Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

The final day of the 2021/22 Frostbites, sponsored by Viking Marine and hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club was bathed in sunshine from start to finish. Across Ireland and the UK we were bathed in sunshine (I was in N Ireland on the Saturday) and given that at one stage we went four Sundays without a race, to have a sunshine day for the Series conclusion was just reward for everyone’s perseverance. From early in the week the forecast had suggested we would have a genteel finish to proceedings and while the strength and direction of the wind for the first race of the day was NOT according to forecast, it didn’t prohibit starting of the race. Albeit we flew a postponement for a short period in case there had been any stragglers who had forgotten to change their clocks and watches overnight.

The wind was of the order of 5/6 knots as the committee boat took up station in the main part of the harbour, but it was much further northwards than had been forecast. Expecting a large fleet for the last day and with the weather we had, a triangular course was set for the first race with a start area set inside the transit from the gybe mark to the leeward mark – triangles make the recording a slightly easier task. The weather mark was set just off the red lighthouse at the entrance to the harbour with the gybe located towards the western breakwater and the leeward mark about 100m off the entrance to the marina and three laps were set.

Stephen Oram (L) (Aero 7) [3rd Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] and Ian O’Meara of sponsor Viking Marine

A modest fleet of 44 boats started the first race made up of PY (21), ILCA 7s (2), ILCA 4s (5) and ILCA 6s (16). All three starts got away cleanly at the first time of asking with a large number of all the starts going left initially. Frostbites Director, Neil Colin and Marjo Moonen (FB 14775) were first to show at the weather mark with their reddish spinnaker and they proceed to pull away from the rest of this fleet for the duration of this race.

Sarah Dwyer (Aero 5) [2nd Series 2, 5th Overall PY Class (Series 1 & 2)] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC.

Behind them, the rest of the Fireballs were clustered but also in the mix, on the water was the Finn, the IDRA, the RS 400 and, of course, the Aeros.

Daniel O’Connor (ILCA 4) [1st Overall (Series 1 & 2)] with Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Colin’s elapsed time for the race was 33:28 and 1:16 ahead of the second Fireball of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14713) who had 5 seconds on Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB 14854) on the water. Three minutes and thirty-one seconds later, the IDRA of Pierre Long and his son finished. Yet, on corrected time, Colin & Moonen dropped to 7th on handicap, losing out to the IDRA (Long), the Finn (Des Fortune), the K1 (Tom Murphy), the Aero 7 (Noel Butler) the Wayfarer (Monica Schaeffer) and the GP14 (David Mulvin & Ronan Beirne).

Conor O’Leary collects prizes for the ILCA 7s from sponsor Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

Conor O’Leary took the ILCA 7s, while in the ILCA 4s who share the start with the 7s, the finishing order was Ava Ennis, Max Cantwell, Emily Cantwell, Zoe Hall and Dylan de Vreeze.

In the ILCA 6s Sean Craig led most of the way round to take another gun, followed home by Michael Norman, Conor Galligan, Conor Clancy and Brain Carroll.

Sean Craig (ILCA 6) [Winner Series 2] with Frank Guilfoyle of DMYC

By the second beat of this race, the wind has made a substantial shift to the east but given the space between the leaders and tailenders in the three fleets changing the weather mark during the race is well nigh on impossible. So, while another committee boat member finished the mid to late fleets, the Racer Officer reset the course, moving the weather mark closer to the obelisk on the upper deck of the East Pier, moving the gybe mark to a position close to the green lighthouse, leaving the leeward mark where it was. A three-lap Olympic course was then set for the last race of the Series.

Noel Butler (Aero 7) picks up a prize from the additional Christmas Race from Viking Marine’s Ian O’Meara

Again, all three starts got away at the first time of asking but in the ILCAs one of the younger competitors fell foul of one of the doyens of the Class and was obliged to take a penalty on the water for his efforts.

In the PY Class, Colin and Moonen dominated proceedings on the water, breaking out their spinnaker first and sailing away from the rest of the fleet. In the lighter winds of the mid-afternoon, the all-lady combination of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry were proving difficult to catch but weren’t able to lay a finger on Colin & Moonen, coming in just shy of two minutes after the leaders but 1:17 ahead of Miller & Cramer. On corrected time the three Fireballs finished 2nd, 10th and 14th respectively, with Colin giving 1:10 to the 2.4 of Patrick Hassett. Behind the Fireball there was the K1 of Tom Murphy, the Aero 7 of Noel Butler, the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and the GP14 of Mulvin & Beirne. Special mention must be made of Noel Butler who finished his first day back with two 4th places after undergoing major (major) surgery in early February.

Frank Miller (FB 14713) collects the Fireball Class Trophy for the Frostbites Series Overall from Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine

O’Leary scored a second ace in the ILCA 7s, the Cantwells Max and Emily led the ILCA 4s home followed by Zoe Hall, Dylan de Vreeze and Ava Ennis. And, in the ILCA 6s, Conor Clancy took the win from two ladies, Shirley Gilmore and Judy O’Beirne with the former winning by a “nose” with Sean Craig and Mark Henry closing out the top five.

As this is the concluding report of the 2021/22 Frostbites, there is a large number of results to declare, so they are in tabular form for ease of reading. 

 

As I was involved in hearing a protest that overlapped with the final prize-giving I am unable to give you the details of who got what, so I am assuming that prizes were awarded on the basis of the table above. I think there is an overall Frostbites prize but I would be wrong to speculate as to how it may have been awarded this year. I can confirm that Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine was present to hand over the prizes under the MC control of Frostbites Director Neil Colin and that Frank Guilfoyle deputised for current Commodore Ian Cutliffe who was unavailable due to illness.

As Race Officer for the Series and correspondent for the Frostbites, may I take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who give so freely of their time to run the racing. To try and name each of them would be dangerous, in that somebody could get left out, but for each Sunday there are at least 16 people who take to the water to provide the racing – 5 ribs with two people apiece and a committee boat of six. A seventeenth person helps with the computing of the results. A further three people help with providing soup and the bar in the DMYC after racing and the DMYC Boathouse crew makes sure everything is ready on a Sunday morning.

And to all those who were asked to sample my beats before racing began, my thanks as Race Officer.

Huge thanks must also go to Frostbites sponsor Viking Marine who were represented at the prize-giving by Ian O’Meara. As you will see from the photographs attached to this report, prizes took the form of glasses and vouchers for this prize-giving and Rick Tomlinson calendars for Series 1. While it might be easy to be blasé about having a yacht chandler on the doorstep of the four Dun Laoghaire waterside clubs, Ian and his staff provide a great service to the sailing community and the convenience of the shop makes life so much easier. Their sponsorship of the Frostbites is a very significant gesture and I would ask all of you to support them over the summer months as best you can.

I am going to revert to being a competitor for the next six months with a busy calendar ahead, including a Fireball Worlds in Lough Derg Yacht Club. I won’t be giving up the reporting though!
Best wishes to all for your summer sailing.

Cormac