After losing the previous Sunday to howling gales, the plan to catch up was endorsed by a much more favourable forecast from early on in the week. The suggestion from XCWeather was that we would get winds of the order of 7 – 9 knots from a southerly direction in temperatures of 5/6°. However, on arrival at the DMYC, it appeared that the wind wasn’t quite there, with flags barely fluttering and the last boats from the morning’s Turkey Shoot seemingly making slow progress outside the harbour. However, there was sunshine and at this early stage it was pleasant.

With two stalwarts of the Frostbite Team absent, the pontoon at the DMYC was less busy that normal but when the penny dropped that they were not available a recovery was affected to get marks, anchors and radios distributed with mark-laying allocations sorted out as well. As we departed for the race area, there was a semblance of wind coming through.

Out in the race area, there was wind of the order that had been predicted by XCWeather and shared by Met Eireann. After debating where to put the committee boat, but not in the mouth of the harbour, I settled on a position just inside the end of the East Pier. With a wind direction of 240°, that left the weather mark sitting in line with the Royal Irish with a gybe mark sitting off the National Yacht Club and a leeward mark between the committee boat and the end of the East Pier. Maybe not an equilateral triangle but not a bad course either.

Fifty-three boats were on the water with the ILCA 6s having the largest fleet (20), followed closely by the PY fleet (19) with the ILCA 7s and 4s sharing the same number of starters at seven each.

While the beat had been set in accordance with a wind direction of 240°, it only took to the commencement of the countdown to the first start for the wind to start “twitching” left. Still, for the first part of the 2-lap triangular course it wasn’t too much of an issue for while it started moving left, it came back for periods, meaning that as a compromise it wasn’t too bad. Certainly, all three fleets were getting a beat.

In the PY fleet the leading boat on the water was the Fireball of Colm Breen & Paul ter Horst who had carved out a healthy lead. However, that was thrown away by a navigational error which saw them sail the second lap of the course as a “sausage” rather than a triangle. The Aero 9 of Paul Phelan was also prominently at the head of the fleet and on corrected time Paul took the win with Neil Colin (Aero 6) second and Adam Leddy & Helm third in the GP14.

In the ILCA 7s there was tight racing with an eventual 1-2-3 of Hugh Delap, Matteo Valentini  and Gary O’Hare. The emergence of a viable fleet of ILCA 4s has generated a lot more “chatter” on this fleet start line (7s and 4s) and the ILCA 4s raced in close company for significant sections of the race. The race win went to Jackson Clark with Alex Butcher and Amy Shelley third.

In the ILCA 6s, the lighter winds saw a lady take the race on the water with Alison Pigot home first followed by Conor Clancy and Nathan Harris.

By this stage the windward mark layer had already been put on notice that the mark would have to move and given the size of the wind shift to 180°, this meant that neither the gybe mark nor the leeward mark could stay where they were. So, while Brian Mulkeen took over the finisher duties, the RO set about rejigging the course to the new wind direction. It became a tight squeeze on two counts – by this stage of the afternoon there was other racing in the proposed vicinity of the new weather mark which was set after on-the-water consultation between the mark-laying RIB and the coach of the other activity. The gybe mark went close to the East Pier wall and the leeward mark “sneaked” out into the mouth of the harbour. The alternative would have been to relocate the committee boat and completely reset the course but that would have taken too much time and by this stage of the afternoon the temperature was noticeably lower than it had been when we came out.

The top reach of this revised triangle was more of a challenge given the proximity to the wall, but everybody seemed to get on with it and there were no critical comments in a busier than normal DMYC clubhouse after racing.

In Race 2 for the PY Fleet, the Aeros took the first three places, with Noel Butler (Aero 6) leading home Paul Phelan and Stephen Oram (Aero 6).

Shirley Gilmore made it “two from two” for the ladies by taking the race win in the ILCA 6s, followed home by John O’Driscoll and David Williams.

In the ILCA 7s Matteo Valentini took the win from Gary O’Hare with Chris Arrowsmith third.

In the ILCA 4s, Amy Shelley took the win, with Kate Spain taking second and Alex Butcher third.

With the wind starting to fade and moving more left, the decision had already been taken that two races would be enough for the day, particularly with a lessening sense of comfort from a temperature perspective and a suggestion that we were too late on the water on the last Sunday of racing. Ashore, this seemed to have been a popular decision.

So, with the first month of Frostbites done, we are two races down on the programme. If weather permits, we will try and claw these back, but as December progresses, daylight also becomes a major consideration. We have three Sundays left in Series 1, December 7^th, 14^th and 21^st.

		1st	2nd	3rd	Frostbite Mug	Overall
PY Fleet	R1	Paul Phelan	Neil Colin	Adam Leddy & Helm	Neil Colin	Noel Butler (17) Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle (31) Adam Leddy & Helm (39)
	R2	Noel Butler	Paul Phelan	Stephen Oram	Stephen Oram
ILCA 6s	R1	Alison Pigot	Conor Clancy	Nathan Harris	Alison Pigot	Conor Clancy (16) Darren Griffin (23) Owen Laverty (34)
	R2	Shirley Gilmore	John O’Driscoll	David Williams	Shirley Gilmore
ILCA 4s	R1	Jackson Clark	Alex Butcher	Amy Shelley	Kate Spain	Alex Butcher (13) Amy Shelley (29) Kate Spain (29)
	R2	Amy Shelley	Kate Spain	Alex Butcher	Peter Murphy
ILCA 7s	R1	Hugh Delap	Matteo Valentini	Gary O’Hare	Gary O’Hare	Matteo Valentini (15) Conor Byrne (23) Hugh Delap (25)
	R2	Matteo Valentini	Gary O’Hare	Chris Arrowsmith	Aidan Geraghty