Ten Fireballs made it to the start line of the Viking Marine DMYC Frostbites series yesterday (Sunday 5 December), with one boat stranded ashore seeking crew. The sunshine drew out a good entry from all fleets despite the chilly and blustery conditions.
Race one with an Olympic triangle-type course got away bang on time, almost catching out Frank Miller/Ed Butler who were upwind checking out conditions and shifts. The duo made it to the pin end just in time and tacked over from near the lefthand layline to find Alistair Court/Gordon Syme in the lead with Neil Colin/Margo Moonen not far behind.
Court/Syme led down the reaches and for the next beat but at the leeward rounding from the run Miller/Butler got lucky and found themselves lifted inside the leaders who had rounded a few boat lengths ahead.
The new leaders loose-covered Court/Syme for the rest of the race and held the lead to the finish. The results show that Colin/Moonen pipped Court/Syme on the finish line by a second to secure second place over the line.
For race two the west-northwesterly wind was less blustery and again Cormac Bradley and race team set the same course configuration after an interval to allow the three Laser fleets to finish.
Miller/Butler again opted for a pin-end start as it was marginally favoured and led to the windward with Court/Syme very close behind. The chasing pair had slightly better pointing upwind and slightly better speed downwind so the leaders had their work cut out to hold them off. Upwind the edges of the course seemed to hold the best pressure with the middle somewhat flat.
Due to the harbour configuration, the course was slightly skewed and the second reach of the triangle was almost a run. Court/Syme made best use of this to keep the leaders under pressure.
At one point it seemed that they had got inside the leaders to hold an inside berth to the leeward mark but Miller/Butler broke the overlap thanks to a separating gust and managed to gybe safely to secure the inside overlap to the mark. From there they covered the chasing boat in a mini tacking duel and held to the finish. Third Fireball across the line was Owen Sinnott with Grattan Donnelly who showed good speed in the lighter conditions.
Further back in the fleet special mention is deserved for helm Dave Coleman sailing with Michael Keegan, the former putting his new knee through its paces three months after surgery. When asked how it went, he replied that for the first few tacks that leg had forgotten what to do but it quickly relearned its role by race two. Another example of muscle memory, we guess!
In the overall PY standings the Aeros again dominated the top five results with Brendan Foley and Noel Butler taking PY honours. Covid willing, the series continues until Christmas and resumes after the New Year.
Results: Race 1, Race 2 and the series standings after seven races.
See also overall report by Cormac Bradley here
