With another Sunday lost last weekend, the ideal programme for the Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites was to try and catch up with a more benign afternoon of wind on the first Sunday of March. That objective was achieved when Race Officer Brendan Duffy (Ruffian 23s) took the helm of the committee boat and in SW breezes that varied from 6 – 13 knots, gave the 50-boat fleet two Olympic courses of three and two laps respectively and closed with a three-lap triangular course. Setting the weather mark, this correspondent was of the view that for the first two races the wind was reasonably steady for the course that was set, but for the latter part of the second race it seemed the majority of the fleet was favouring the right-hand side of the beat and approaching the weather mark on a long port tack on the starboard lay-line. For the third race this became more pronounced.

The performance of the day, across all three fleets, was that of Lucy Ives in the ILCA 6s, who won all three races in the 20-boat fleet. She led the first two races from early on but in the third she had to fight her way to the front from a position of 4^th or 5^th at the first weather mark. Some of the stalwarts of this class found themselves in slightly unusual positions with Sean Criag scoring a 4,5,7 and Conor Clancy scoring a 7, 4, 5 across the afternoon. Darren Griffin put in a stellar performance  with a 2,3, 2 and the remaining podium places were occupied by Gareth Giles (3^rd) in Race 1, Neil Hegarty (2^nd) in Race 2 and Owen Laverty (3^rd) in Race 3. However, as the attached photographs show the ILCA 6s did enjoy some close racing.

In terms of Frostbite Mug winners, Lucy Ives won a Mug for Race 1 and Rachel Crowley won for Race 3.

As per most Sundays, the ILCA 7s had a high percentage turnout, 9 boats, relative to their entries. Conor Byrne nearly emulated Lucy Ives in the 6s, by taking two race wins, Races 1 & 2, with the 1-2-3 in both these races being identical – Conor Byrne, Matteo Valentini and Damien Maloney. Valentini and Maloney each took a step upwards in Race 3, with first and second with Hugh Delap taking third place in the last race. Robbie Walker would have been presented a Frostbite Mug had he been at the DMYC after the race for his performance in the first race of the day.

The PY had the biggest fleet on the water with 21 boats comprised of ten Fireballs, eight Aeros, two GP14s and the solitary IDRA. The Fireballs enjoyed some good racing in company and a measure of the tightness of the racing in the first race was that 12 seconds covered the first three Fireballs over the finish line with Colm Breen & Paul ter Horst (14790) taking the win from Alan Blay & Hugh McNally (14641) and Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (15167). The first three Aeros were between two and two-and-a-half two minutes behind the third Fireball and the leading GP14 was 1.5 minutes behind the leading Aero, but the Aeros of Noel Butler, Roy van Maanen and Neil Colin were able to save sufficient time to finish 1-2-3 on corrected time. The GP14 of Norman Leen & Alan Leddy (14143) finished fourth on corrected time with the first Fireball ninth on time.    

In Race 2 the first three Fireballs across the line, led by Nicole Hemeryck & Michael Keegan (14676), Alan Blay & Hugh McNally (14641) and Frank Miller & Marjo Moneen (14915) finished in a 28-second window, with the first Aero, Noel Butler, 2:03 behind Miller. Lee and Leddy in the GP14 were four minutes astern of Miller and Moneen. This time the Fireballs retained the lead on corrected time with Butler second in the Aero and another Fireball, Blay & McNally, third.

Lee & Leddy went further up the pecking order in the final race to take the race win on corrected time with the “pink ladies” Fireball of Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016) in second and another Fireball, Alastair Court & Gordon Syme third.  

Two Fireball combinations would have been presented with Mugs had they been present, but they will get another chance to claim one of these iconic pieces.

With nine Sundays in Series 2, to date, the race count stands at twenty-one races which means that the declared programme of two races per Sunday has been met, however, wind permitting the intention will be to programme three races a day for the remaining Sundays to try and balance out races lost in Series 1.

Viking Marine Frostbites: Series 2; March 2^nd.