Four Fireballs made it to the start line of the long-awaited first Tuesday DBSC races since lockdown. The forecast was not promising much more than 2 knots but actually sailors were greeted with a very decent force 2-3 southerly. On this auspicious occasion, Dun Laoghaire Harbour was dominated by a huge fleet of Lasers, unsurprisingly given that it appeared for many weeks that singlehanded boats might be the only dinghies allowed to race this season.
The single-handers also included at least four Aeros, two of which were sailed by Fireball National Champions Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. So it was that the Fireballs got away in the first PY start in a five-lap windward-leeward race - Frank Miller with crew Grattan Donnelly got their bow in front about 2/3 the way down the pin favoured line and maintained their lead over the course, finishing well ahead of Cariosa Power/Marie Barry and Owen Sinnott/Andrea, with Nick Miller/Paul Ter Horst a little further behind in their newly acquired ship. While racing the windward-leeward course was straightforward enough the interventions around the course of more than 30 Lasers added a layer of excitement to proceedings.
Race two got underway with a 2 lap challenge in slightly lighter air which had swung between ten and twenty degrees further south. Again the pin was slightly favoured but this time Power/Barry timed a perfect pin start with Miller/Donnelly just to windward. In the event Miller/Donnelly edged out in front with marginally better speed and height. Both tacked at the port layline with Miller/Donnelly managing to hold off the challengers to round in the lead. While Power/Barry closed the gap on several occasions they never quite threatened the leaders who took the gun again. In third were Sinnott/Andrea while Nick Miller /Ter Horst took a break.
All in all a terrific night's sailing with solid race management led by Suzanne McGarry and her team.
Results are here
