47th Frostbite Series 2 at Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club - Day 8

After the zephyrs of last week, the breeze was back yesterday for the DMYC Frostbites and another fleet of 26 boats made the effort to get out and enjoy a brisk afternoon on the water. The wind was projected to be from the SSE with wind strength of 12 – 17 knots and that was how it appeared on the water. However, as we were rigging there was a great deal of whistling through the rigging! A five lap trapezoid curse was sailed under a sunny sky but a coolish air temperature. The beat traversed the harbour with a weather mark up towards the East pier and Marks 2 & 3 in the vicinity of the harbour mouth. Mark 4 was in the vicinity of the Block House on the West Pier.

Ten boats were on the start line for the Slow PYs with both KONA Windsurfers back in action. They managed to foul each other with both their skippers taking an early swim just off the start line. The majority of their fleet went left towards the harbour mouth with the exception of Pierre Long and John Parker (IDRA 14) who very early on were ploughing a solitary furrow up the right-hand side of the beat. This appeared to stand them in good stead as when the balance of the fleet came across to that side of the course, led by the Wayfarer of Monica Schaeffer and Miriam McCarthy, the Wayfarer tacked underneath the IDRA into a leeward slot. The IDRA led the Slow PY Fleet around the weather mark chased by the Wayfarer and the Enterprise of Aidan Geraghty & Eilis O'Driscoll. Thereafter this correspondent lost the action as he has his own hands full racing a Fireball. However, in terms of finishing order the sequence was Wayfarer, KONA 2677 (Des Gibney), IDRA (Long & Parker), Enterprise (Geraghty & O'Driscoll) KONA 1989 (Robbie Walker) and the RS Feva XL of Conor Galligan. Schaeffer's winning margin on the water of 2½ minutes was enough to hold onto first place on handicap, with the Feva going to second and the IDRA third.

Ten Lasers were on the start line with some single-handers returning from ski breaks in Europe. Others had the ambition of just trying to be ranked as a finisher in terms of the starting procedure having been ruled OCS for the past two Sundays. Interestingly, the banter in the changing room of the Royal St George after the racing was he number of capsizes that had been recorded in the race with at least one Laser helm owning up to two capsizes on the water. Conor O'Leary, back from a week on the white stuff, led the fleet home by 59 seconds from Mark Coakley who was followed home by Sean Flanagan, Chris Arrowsmith, Gavin Murphy, Shirley Gilmore (Radial), Michael Delaney and Hamish Munro. With a better PY for the Radial, Shirley Gilmore leapfrogged three places to record a third on handicap behind O'Leary and Coakley.

Tom Murphy in his K1 was the odd-man-out in the Fast PY as he was the only one not sailing a Fireball. Five Fireballs made the star and four of them went left towards the harbour mouth off the start line. Having watched the IDRA of Long & Parker steal a march in the Slow PY by going left, this correspondent persuaded his helm, Louise McKenna, to go right as well. She did and while they weren't too far off the pace with the other four boats crossed them two-thirds of the way up the first beat that was as close as they got to them. When the four Fireballs crossed from left to right across the course, Frank Miller & Ed Butler (14713) were the furthest to windward and when they reached the starboard lay-line and tacked for the weather mark, they found themselves leading the fleet.

However, by their own admission, post-race, they sailed the first reach of the trapezoid too deep and two of the chasing pack went over them – Noel Butler & Marie Barry (15061) and Alistair Court & Gordon Syme (14706) went in to first and second respectively. Behind them, Neil Colin and Margaret Casey (14775) stayed ahead of McKenna & Bradley (14691). And on a day when Butler & Barry only needed a sniff of the lead they proceeded to romp away from the rest of the fleet, eventually winning by a 1:35 margin though it looked a lot more comfortable distance-wise on the water. Miller & Butler finished second passing Court & Syme when they went opposite ways on one of the subsequent beats. Despite the stiff breeze, spinnakers were flown on all the legs where they should have been.

The wind direction was such that all the Fireballs sailed past Mark 2 to put in a gybe at Mark 3 for a tight reach under three sails to Mark 4. All the Fireballs saved their time on the K1 to give a finishing order of Butler & Barry, Miller & Butler, Court & Syme, Colin & Casey and McKenna & Bradley.

Across the whole fleet, the first two Fireballs took the fastest races time on corrected time, followed by the Wayfarer, another Fireball and the Laser of Conor O'Leary.

Frostbites Director, Neil Colin announced at the prize-giving that there would be racing on Sunday 18th March, the day after St Patrick's Day.