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#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.

 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.