thrashing though the short chop at the entrance to the harbour.

At the front Harding gradually extended from Cahill. Elmes and Hodgins had a close battle for a couple of laps with Elmes finally getting the jump on Hodgins.

From a series perspective, Harding needed to take two points from Cahill to take overall honours. But although Elmes threatened, he never quite got onto the transom of Cahill, who sailed hard to retain his second place in the final race, and win the Frostbite Series overall by one point from Harding.

At the prize giving there was general agreement that the Frostbite had been a great success. All those involved, from the race officer to the safety crews to the bar staff at the DMYC were warmly thanked for all the hard work that they had put in to making the event such a success.

#fireball – The penultimate Sunday of the DMYC Frostbite Series, 16th March, saw another two races sailed in a brisk Westerly which gave all the crews a good work out. The turnout may have been influenced by the fact that it is a three day weekend here in Ireland, today being St Patrick's Day - a Bank Holiday & public holiday. 9 and 7 boats contested a 4-lap and a 3-lap race respectively.

Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) worked the left hand side of the course and were rewarded by rounding first followed closely by the Rumball brothers, Kenneth & Alexander (15058) and Noel Butler and Conor Kinsella (15061). Team Rumball nudged ahead on the spinnaker leg only to take an early bath before they got to Mark 2. That gave Smyth & Bradley the lead back again though due to their immediate proximity Messrs Butler & Kinsella might contest that claim.

The early section of the leg from Mk 2 to Mk 3 was complicated by the gantry for the HSS with the leading two boats sailing towards it on starboard with Butler outside Smyth, who felt obliged to gybe away following a hail from Butler. A discussion later with Butler suggested that wasn't what he was asking for!

By Mk 3 Butler & Kinsella were just ahead and went on to lead the rest of the race, extending their lead as the race evolved.
The pressure on Smyth & Bradley in 2nd came from Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) with the former appearing to be faster upwind while the latter closed the gap offwind.

The wind stayed steady direction wise but was squally leading to some of the top spinaker leg being two-sailed rather than three-sailed as the race progressed.

Team Rumball charged back into the reckoning, appearing on Smyth's transom after Mk 1 for the last time. They took second place as the lap progressed and Smyth was also put under pressure by Court until a capsize under spinnaker put an end to his podium challenge.

Race 11: Butler & Kinsella (15061), DMYC, Rumball & Rumball (15058), INSC, Smyth & Bradley (15007), Coal Harbour, Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney (14790), HYC & Eamonn Bourke & Robert Slater (14817), HYC.

In the interlude before Race 12 of the series the wind got up in strength but dropped off again as the start sequence was initiated. All seven Fireballs were stacked at the committee boat end of the line in a very competitive start. At the top end of the beat, at Mk 1, the rounding order was Butler, Rumball and Smyth with Frank Miller and Ed (14713) in fourth.
The course symmetry had been tweaked so the duality of approach after Mark 2 was reduced. The first three boats weren't really challenged but the group behind were having their own challenge - Messrs Miller, Malcolm (14790) and Bourke (14817) enjoyed a full race in every sense of the word.

Race 12: Butler & Kinsella, Rumball & Rumball, Smyth & Bradley, Miller & Ed (14713), DMYC, Bourke & Slater (14817), HYC.

The only Mug for the day went to Cariosa Power and Peter Doherty (14854) in the first race.

With 12 races now completed and three discards coming into play, the overall position is as follows;

1. Kenneth Rumball & David Moran/Alexander Rumball, INSC, 11pts.

2. Noel Butler & Stephen Oram/Conor Kinsella, DMYC, 17pts.

3. Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney, HYC, 39pts.

4. Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley,
Coal Harbour, 52pts.

5. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey, DMYC, 54pts.

Sunday 23rd is the last Sunday of the Series and the prizegiving wil be after racing in the DMYC or if racing is cancelled, at 15:00 in the clubhouse..

#fireball – The combination of "N over A" was flying over the DMYC Clubhouse again yesterday, Sunday 23rd February, signalling that racing for the day had fallen victim to the weather. While conditions were mild, the forecast was for F4 - 6, rising to F8 later in the afternoon.

In contrast to previous Sundays when racing was cancelled but training sessions under other organisations continued, yesterday there was no sailing activity at all in Dun Laoghaire's harbour except for the hardy INSS Squib sailing adventure

#laser – In the first of the day's two races the Laser start was rather congested at the pin end. Perhaps a few too many had watched Hugh Sheehy's OK Dinghy cross the fleet with a perfectly executed port end flyer and were tempted to try the same. However a right-hand shift mid-way up the first beat meant that Hodgins, who started safely in the middle of the line, was ahead at the first cross.

The right appeared to pay on the second half of the beat and Harding lead from Cahill at the first mark with Hodgins a close third. There were big gains and losses at the corners but Harding kept close tabs on Cahill whilst sticking to the middle of the race track to hang on for the win, with Cahill second, Hodgins third and Hudson fourth.

The second race started in similar fashion with a significant port end bias leading to some struggling to cross the line on starboard. With big shifts still dominating the middle seemed to be the safest place to be and Harding lead round the first mark again from Cahill and Hodgins. With plenty of traffic around, nerves across the fleet were frayed on the run as the wind dropped to around 5-6knts.

On the second beat, Hodgins gambled on the right hand side and started the second lap in the lead with Cahill having squeezed past Harding to remain second. As the leading two fought for clear air down the run, Harding was allowed to close up and the first three rounded the bottom mark in quick succession. All three tacked quickly and Harding led out to the left although Hodgins soon tacked right looking to repeat his gains of the previous lap. This time however the wind swung left giving Harding had a decent advantage at the final windward mark which he held to the finish with Cahill second followed by Hodgins. Malcolm (fourth) and Vedo (fifth) pushed Hudson down to 6th.

Hudson now leads the second series after six races with 22pts.

Race Report by Richard Harding