Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

#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.