The Irish Fireball Class Association held its AGM a few weeks back, and we had one individual who chose to take a break from the committee but compensated for that with the addition of a number of new members. Hermine O'Keeffe has previously served as Dun Laoghaire Harbour Class Captain but has stood down from the committee after a number of years. She is replaced as DL Class Captain by Owen Sinnott, a new committee member, and Paul Ter Horst has taken on Silver Fleet Class Captain's mantle.
Like most classes, Fireball spent more time in 2020 cancelling events than promoting them as the COVID crisis decimated the sailing calendar from April onwards.
Even when the Dublin Bay Sailing Club made the decision to extend the season to compensate for the late start to the year, Level 5 restrictions snuffed out the opportunity to race into October.
However, hope springs eternal and a new calendar for 2021 has been formulated to try and get back to a full suite of regattas.
The 2021 calendar still has a small element of flux to it in that not all the dates are completely tied down. As things currently stand, the regatta schedule is as follows;
Irish 2021 Fireball Dinghy Regatta Schedule
- April 17/18 – Coaching weekend hosted by DMYC.
- May 15/16 – Ulster Championships, Newtownards Sailing Club (Strangford Lough).
- June/July* - Open Championships, Skerries Sailing Club.
- 2/3/4 July – Leinster Championships, Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.
- 23 – 25 July – National Championships, DMYC.
- 25/26 September – Munster Championships, Killaloe Sailing Club.
- 31 August – 6 September – UK Nationals in Abersoch.
- 11 – 17 September – Europeans, Piombino, Marina di Salivoli, Tuscany.
- 7- 18 February 2022 – Fireball Worlds, Royal Geelong, Australia.
*Dates to be confirmed/negotiated.
This represents a return to a domestic five-regatta schedule which given the health circumstances we are living in might be deemed ambitious. However, I think the policy has to be to plan on a full regatta schedule now if it has to change as time passes, it is less hassle to cancel than to reschedule at short notice.
