The last Sunday of the 2024/25 Viking Marine Frostbites was preceded by a week of forecasts that gave varying wind conditions from the same direction, Northerly. Initially, it looked as though there might be too much wind to close out the series, but as the end of the week approached the forecast was more favourable and the plan for two final races looked probable. A communication on Friday that there would be a match racing event on over the two days of the weekend prompted some communication with its Race Officer, Michael Conway, to make sure that the racing area of the harbour could be managed without one event encroaching on the other.

The northerly direction of the wind isn’t the best for setting course as it means the windward leg spans the shorter dimension of the harbour. The Frostbites occupied the eastern half of the harbour which left the weather mark sitting just inside the end of the West Pier, between the lighthouse and the Block House. That was facilitated by the match-racing weather mark being relocated westwards from its morning location. The top reach was a bit shorter than might have been preferred to facilitate the match-racing and sat south of the INSS green raft. The leeward mark and the committee boat were in the approximate location of the bandstand.

Forty-five boats graced the last day of racing, with fifteen in the PY Fleet, twelve in the ILCA 7s and eighteen in the ILCA 6s. For the early part of the afternoon there were some gusts that got into the high teens, much as forecast, but the base wind was around the 10 – 12 knot range and as the afternoon wore on, the higher strength gusts disappeared but the average wind strength got up to a peak of 13 knots.

For Race 1, the two larger fleets got away at the first time of asking and approached the beat with an initial starboard-tack hitch to the left hand-side of the beat before negotiating a path upwind to the weather  mark, where despite moving the mark 60m into the body of the harbour, there was still a challenge to reach the mark. Its proximity to the end of the West Pier was the contributory factor here but given the nature of match-racing I couldn’t move the mark further westwards as it would impinge on their racing area.

The ILCA 7s, despite having a start line that was largely empty in comparison to the other starts manged to prompt a General Recall with an easily identified competitor “Pied Piper-like” leading the fleet over the line too early. They did, however, get away at the second time of asking.

In the PYs the spinnakered boats enjoyed good conditions across the top reach but the second reach of the 3-lap Olympic course was a bit more sedate. And while Fireballs took the leading places on the water, in corrected time terms they were undone by the Aero 6 of Noel Butler, with the Fireballs of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915) and Alan Blay & Hugh McNally (14641) taking second and third respectively.

Sean Craig enjoyed a comfortable win in the ILCA 6s with one of his closest rivals for an overall win, Conor Clancy, in second place. Third was Brendan Hughes.

Hugh Delap took the ILCA 7s win with Series leader Conor Byrne second and Gary O’Hare third.

For Race 2, with the marks staying in their original positions, it was the ILCA 6s who were led early over the line. Two specific parties were identified as leading the charge and when a “genteel finger of blame” was wagged in their direction, one of the two exclaimed “Who, me?” in the spirit of the genteel accusation. One might have thought that having been “pinged” the first time, this competitor might have adopted a more conservative approach the second time. But No, they were having none of it and again their lead was followed as the fleet charged over the line early. With a lap docked for time reasons and under a “U” flag, the ILCA 6s got their race away.

The final race for the PY fleet again saw the Fireballs win on the water, but on corrected time only one of them made the podium, with Frank Miller & Neil Cramer finishing behind the GP14 (14143) of Norman Lee & Alan Liddy but ahead of Noel Butler in the Aero 6.

In the ILCA 7s, two of three podium places were retained from the first race, albeit in a different order, with Conor Byrne winning from Matteo Valentini and Hugh Delap third.

And in the ILCA 6s, all three podium places were retained by the same three competitor but again in a different order with Conor Clancy taking the win ahead of Brendan Hughes and Sean Craig.

With thirty-one races sailed, the 2024/25 Frostbites, sponsored by Viking Marine thus came to a close!

The prize-giving for the Frostbites was held in the DMYC Clubhouse after racing with the sponsor, Ian O’Meara of Viking Marine and the Commodore of DMYC, Derek Gill in attendance. Master of Ceremonies and Race Officer, Cormac Bradley, opened the proceedings by welcoming the competitors and introduced the Commodore who welcomed everyone to DMYC and thanked the team of volunteers who gave their time over the Series. He also thanked the competitors for their participation in the Series.

Ian O’Meara was thanked for his continuing and generous sponsorship of the Series and Cormac then announced the results for the day’s racing, the Series 2 Overall results and the Series Results (Series 1 & 2 combined).

Ian O’Meara presented Viking Marine Vouchers to the first three boats overall and prizes for the first lady in the PY and ILCA 6 fleets respectively and generously provided a number of other prizes awarded at the discretion of the Race Officer. Perpetual Trophies for the ILCAs and Fireballs and the Overall Winner’s Trophy were also presented by Ian O’Meara.

Viking Marine Frostbites.

Sunday 23^rd March

PY Fleet.

R1: 1^st Noel Butler (Aero 6), 2^nd Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (Fireball), 3^rd Alan Blay & Hugh McNally (Fireball).

R2: 1^st Norman Lee & Alan Liddy (GP14), 2^nd Frank Miller & Neil Cramer, 3^rd Noel Butler.

ILCA 7s.

R1: 1^st Hugh Delap, 2^nd Conor Byrne, 3^rd Gary O’Hare.

R2: 1^st Conor Byrne, 2^nd Matteo Valentini, 3^rd Hugh Delap.

ILCA 6s.

R1: 1^st Sean Craig, 2^nd Conor Clancy, 3^rd Brendan Hughes.

R2: 1^st Conor Clancy, 2^nd Brendan Hughes, 3^rd Sean Craig.

No Frostbite Mugs were awarded for today’s racing.

Series 2 Overall.

PY Fleet.

1^st Noel Butler, Aero, 28.5pts, 2^nd Norman Lee & Alan Liddy, GP14 51.5pts, 3^rd Barry McCartin/Daniel Thompson & Harry Thompson, Fireball, 96pts.

ILCA 7s.

1^st Conor Byrne, 34pts, 2^nd Hugh Delap, 53pts, 3^rd Matteo Valentini, 88pts.

ILCA 6s.

1^st Darren Griffin, 32pts, 2^nd Sean Craig, 42pts, Conor Clancy, 49pts.

Fireballs.

1^st Barry McCartin/Daniel Thompson & Harry Thompson, 43pts, 2^nd Alan Blay & Hugh McNally, 43pts, 3^rd Frank Miller & Neil Cramer, 56pts.

Aeros.

1^st Noel Butler, 18pts, 2^nd Paul Phelan, 61.5pts, Sarah Dwyer, 65pts.

Viking Marine Frostbites Series 2024/25 – hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club. Overall Results
	PY Fleet	ILCA 6s	ILCA 7s	Fireballs	Aeros
1st	Noel Butler Aero 6 38.5pts	Sean Craig 56pts	Conor Byrne 72pts	Barry McCartin/Daniel Thompson & Harry Thompson 57pts	Noel Butler Aero 6 25pts
2nd	Norman Lee & Alan Liddy GP14 76pts	Darren Griffin 58pts	Hugh Delap 76pts	Alan Blay & Hugh McNally 72pts	Paul Phelan Aero 7 88.5pts
3rd	Barry McCartin/Daniel Thompson & Harry Thompson Fireball 159pts	Conor Clancy 66pts	Matteo Valentini 114pts	Frank Miller & Neil Cramer 80pts	Sarah Dwyer Aero 6 89pts
1st Lady	Sarah Dwyer Aero 6 5th Overall	Shirley Gilmore 6th Overall

 

The Fireball Trophy went to the Barry McCartin/Daniel Thompson/Harry Thompson combination and was collected by Colin Thompson initially as Harry & Daniel were boat-packing.

The ILCA Trophy was presented to Sean Craig as the winner of the larger ILCA Class.

The Overall Trophy for the Frostbites was presented to Noel Butler.

Sean Craig and Noel Butler, on behalf of the competitors thanked Ian O’Meara, the Race Officer and the volunteers and Noel made a presentation of Easter Eggs to selected individuals. In closing the proceedings, Cormac asked the volunteers present to stand so that they could be recognised by the competitors with a round of applause. Cormac also thanked the DMYC staff  who were in attendance for all the Sunday racing.