Fireball Tuesday Night Series 2 at Dublin Bay Sailing Club - Day 2

Tactically challenging inside the harbour

Last night's DBSC race for the Fireballs and other fleets was held inside the harbour due to very light breezes and an ebbing tide, both factors persuading the race management team that staying inside the walls of the harbour might allow a race to be provided. There was certainly little incentive to go outside as the Race Officer was recording as little as 4.5 knots of wind in the main body of the harbour in advance of the committee boat leaving the pontoons at the Royal Irish Yacht Club.

The Fireballs had a reduced turnout of only four boats, a fifth combination and this correspondent were on line duty and two other combinations may have been absent due to people being on holiday. A three-lap triangular course was set for the Fireballs with the weather mark off the east pier and a gybe mark in the mouth of the harbour.

Neil Colin and Margaret Casey pulled off an amazing start by coming in a half boat-length to windward of the other three boats at the committee boat end and crossed the line right on the button. According to the comments of the Race Officer, they left very, very little to spare. Initially I thought this had set them up for a premium first beat! The fleet split in two with Mick Creighton & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691) and the aforementioned Colin/Casey going left and Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) and Grattan Donnelly & Joe O'Reilly (14713) going right.

From the committee boat we knew that there was some fluctuation in the breeze – it flicked left and right with the weather mark in a median position and obviously Creighton/O'Keeffe worked this to their advantage to round the weather mark first. However, Colin/Casey were very close behind and Chambers/McGuire were close behind them in turn – three red spinnakers broke out as they sailed towards the gybe mark but all three gybed halfway down the leg, leaving Colin & Casey in the windward berth. This allowed them to close even further on Creighton/O'Keeffe, but these two rounded the gybe mark with their lead intact.

At the leeward mark they rounded transom to bow with Colin/Casey on the outside. They tacked immediately and after a short hitch of a couple of boat-lengths, Creighton/O'Keeffe did the same. For the balance of the race these two stuck to each other "like glue" with Creighton/O'Keeffe doing most of the covering. Pointing and boat speed varied between the two which, on occasion, allowed Colin & Casey to get marginally ahead, but at those critical milestone events, mark-roundings, the Creighton/O'Keeffe combination held the upper hand. The attention these two gave each other allowed Chambers & McGuire to close the gap somewhat, but they never really got close enough to mount a serious challenge to the lead two. Colin & Casey revel in the light airs and Creighton & O'Keeffe clearly had the "bit between their teeth" last night and weren't going to let this one slip through their fingers.

Day 2 Results: