Fireballs in the Dublin Bay Sailing Club Tuesday Series 3 - Day 1

Odd weather and strong tide results in an interesting three-hander in Tuesday DBSC race With a couple of regulars away on holidays just three Fireballs appeared on the start line on Tuesday evening for DBSC racing.

The weather in Dublin Bay and that section of the East coast had been odd all day as the forecast for the heavy haze to burn off never quite materialised. The morning was almost windless but by lunchtime a reasonable easterly had established and by 6pm sailors were looking at a fairly steady force 3 with slight gusts.

With the tidal flow turning at 6:30pm sailors were faced with an adverse flow on the beat of the W-L course. However with the windward mark well to seaward of the forty foot the question was whether the tide was stronger out to sea or on the right hand side closer to land but sailing at least part of the beat in the flow from Dalkey Sound.

In the event Miller/Butler chose to go out left and team Clancy went in at least initially giving Miller/Butler a small lead at the windward with McKenna/O'Keeffe on their respective heels. Miller lost the lead on the run to the Clancys but on the second run regained it by taking Clancys wind and ultimately gybing for inside berth at the leeward.

The rounding was complicated by a vocal Mermaid also seeking water at the mark and lots of it. The Mermaid created a tempting gap for the Clancys and they dived in only to find contact with Miller who had water.

The brothers set about doing their turns giving the lead back to Miller/Butler. The Clancys closed the gap again on the beat and run and their moment came at the leeward when a messy drop by Miller/Butler (caused by tired retrieval elastic) gave them the gap they needed and they retook the lead and held it to the downwind finish.

By race two the tide was stronger again and the first start sequence for the PY fleet saw no boat actually on the line at the gun such was the flow. Miller/Butler took note staying up on the line from the 1 minute gun and started well from the pin heading out to sea again with team Clancy opting for a clean fast start at the boat end.

Again the seaward path seemed to pay in the increasing breeze and Miller/Butler approached the Windward in the lead but lost it by tacking too early in the now tunnelling tide. They regained the lead however on the run and held it to the finish of the three rounds though pressed hard by the Clancys on the race to the downwind finish line. The latter swept in at a sharper angle but Miller/Butler sailing a more directly downwind angle managed to keep their speed up in the surfing waves to take the gun.

This evening's races constituted the start of Series 3 of the Tuesday night racing and give an easy overall points situation as follows;

DBSC Tuesday Nights: Series 3, Race 1 & 2:

The preceding Series 2 was completed with ten races, affording the contestants a two race discard. The final table for Series 2 is as follows;

DBSC Tuesday Nights: Series 2: Ten races sailed, 2 discards: