Fireballs at the Dublin Bay Sailing Club Tuesday Night Series - Day 13

The Dublin Bay Sailing Club Fireball fleet had an entertaining evening's racing this past Tuesday. They were joined by an Irish Olympian, Phil Lawton who helmed Stephen Oram's 15061, the sun shone and the breeze from the west which had been quite robust during the afternoon, faded as the day wore on but stayed long enough to initially give the competitors trapezing conditions upwind in the first race – though not too severe.

The entertainment on the water came from a number of games of "cat and mouse" between the all-women team of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) and Messrs Lawton & Oram in the second race, a similar game between Messrs Miller & Butler (14713) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775) in Race 1 and a serious game of "guess the course" that completely overturned the race order in the first race. Even Olympians can get it wrong it would seem! SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on a Tuesday evening now appears to be a 2-race menu with a separate down-wind finish. And this was the undoing to two of the four runners, at least in Race 1.

With low water scheduled for 21:30 (approx.) relative to a 19:03 start, common sense would dictate that getting out of the adverse tide to sail inshore to the weather mark would be the order of the day. And so it appeared – all six boats heading inshore from the pin end of the start line. Tacking on to port to cross the course to get to the weather mark saw different approaches being implemented but at the first mark the order saw Lawton & Oram lead from Colin & Casey, Miller & Butler, Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691), Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865) and Power & Barry.

The tide was used to aid passage to the leeward mark and in order to achieve that some boats gybed immediately at the spreader mark while others held off for a short distance before going offshore as well. Quite quickly the fleet was spread across the course with Lawton/Oram out left and Colin/Casey out right and the others in-between. Multiple gybes took place as each of the six boats negotiated a path downwind.

Very comfortable in first place at the leeward mark, Lawton/Oram worked the left hand side of the 2nd beat before taking a long port tack hitch to the weather mark. At this stage they looked to have extended their lead quite significantly. Colin and Miller rounded next in close company with Miller shadowing Colin until about halfway down the leg when they took separate paths.

Lawton & Oram, now well ahead, put in a last gybe to approach the finish. Colin & Casey on the other hand sail a course to the leeward mark which they proceed to round. Horrors for Lawton & Oram who see a healthy lead become a healthy deficit. Amazingly, Miller follows Lawton's lead and throws away third place to McKenna & O'Keeffe.

Colin & Casey romp home to a very comfortable finish with a finishing order behind them of Lawton, McKenna, Power, Miller & Chambers.

A second race is signalled in what is now a dying breeze. An individual recall is signalled and Miller/Butler go back as the errant starters. Again the initial plan is to go inshore – at least for the majority, McKenna taking the minority view. Lawton/Oram is the first to abandon the left-hand side of the beat to cross the course.

Miller and Power "hang left" and are rewarded with a top mark rounding of 3rd and 1st respectively. Lawton/Oram round second and indulge in "cat and mouse" with Power & Barry on the downwind leg. Again, variety of downwind paths is the order of the day.

Meanwhile the committee boat has "upped anchor" and relocates to the windward end of the course. While Lawton & Oram round the leeward mark in first place they lose their place to Power & Barry and the ladies hold that position for the majority of the beat crossing ahead of their male competition twice on converging tacks.

However, in the final approach to the finish, having crossed ahead of the men, Power sails towards the harbour wall on port tack while Lawton stays on starboard initially before putting in his final approach to the finish. The girls are subsequently undone when slightly superior boat speed and a better angle to the finish line allows the men to redeem themselves from their first race misdemeanour and "snuff out" the girls at the finish.

Three boats then converge on the pin end of the finishing line as Miller sails around Colin but from my vantage point appears to be beaten to the line by McKenna coming in on the opposite tack to the other two boats. However, the official results show that Colin & Casey were also errant starters who didn't go back, whereas Miller & Butler were rewarded with a finish for their "Mea Culpa" admission.

Almost on cue, the wind machine starts to splutter and die leaving the six competitors a long passage homewards to their respective launching sites.

DBSC Tuesday Night, Series 3 so far: