#fireball – From early on in the day, XCWeather was suggesting that at 19:00, the scheduled start time for Tuesday night racing, wind would be from the west, blowing 23 knots, gusting 33 knots, but that it would be sunny with an air temperature of 12˚ writes Cormac Bradley.
That might explain why, at 18:10 the dinghy park of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club and the Coal Harbour were devoid of any dinghy activity or personnel. A quick check of the Dun Laoghaire Harbour website weather gave the wind strength as westerly, 16.9 knots with a gust of 27.2 knots. It had a more favourable temperature of 14˚, but that wasn't sufficient to persuade anyone out onto the water. Beyond the harbour walls, viewed from my 2nd floor office window, Dublin Bay to the west of the harbour – the city side – was windswept and covered in white caps even though it was slack water at the bottom of the tide.
So while the DMYC yardarm was not flying the flags of surrender to Mother Nature, it was apparent that everyone had worked out for themselves that racing wouldn't be happening.
As this short report is being typed, it is a lot quieter outside my front room window, too late for racing now!