#fireball – A modest turnout of eight Fireballs was served a double header of two races yesterday in Dun Laoghaire though only seven actually raced. Considering the recent weather – howling gales and driving rain – the conditions were almost benign – trapezing conditions with some harder squalls scudding across the water. Wind direction was 150 - 160º. A bit of drizzle descended on the fleet during the afternoon.

In the first race the way to go was left which was the side favoured by Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) and they were rewarded by crossing the Butler-Rumball tag team two thirds of the way up the first beat on the way to a weather mark that was to the east of the HSS gantry. Smyth/Bradley rounded first followed by Noel Butler & Conor Kinsella (15061) and the Rumball brothers Kenny & Alexander (15058). Behind them young Ed Coyne, up from Youghal again, was driving Neil Colin's boat (14775) with Margaret Casey on the wire, with Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney (14790), Eamonn Bourke & Robert Slater (14817) and Cariosa Power & Ed (14854) closing out the sequence.

Smyth & Bradley held off Butler & Kinsella for the first lap of the trapezoid but tacking immediately at Mk 4 and sailing a short distance upwind on starboard tack, the latter pair were able to take the lead within 100m of rounding the leeward mark. Team Rumball and Smyth worked the right-hand-side of the course while Malcolm/Diviney went hard left. At the 2nd windward mark with Butler/Kinsella enjoying a lead of about 50m these three converged with Malcolm coming up the port layline and the other two on the starboard layline. Malcolm's tack to round the mark led to avoiding action being taken by the other two and a minor contact between Smyth & Rumball. Rumball called for turns which were duly taken allowing him to overtake the two boats and go into second. Malcolm's penalty was completed marginally before Smyth's allowing him to take 3rd place, a position they retained to the finish. Smyth/Bradley took fourth place and the Frostbite Mug for the race.

The wind had eased marginally for the second race and this time the tag team wasn't interrupted by boats getting in between them. Until the last lap of the 3-lap course, on the spinnaker leg between Marks 2 and 3, a slightly oversized blanket could have covered Messrs Butler/Kinsella and Rumball²! In truth, one gets the impression that they would be just as happy being last and 2nd last just so long as the boat closest to them was the other half of the tag team. The reality of course is something else – not only do they have the ability to match race each other round the course, in doing so they sail away from the rest of us, nine times out of ten!!

And so it was that Team Rumball, despite the close attentions of Butler and Kinsella led the second race around the first weather mark. They (the two boats) worked the middle and right of the course while Malcolm & Diviney went left again. Smyth/Bradley also went left with the result that these four boats went round in reasonably tight formation. However, in contrast to the first race where the first four boats got away, in this race the fleet stayed quite tight throughout. Eamonn Bourke and Robert Slater (14817) were sniping at the transom of Smyth & Bradley and they led them round the last weather mark, but the latter pair passed them out again on the spinnaker legs.

Up front Team Rumball led the entire race but their shadow was never more than a couple of boat-lengths away until the last spinnaker leg between Marks 2 and 3. Clearly determined to try something different, Butler & Kinsella gybed immediately at Mk 2 while the Rumballs stayed on. The gamble didn't pay off because by the time Butler/Kinsella gybed back again to come into Mk 3, Team Rumball were gone – opening up a healthy lead – in shadow measurements – to win comfortably. Behind Butler/Kinsella came Malcolm/Diviney and Smyth/Bradley with Bourke & Slater taking fifth place and the day's second Frostbite Mug.

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club – 2013/14 Frostbites, Series 2, 16 February. Race 1 Race 2
Kenneth Rumball & Alexander Rumball 15058 Irish National
Sailing School 2 1
Noel Butler & Conor Kinsella 15061 Dun Laoghaire
Motor Yacht Club 1 2
Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney 14790 Howth Yacht Club 3 3
Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley 15007 Coal Harbour 4 4
Eamonn Bourke & Robert Slater 14817 Howth Yacht Club 5 5

Series Convener, Olivier Proveur was able to tell the day's prize-giving that there are now 102 boats entered in the Series, one of the latest being Shane McCarthy, of Fireball and GP 14 accomplishments, who has entered the first Solo to take part in the series. The biggest day turnout to date has been 79 boats, just before Christmas.

With 6 races now completed a single discard comes into play, giving an overall results table as follows;

Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club – 2013/14 Frostbites, Series 2; Overall (with 1 discard).
1 Kenneth Rumball & Alexander Rumball/David Moran Irish National
Sailing School 15058 7pts
2 Noel Butler & Stephen Oram/Conor Kinsella Dun Laoghaire
Motor Yacht Club 15061 8pts
3 Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney Howth Yacht Club 14790 26pts
4 Neil Colin/Ed Coyne & Margaret Casey Dun Laoghaire
Motor Yacht Club 14775 28pts
5 Conor Clancy & James Clancy Royal St. George
Yacht Club 14807 29pts

#frostbites – It my have been sailing as usual in Kinsale yesterday but the Frostbites in Dun Laoghaire Harbour fell victim to adverse weather again with strong gusty winds initiating the flying of "N over A" from the yard-arm of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC). Yet again, the forecast was foul for both Saturday and Sunday with Met Eireann predicting up to Force 10 for Saturday moderating to Force 6 to 7 on Sunday. XC Weather wasn't offering anything more attractive!

What made the conditions deceptive was that it was bright with a blue sky over Dublin Bay. However, the first tell-tale sign that sailing was in jeopardy was when I came out of Foxrock Church on Sunday morning and couldn't see any keelboats out. A quick visit to the harbour revealed that the wind was whistling in the rigging – never the most comfortable sound in the dinghy park.

A quick consultation with my helm, Louis Smyth, by phone saw us agree that racing would be a marginal call and so we decided that we would exercise the option of watching rugby from Paris.

A second visit to the harbour later in the afternoon revealed the "N over A" scenario but by that stage the conditions were more favourable – so much so that training sessions for Optimists and Laser Radials were underway inside the harbour.

#frostbites – Thanks to weekend storms both east and south coast sailing frostbite series were cancelled yesterday. Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club's Frostbite Dinghy harbour series was scrubbed and likewise on the south coast where Kinsale's renowned sheltered harbour was no match for the south westerly gale that prompted an orange alert warning from Met Eiereann and the Coast Guard.

Both series are expected to resume next Sunday.

#fireball – The last Sunday of Frostbite racing in Dun Laoghaire for 2013 was brought to an early close when the Race Team decided that the combination of the overnight weather forecast (Storm Force 9) and the actual conditions meant that racing should not proceed. There didn't seem to be too much objection to the decision from those who were in the clubhouse of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club when the Race Team made their decision public. Some three hours later, when a modest gathering formed at the clubhouse for the series prize-giving, the wisdom of the decision to abandon racing was confirmed when the comment was made "that you wouldn't have wanted to be on the water at 14:45!"

Considering that the entry level for the Frostbites is nearly ninety boats, the turn out for the prize-giving was modest – none of the four classes, PY, Lasers, RS Classes and Fireballs had a full turnout of the 1-2-3 prizewinners. Due thanks were recorded to the Race Team who have provided racing from November 3rd by the principle organizer and MC for the prize-giving at each Sunday and yesterday, Olivier Proveur. He, in turn, was thanked by a member of the Race Team for all his effort.

The Fireball results for Series 1 of the Frostbites have seen an unusual scenario, Messrs Butler and Oram back in third place overall, without a 2013/14 Frostbite Mug in their respective trophy cabinets. However, that observation has to be tempered by the fact that only four points cover the top three boats. The loss of yesterday's race also meant that there is no discard for Series 1 so the results of two weeks ago are now the final results.

#fireball – Halloween has gone.........it must be Frostbite Time! With the celebrations of ghouls and ghosts gone for another year, the Irish Fireball fleet can embrace the prospect of Frostbite and Sunday afternoon sailing for the next 5 months.

A modest fleet of eight Fireballs initiated the 2013/14 Frostbite Series in the company of RS 400s, RS 200s, Lasers, Lasers Radials, IDRAs and one 470.

On Saturday the wind was very strong and both the Met Eireann and XC Weather websites were suggesting that we were in for a battering on Saturday night, but that the winds would ease during the course of Sunday – so much so that by 18:00 on Sunday evening XC Weather was saying that there would be as little as 1 – 2 knots. The Race Committee went out into the main body of Dun Laoghaire's harbour under blue skies and a modest breeze out of the West. With the obvious intent of taking advantage of the benign weather a programme of two races was declared.

As the last start of the day, the Fireballs were clustered towards the pin-end of the line with a group of probably five boats fighting to be the pin end boat. Kenneth Rumball, with brother Alexander as crew (15058) was in the mix with Noel Butler and Joe O'Reilly (15061), Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775), Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706). The quest for the pin was to facilitate an early tack onto port to sail up the port-hand side of the course. There had to be a victim in this quest and so it was as an individual recall was signaled after the start. No-one went back.

Those boats who had not pursued the pin-slot were of course subject to the prospect of being sailed over by those who were to windward of them. One of these was Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007) who saw Court/Syme go over them. Others who were slightly to leeward of the ideal line to the first weather mark were Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire (14865), Conor Clancy (14807) and Luke Malcolm and Shane Divenny (14790). An adverse wind shift as they approached the weather mark saw Smyth & Bradley round this mark in last place. In reverse order, the sequence was Smyth, Chambers, Clancy, Malcolm, Court, Colin, Rumball & Butler. Messrs Butler & Rumball tagged each other round the rest of the course with never more than a few boat-lengths between them. The lead changed hands a number of times, even on the same leg! This gave Colin & Casey a bit of leeway to do their own thing and on occasion they sailed a very different upwind leg to the rest of the fleet, staying right rather than going left immediately after the leeward mark.

Three laps were set for this first race of the Series to accommodate a second race so the pressure was on to recover places. The top three had a slight gap over the rest of us, so the bulk of the changes were among the 5-boat chasing group. Smyth got ahead of Chambers on the first downwind leg, but Malcolm, sailing with us for the first time since the last Frostbite Series, lost out to Smyth and Clancy as the race progressed. The lead alternated between Rumball and Butler but the brothers led at the critical stage – over the finish line. Colin & Casey went over the finish line to silence, meaning that those behind them were elevated by one place.

As XC Weather predicted, the wind then began to switch off and the plan to have a second race was abandoned. The mark-laying ribs helped to get the fleet ashore by offering tows to shore.

Sunday June 9th sees the return of the popular and novel Kish lighthouse Solo/Two Handed Race on Dublin Bay aimed at both the regular Bay racers and non racers alike.

The race is run by the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club (DMYC).

The event offers a challenge of seamanship to all sailors, as well as the challenge of navigating a course to and manoeuvring around the lighthouse structure.

Last year's  solo category was dominated by Ruffian sailors, with many managing to set the kite during the race. The event is open to all keelboats with an ECHO certificate, who comply with Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) safety standards.

The club will have several support craft along the route and take a cautious view on the weather conditions on the day, to ensure safety is paramount.

Entry forms and the NOR are available from the office in the DMYC on the West Pier.

#dmycfrostbite – Winter ought to be over by now and the DMYC Frostbite series has come to the end of its 42nd year. Quite an institution. However, winter doesn't seem to be finished with us quite yet so 25-35 knot winds and temperatures of 2 degC confronted the fleets instead of the hoped-for Spring warmth.

The organisers and sailors left the decisions as long as possible in the hopes of one last race. There was no let up in the conditions and racing was cancelled for the day so the OK Dinghy didn't have to protect its lead in series 2. In any case, conditions at the RSGYC's slipway meant there was no way that the OK Dinghy could be launched. Enough of the easterly swell was reaching the slip to render any attempt at a launch both foolish and potentially dangerous....on that slipway at least.

However, the fleets took advantage of the lousy weather by heading for the DMYC where pints, prizes and Irish Tapas were the order of the day – along with some interesting announcements about the summer sailing.

In the PY fleet there were two sets of results up for grabs; the post-Xmas races in Series 2 and the Overall 2012/13 series.

The results in Series 2 were as follows:

OK Dinghy / Sheehy
GP14 / O'Brien & Sheridan
IDRA14 / Long & Rea

While the overall 2012/13 DMYC Frostbite series results were;

OK Dinghy / Sheehy
IDRA14 / Long & Rea
IDRA14 / Hamilton & Byrne

There was also a quick introductory talk about the activities of the Dún Laoghaire Dinghies team and the soon to be launched "Island Trial". These will be exciting additions to dinghy sailing on Dublin Bay in 2013

#fireball – The decision to race the Frostbites on St. Patrick's Day, 17th March, neither attracted a big fleet nor nice weather. The smallest Fireball fleet of the entire series, 9 boats, was greeted by damp grey, flat conditions and no obvious sign of the means to have a race. Getting out of the harbour was an extended exercise in kinetics and some of those who mistimed their departure from shore in the conditions will have been grateful for the postponement enforced on the Race Officer who had nothing to work with at the scheduled start of 14:00.

What little wind that did appear came out of the NE but it was very fickle and at its strongest on the first lap of the initial three lap course. Eight of the nine boats in the fleet worked the middle and left of the course. The exception was Conor Clancy, crewed by James Devlin (150**) who went right off the line. Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) also went right but at a later stage of the first beat. The leaders in the series Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) worked the middle to keep a watching brief on Kenny Rumball who had a guest crew in the form of Shane McCarthy (15058).

Clancy's right side play was rewarded when he rounded first but the second boat was Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706) who approached the weather mark on the port layline. Third round were Butler & Oram, followed by Colin & Casey and Rumball/McCarthy. However, at this stage the fleet was in close company and only a few boat lengths separated each of the boats from the one in front of them. The two reaches of the first triangle didn't conjure up any place changes.

On the second beat it was a case of not getting too far removed form your nearest opposition and as a consequence everyone ended up working the middle of the course to varying degrees. At this stage the wind was still reasonable in the context of the day. At the 2nd weather mark the leaders, Clancy/Devlin, Butler/Oram and Court/Syme gybed immediately to head inshore whereas Colin/Casey, Rumball/McCarthy and Louise McKenna and Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) stayed offshore. The second gybe mark was now a tidal challenge as the ebbing tide held the upper hand on the fading wind. It claimed one victim who then retired altogether.

As the leaders approached the leeward mark a shortened course was signalled. Clancy/Devlin and Butler/Oram were having a close quarter battle for the lead and they took slightly different approaches to the finish. Clancy/Devlin took a short hitch before tacking to the finish whereas Butler/Oram did the opposite. This promoted a very tight finish with the winning margin very much less than a boat-length.

The Series 2 points table sees Butler & Oram with a healthy margin over Rumball & Kinsella/Moran who need to be aware of Team Clancy over their shoulders. A quick perusal of the score sheet for Butler & Oram confirms that their worst result in this Series is a 2nd.

The combined Series 1 and Series 2 table was also available yesterday and this promotes the prospect of a last race duel for the outright win as only two points separate 1^st and 2^nd. Rumball/Kinsella/Moran lead by 2pts from Butler/Oram and neither of them has to worry about the third placed combination, Team Clancy who are 13pts further back. Of course what actually happens on the water is a different story and putting boats between themselves and Rumball will be the prime objective of Butler & Oram. Let’s hope there is wind to make the finale a good one!

#fireball – On Saturday Dublin Bay was a sheet of glass! Very early Sunday morning saw a repeat condition which prompted this correspondent to think we would have a second Sunday cancelled due to a lack of wind writes Cormac Bradley.  However, as those who sailed the keelboats in the morning reported, when they went afloat the wind started to fill in and by 14:30, when I took up my position on the harbour wall, the weather station on the East Pier was recording winds of 10knots on a bearing of 153º in temperatures of 6.7º C.

Racing had been postponed for an hour to accommodate the HSS which is still operating out of Dun Laoghaire, and this factor combined with the favourable weather – sunshine and blue skies – allowed the fleet to go a short distance outside the harbour for their racing.

My last view of the weather station before the start had the wind at 11.5 knots on a bearing of 139º. While racing outside was to the benefit of the fleet, from a reporting perspective it made my job a little harder as I couldn't quite read the sail numbers rounding the weather mark and a preponderance of red spinnakers also caused some confusion. So while this report should have most of the key details right, thanks to being able to identify boats by the clothing combinations and some distinctive spinnaker colours, if all the details aren't right............my apologies!

The PY and Laser fleets had a mixed approach to the start and early stages of the first beat. In contrast the Fireball fleet was uniformly distributed along the start line by the start signal with Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14740) on the pin and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) one back from the pin. All thirteen boats went left initially before the peel to the right was initiated by some of those who were closer to the committee boat. Colin & Casey also peeled off early and were rewarded for their endeavours when they rounded the first weather mark in pole position. As the fleet was outside the harbour, the Fireballs had a separate weather mark, upwind of the mark for the PY and Laser fleets. Interestingly, as they had worked the other side of the beat, Creighton & O'Reilly rounded second. Thereafter the running order was Kenny Rumball & Dave Moran (15058), Frank Miller & Susie Mulligan (14713), Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061). From my position the Fireballs seemed to sail very high on the first reach, but the consensus afterwards was that the leg was quite broad so sailing high gave them more speed and allowed an earlier gybe into the mark.

Colin & Casey led the fleet into the gybe but due to some close quarter stuff they believed they had infringed and set about doing a penalty. On getting a second opinion they resumed sailing the second reach but crucially had lost time and distance to Rumball/Moran and Creighton/O'Reilly who got away. Rumball/Moran led into the leeward mark.

The second, and subsequent beats, saw the leaders work the left hand side of the course to varying degrees. Rumball invariably took a port hitch until the second placed boat played their hand and tailored his tactics accordingly. Thus the leaders sailed parallel course up the left-hand side while the chasing group took longer hitches inshore to work inside them but from a position astern. On the second beat Rumball sailed all the way to the port lay line to round ahead of Butler, Creighton and Colin. These positions stayed the same for the remainder of the second lap.

Alexander Rumball & Conor Kinsella (14820) then entered the fray at the third weather mark having worked the beat inside his brother and Butler/Oram. Sailing with a red spinnaker, rather than the blue I would associate with them, this was an instance where the clothing combination allowed them to be identified. Rumball/Moran again rounded first, again favouring a port layline approach, Butler came to the right hand side earlier to approach the mark on starboard tack and Rumball/Kinsella went round third. Creighton/O'Reilly and Colin/Casey closed out the top five, but Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14953) had come through the fleet to get into sixth while Miller/Mulligan dropped to seventh.

For the latter stages of the next beat a shipping movement to the east of the course, parallel to the port lay-line but far enough away not to present a safety issue, was the feature. Six stainless steel silos for the upgrading of the St James's Gate Guinness brewery in Dublin carried on board the Keizenborg of the Wagenborg line, part of a consignment of 27 silos, arrived in Dun Laoghaire. It didn't really influence the cat and mouse game that had evolved between Rumball/Moran and Butler/Oram, the former doing the classic cover of staying between their opposition and the weather mark. However, they did not go all the way to the lay-line but came across earlier to approach the weather mark on starboard. Rumball/Kinsella split the previous pair to round in second place, approaching the mark on the port lay-line. These three had a significant lead on the rest of the fleet, where the chasing order had changed again! Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) had passed out Colin/Casey to slot in behind Creighton/O'Reilly and Doyle/Sweeney. By the third leeward mark, Butler/Oram had overtaken the younger Rumball when they went to windward and leeward respectively of a group of Lasers approaching the leeward mark.

Two of these three again worked the left-hand side of the beat, the third taking a more inshore route to the weather mark. Rumball/Moran led around the fourth weather mark, by a margin of 20 seconds, followed by Butler/Oram and his younger brother. McKenna/O'Keeffe pinched more places to go to fourth, with Doyle, Colin, Creighton & Miller chasing them. Rumball K extended his lead on the offwind legs, but the leading three boats were the best part of ¾ of a leg ahead of the rest of the fleet.

As the leaders worked the latter stages of the fifth and final beat the HSS emerged from the harbour, an hour later than had been expected. However, she had no influence on the racing as she turned eastwards on her way to Holyhead. At the fifth weather mark the lead had changed hands. After the race Noel Butler explained how he and Oram had been able to get out from underneath Rumball/Moran to reverse the roles of coverer and coveree and rounding the weather mark for the last time, Butler/Oram had a few boat-lengths of the elder Rumball. Done and dusted...........not quite!
In the final approach to the gybe mark, Butler/Oram nearly went swimming. A very uncharacteristic slip by Oram who was trapezing off the centerboard case saw Butler scrambling to the windward deck to prevent a full immersion. This was enough of a glitch to allow Rumball/Moran to overtake them and go into the lead. On the second reach, the new leaders were able to pull out a few more boat-lengths to hold out for the win.

On my way back along the East Pier the weather station was recording 9.8knots with a "gust-high" of 16.4knots and an air temperature of 6.4º. The blue skies had gone and a mistiness to be replaced by broken grey clouds though the sun still shone.

The post-mortem after the race revealed that Creighton & O'Reilly broke a trapeze wire which explained their drop in the rankings. Doyle & Sweeney were deemed OCS. The day's Frostbite Mugs went to Alexander Rumball & Conor Kinsella.

In overall terms for Series 2, Butler & Oram retain their five point lead which means that their aggregate over the two Series still leaves them on top.

There are three race-days left in the Series, 10th, 17th and 24th March. March 17th is of course St. Patrick's Day and will give us in Ireland a long weekend, as the Monday will be a Bank Holiday in lieu of the Sunday being St. Patrick's Day. The intention is to sail on the 17th and additional day-only entries for the 17th will be accepted. So if you haven't entered for the Series but want to sail on the 17th, you are most welcome and will be included in the day's results.

The expectation is that weather permitting, the last three days will be raced outside the harbour on the assumption that the HSS will still be operating out of Dun Laoghaire.

#fireball – Blustery conditions in Dun Laoghaire harbour yesterday made the day's Frostbite race more challenging than might normally be the case, for in addition to trying to work out the right way round the course, the wind conditions meant that staying upright also became a significant challenge writes Cormac Bradley.

And while the winners on the day achieved both objectives, some of the other more prominent challengers saw their day's work unravel when they went swimming. Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive (14934) were up at the front end of the chasing pack until an interaction with a Laser, being helmed by a Fireballer, saw them take a swim, break the end of the pole and do damage to their mainsail. Another combination who are enjoying a strong showing in this second half of the Frostbites, Gavin Doyle and Dave Sweeney (14953), had two swims. Mick Creighton and Glen Fisher (14740) also had a capsize on one of the beats. Another podium bid, by the Clancy brothers, Conor and James, (15***) came undone with a capsize at the least weather mark!

With a weather mark sitting just upwind of the ferry gantry and an offshore breeze, the approach to the weather mark required a little circumspection as it got very squally in the immediate vicinity of the mark. The leading boats had initially gone left and approached the weather mark shy of the port layline. However, those who had gone right a bit earlier didn't seem to have lost out and so there was almost a continuous procession of boats round the first weather mark. Kenny Rumball, with Conor Kinsella crewing (15058) got round first having gone left up the first beat, but then had to re-thread their spinnaker when the guy came out. In close proximity to Rumball & Kinsella were Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) and Team Clancy (15***). Luke Malcolm and Shane Divinney (14790) were having a better start to the day than in recent weeks and Gavin Doyle and Dave Sweeney (14953) were also well to the fore, as were Andy Boyle & Brian Flahive (14934). The likes of Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775) and Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706) were further back along with Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007).

Gybing on the mark left the fleet sailing too high relative to the leeward mark which meant that the double-gybe at the bottom of the second reach made for interesting boat-handling, particularly in the blustery conditions. The position of the limit mark for the start/finish line, on the line between the gybe and leeward mark and only 20-30m upwind of the leeward mark, introduced another "hazard" that some people came closer to than they might have preferred.

The leading boats appeared to favour a short hitch on port after the leeward mark before tacking onto starboard to work the middle of the course. The boats behind then seemed to work the extremes of the course, ending up either hard left or right and it was very easy to get out of synch. Having appeared to have put "boats away" in the early part of the beat, it was then very frustrating to seem them take meters out of you when they rounded the next weather mark ahead.

Butler & Oram did a horizon job on the fleet leading during the second half of the race by almost a leg (leeward to gybe marks). Rumball/Kinsella led the chasing pack and Malcolm/Divinney had their best day for a while by staying with the chasing bunch. Team Clancy were almost ever present in the chase until their unscheduled swim at the last weather mark. Doyle/Sweeney came badly unstuck to fall out of the top half of the fleet as did Boyle/Flahive.

This afforded Colin/Casey and Court/Syme to move up the fleet while in the middle Smyth/Bradley and Creighton/Fisher were dicing with each other.

Despite the viciousness of some of the squalls, the bigger problem was with the lulls and crews had to work very hard to keep their boats upright. Nobody was disappointed when a 2nd race wasn't scheduled.

The day's Frostbite Mugs went to Louis Smyth and Cormac Bradley in 7th place. A fleet of 13 boats started the race but the conditions took their toll with 4 retirals.

In overall terms the 2nd Series of the Frostbites is becoming the Butler & Oram show as they enjoy an 8pts lead over their closest rivals. This will start to have implications for the combined scores of the two series, to find the 2012/3 Frostbite Champion.

Leading Fireball sailor, Noel Butler will join two other high profile dinghy sailors, James Espey (Olympic Laser 2012) and Graham Elmes to give a talk next Saturday, 23rd February in the Royal St. George Yacht Club at 10:30. Marketed as a "First Dinghy Summit", the event has a charge of €10 (at the door) with the option of lunch afterwards.

Noel's presentation will deal with the psychology of winning and being properly prepared and will detail how he came into sailing and how he approaches training. For those of us who have raced against him, this should prove an interesting insight.

James Espey will focus on laser sailing while Graham Elmes will concentrate on starting techniques and the first beat.

Everyone is welcome to the Summit.