After two Sundays of high wind forecasts leading to the cancellation of racing the Viking Marine sponsored DMYC Frostbites Series 2, post-Christmas, got underway yesterday in bright sunshine and good winds. In contrast to the previous Sundays when the late-week forecasts were ominous the lead up to the third Sunday left me wondering if there would be enough wind to have racing. On Thursday, the forecast was for winds of 3 knots and through Friday that didn’t improve much. However, the Met Eireann forecast at 23:55 on Friday night suggested there would be breeze enough for the business of the day, though which actual part of the westerly quarter it would come from was the source of some speculation. The forecast held up on the Saturday and on Sunday a projection of 9 – 15 knots was offered for the early part of the afternoon.
Rounding a busy weather mark Photo: Ian Cutliffe
In real time we had a wind strength that varied between 8 and 16 knots during the afternoon, but for the most part was in the 8 – 11 band of strength. While there was some fluctuation in direction, a weather mark was set in the elbow of the western breakwater where it joins the West Pier. In that location, the wind was measured as being due west and allowed a beat across the longest dimension of the harbour. With a 3-lap triangle course declared for Race 1, a gybe mark was set about 150m to leeward of the marina entrance and a leeward mark was set in the approximate location of the Boyd Memorial on the East Pier.
Given the day that was in it, there was a temptation to try and get three races in, after all the last time most people had raced was on December 27th for the Charity Race. However, given that there had been such a long break, Frostbites Director, Neil Colin, cautioned that discretion might be the better part of valour – we might get a bumper fleet given that all 120 slots for Series 2 had been taken up. In the end, we had 71 boats on the water and sailed two races of the same triangular course, of three laps and four laps respectively.
Damien Dion in the RS Aero 7 Photo: Cormac Bradley
In the PY Class, there was a healthy turnout of 33 boats with the Fireballs and Aeros tying in terms of the biggest representation – 11 boats each. Add to that 2 x RS400s, 2 x GP14s, an IDRA, a Wayfarer, a Kona Windsurfer, a 470, a Pico, a Vago and a 2.4m and one can see the broad attraction of winter racing in Dun Laoghaire.
Monica Schaeffer’s Wayfarer 11299 and Charlotte O’Kelly’s Aero 7 3290 going upwind with the GP 14 of Mulvey & Murphy going the opposite way. (Red & Green spinnaker) Photo: Cormac Bradley
Fireball debutants in this series of the Frostbites, Barry McCartin and Conor Kinsella (15093) dominated both races on the water and managed to save their time on the pursuing Aeros. Indeed, in Race 1 a Fireball 1-2 was recorded with Alistair Court and Gordon Syme (14706), finishing behind the leaders. Positions 3- 8 on handicap were filled by a procession of Aeros, 7s in 3 – 7 and Sarah Dwyer taking 8th in a 5. The Aero role of honour was Paul Phelan, Brendan Foley, Mark Gavin, Noel Butler, Stephen Oram, Sarah Dwyer, with the Fireball of Frank Miller and Ed Butler (14713) 9th and Roy van Maanen 10th in another Aero 7. Ciaran Keogh (13624) won the battle of the GP14s. The RS 400s finished 12 seconds apart with Brian O’Hare and Lucy O Donoghue (582) taking the honours. The fleet enjoyed a good beat and some exhilarating reaches especially when the breeze got up a bit.
Ciara Mulvey & Peter Murphy (GP14 11111) drop spinnaker as they approach the leeward mark Photo: Cormac Bradley
Series 2 for the ILCA fleets saw the return of two stalwarts, Sean Craig and Marco Sorgassi respectively. The former had been campaigning a ILCA 6 with great success in Barcelona while the latter had simply missed the cut for Series 1. Both made appropriate amends in the ILCA 6 fleet with Craig taking the gun ahead of Sorgassi and Conor Clancy. Ladies took the next two places in the form of Judy O’Beirne and Shirley Gilmore.
The ILCA 7s and 4s share a start and jumped the gun for their first start. That relegated them to the back of the queue, behind their smaller siblings, the ILCA 4s. A better approach to the starting procedure saw them away at the second time of asking and the finishing order in the ILCA 7s was Niall Cowman, Gary O’Hare, Chris Arrowsmith, Owen Laverty and Conrad Vandlik.
In the ILCA 4s, the finishing order was Daniel O’Connor, Ava Ennis, Dylan de Vreeze, Eimear Farrell and Robyn Maguire.
In total, 37 ILCAs sailed on what was the opening day of Series 2.
With the wind still allowing the weather mark position to give a fair beat, a second race of 4 laps of the same triangular course was signalled. This time all three starts got away at the first time of asking, including a port-tack PY-er at the pin end of the start. Again, the Fireballs were well to the fore on the water and McCartin/Kinsella were first to show their spinnaker colour at the weather mark. The Fireballs were grouped closer together this time but McCartin progressively pulled away from his pursuers to win by 1:03 from Court/Syme who had six seconds to spare on Miller/Butler. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen (14775) went swimming at the weather mark which accounts for them coming in over a minute behind Miller & Butler. However, only McCartin escaped the clutches of the Aeros as Noel Butler (3289) closed the door on the other Fireballs to finish 14 seconds behind on handicap, having finished 4:03 behind McCartin on the water. Four Fireballs (1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th) and six Aero 7s occupied the top ten places on handicap, before Keogh’s GP14 claimed 11th. Sarah Dwyer in the Aero 5 took 12th. Andrew Irvin and Aisling O’Grady (1044) took the RS 400 honours after a swim by O’Hare & Donoghue.
Gary O’Hare in his ILCA 7 Photo: Cormac Bradley
In the ILCA 7s, seven boats raced with Gary O’Hare leading the fleet home followed by Gavan Murphy, Chris Arrowsmith, Conrad Vandlik and Hugh Delap. In the ILCA 4s, the same finishing order as Race 1 was achieved with O’Conor, Ennis, de Vreeze, Farrell and Maguire occupying 1st – 5th.
In the ILCA 6s, the returning Craig and Sorgassi had to do with the lower steps of the podium as Mark Henry took the win. Behind Sorgassi, the order was Conor Clancy and Archie Daly in a 25-boat fleet.
Racing was held in glorious sunshine until the sun dipped behind a bank of cloud at which point the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. Still, by that stage, the large fleet had enjoyed an hour of solid racing over two courses and had hopefully blown away the Christmas and New Year excesses and a few cobwebs besides.
Viking Marine-sponsored Frostbites; hosted by DMYC
Sunday 16th January
Wind Westerly, 8 – 16 knots, Air temperature 8/9°
Race 1
PY Class (33 boats)
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella (FB 15093)
2. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (FB 14706)
3. Paul Phelan
4. Brendan Foley
5. Mark Gavin
6. Noel Butler
7. Stephen Oram (All Aero 7s)
8. Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5)
9. Frank Miller & Ed Butler (FB 14713)
10. Roy Van Maanen (Aero 7)
ILCA 7s (8 boats)
1. Niall Cowman
2. Gary O’Hare
3. Chris Arrowsmith
ILCA 4s (5 boats)
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Ava Ennis
3. Dylan de Vreeze
4. Eimear Farrell
5. Robyn Maguire
ILCA 6s (24 boats)
1. Sean Craig
2. Marco Sorgassi
3. Conor Clancy
4. Judy O’Beirne
5. Shirley Gilmore
Race 2
PY Class (31 boats)
1. Barry McCartin & Conor Kinsella
2. Noel Butler
3. Alistair Court & Gordon Syme
4. Brendan Foley
5. Frank Miller & Ed Butler
6. Paul Phelan
7. Mark Gavin
8. Roy Van Maanen
9. Neil Colin & Marjo Moonen
10. Stephen Oram
ILCA 7s (7 boats)
1. Gary O’Hare
2. Gavan Murphy
3. Chris Arrowsmith
ILCA 4s (5 boats)
1. Daniel O’Connor
2. Ava Ennis
3. Dylan de Vreeze
4. Eimear Farrell
5. Robyn Maguire
ILCA 6s (25 boats)
1. Mark Henry
2. Sean Craig
3. Marco Sorgassi
4. Conor Clancy
5. Archie Daly
