For a change the forecasts for the final Sunday of Series 1 of the 2025/26 Frostbites. sponsored by Viking Marine, were favourable from early on in the preceding week. If anything, it was projected to be light, in contrast to the previous Sunday where we made a late Sunday morning call not to race.

However, on arriving at the DMYC, the inner harbour was like a millpond with no wind whatsoever. Despite this, we were determined to “give it a go” and were rewarded when a light wind started to fill in from a South-East direction that eventually built to nearly 10 knots before fading during the second half of the first race.

While the norm is to sail a single race on the final Sunday, to facilitate the prize-giving, the race management team decided that it would be preferable to give everyone two races given that we had lost the previous Sunday.

A two-lap Olympic course was set with a weather mark inshore of the weather station on the upper East Pier, a gybe mark just inside the harbour mouth and a leeward mark approx. 100m inside the end of the western breakwater.

Just short of 40 boats contested the day’s two races with the ILCA 6s taking the largest class award, with 16 boats, one ahead of the PY fleet.

The first two starts got away at the first time of asking and both fleets crossed the line on starboard tack heading towards the outer edge of the harbour. In the PY fleet, one of the first to break away from this trend was Noel Butler (Aero 6) who took an early port tack hitch and looked good for it about halfway up the beat. However, at the top mark it was the Fireballs of Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (14854) and Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016), with all four resplendent in Xmas hats, who emerged at the head of the fleet. Also well up the pecking order was Sarah Dwyer & Heather King in the RS200. Paul Phelan (Aero 9) was also prominently at the head of the pack that chased the three all-female crews with the GP14s of Sean Craig & Stepehen Boyle and Adam & Alan Leddy further back. Conspicuously absent from the chasing bunch was Noel Butler. 

In the ILCA 7 & 4 start (8 No. 7/1), the trend of setting off towards the harbour mouth was repeated but there were no divergent approaches to the beat from the group, who formed a tight bunch sailing up the port hand side of the course.

The ILCA 7s pacesetters were Gary O’Hare, Theo Lyttle and Hugh Delap and at least two of these were explaining to the other the interpretations of barging at the committee boat end of the start. Despite the noise and diversity of opinions, they all enjoyed a clean start, with the ILCA 4 of Alex Butcher quite happy to mix it with his seniors on the start line.

The ILCA 6s blotted their copybook by having a General Recall and restarting under a “U-Flag”. This had the desired effect so they were able to enjoy the same two-lap race that everyone else had. Here Conor Clancy, Darren Griffen and Brendan Hughes set the pace with young Max O’Hare able to keep pace with them at the head of the fleet.

During the latter stages of this race the wind started to fade and started to show signs of going more Easterly. As the last boats finished, the wind shifted significantly and with the prompt attention of the crews in the weather and gybe mark RIBs respectively, a new course was set with the weather mark now relocated just inside the end of the East Pier and the gybe mark moving to sit off the Block House on the West Pier.

However, with the change in direction, came more wind and with time on our side, a three-lap Olympic was set.

This time all three classes got away at the first time of asking and again, across all three fleets, the majority trend was to go left. Again, Noel Butler was an outlier in the PY fleet and in the ILCA 6 start there was one port-tack start on the pin.

In the PY fleet, the leader at the first mark was Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe with Power & Barry in second and these two boats held these positions throughout the race. At one stage it looked as though the two GP14s of Craig and Leddy were having their own match race, oblivious of everyone else on the course, because every time I checked, Craig was either to windward or mark-side of Leddy. In the end Craig finished 28 seconds ahead of his rival, but Craig was 3:57 down on the winning Fireball and only 20 seconds down on the Aero of Noel Butler. In handicap terms, the GP14s took the win (Craig) and second place (Leddy) with Butler taking third.

In the ILCA 7s, the same three boats who had kept close company at the head of the fleet in the first race, kept this company in the second race. Hugh Delap, Gary O’Hare and Theo Lyttle occupied the podium places as they had done in Race 1 except in a different order – Delap, O’Hare, Lyttle compared to O’Hare, Lyttle and Delap in Race 1.

Despite having no other ILCA 4 to race against, Alex Butcher went around again, mixing it with his more mature peers.

And, in the ILCA 6s, the same three podium placers from Race 1 repeated the trick in Race 2 with Darren Griffen winning from Conor Clancy and Brendan Hughes as opposed to a Clancy, Griffen, Hughes finishing order in Race 1.

The competitors were ashore early and a substantial number turned up at the DMYC for the Series 1 prize-giving where food and refreshments of a seasonal nature were served,

Sixteen races were scheduled for Series 1 with 12 races being completed with one single-race day and a three-race replacement to make up for the lost race. One Sunday was cancelled on the Saturday because the weather forecast was too severe and another was cancelled on the Sunday morning because the forecast was “mixed” for the Sunday afternoon. The latter decision was subsequently confirmed to be the right one!

To Viking Marine, my thanks and that of DMYC for your generous sponsorship of the Series 1 prizes which were presented to winners and volunteers who were in attendance on  Sunday afternoon.

From this correspondent, may I thank all the Frostbiters and volunteers for their participation in the racing and wish you and yours a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Series 2 commences on Sunday 4^th January 2026. Hope to see you all and more in 2026. 

Viking Marine Frostbites, hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club 2025/26 Sunday December 21st 2025
Fleet	Race 1	Race 2	Mug Winners	Overall Series 1
ILCA 4s	Only one competitor	Only one competitor	–	Alex Butcher (10) Amey Shelley (29) Kate Spain (29)
ILCA 6s	Conor Clancy Darren Griffen Brendan Hughes	Darren Griffen Conor Clancy Brendan Hughes	Brendan Hughes (R1) Judy O’Beirne (R2)	Conor Clancy (17) Darren Griffen (20) John O’Driscoll (44)
ILCA 7s	Gary O’Hare Theo Lyttle Hugh Delap	Hugh Delap Gary O’Hare Theo Lyttle	Conor O’Leary (R1) Roy McKay (R2)	Matteo Valentini (24) Hugh Delap (28) Gary O’Hare (41)
PY Fleet	Adam & Alan Liddy (GP14) Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (FB) Sarah Dwyer & Heather King (RS200)	Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle (GP14) Adam & Alan Leddy Noel Butler (Aero 6)	Cariosa Power & Marie Barry (R1) Lousie McKenna & Hermine O’Keefe (R2)	Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle (17) Noel Butler (23) Adam & Alan Leddy (48)