With only two Sundays of sailing in the last five Sundays of the Viking Marine-sponsored 2025-26 Frostbites, it was hardly surprising that the last Sunday of the Series would be a light wind affair. Almost as soon as we had cancelled the previous Sunday, due to a fierce forecast (with actual winds in the Frostbite “window” recorded at 37knots gusting 44knots at Dublin Bay Buoy) thoughts turned to what was forecast for the last Sunday on 22^nd March. From early in the preceding week, it appeared that we would have manageably light winds for racing which offered the prospect having two or even three races on the final Sunday, to make up for what had been lost to gale force winds earlier in the Series.

And, by midnight on Saturday, both XCWeather and, more importantly, Met Eireann were saying the same thing, winds of the order of 10knots but fading towards the middle of the afternoon. For the second time in three weeks we shared the outer harbour area with a match-racing event under the Race Officer management of Michael Conway, except in contrast to the previous occasion, light winds had slowed the rate of completing races on the Saturday. It didn’t matter that Michael was still on the water on Sunday as the wind direction allowed both events to run independently of each other without one encroaching on the other.

Under blue skies, with the aforementioned 10 knots, all three starts got away first time on a 2-lap Windward-Leeward course, reduced in laps to contemplate a second race or maybe even a third race.  All three fleets had good turnouts for the last Sunday, with the PY fleet having the biggest entry on the day with 26 boats, followed by the ILCA 6s with 18, the ILCA 7s with 10 and the ILCA 4s with 8 boats, making up a total fleet size of 62 boats.

All three fleets enjoyed close racing in the benign conditions and in the ILCA 4s Amey Shelley led the fleet home followed by James Crawford and Jacob Browne. A change to the coaching regime for this fleet on a Sunday has allowed more of them to engage in the Frostbite racing and the benefit of the coaching is seen in the close quarter racing that they have displayed in Series 2.We were delighted to see them rejoin the Frostbites fleet.

The ILCA 7s always get a high percentage of their total entry to the Series out and on this occasion, they had ten boats on the water. The frontrunners in the fleet have been Matteo Valentini, Hugh Delap and Conor Byrne with a number of others making inroads on the individual race podiums. Among these are Gary O’Hare, Luke Murphy, Theo Lyttle and Chris Arrowsmith. However, for the last Sunday, the triumvirate at the head of the fleet were Valentini, Byrne and Delap, in that order.

The ILCA 6s have strong competition at the head of their fleet and when the wind goes light, there is increased pressure at the head of the pack. Darren Griffin and Conor Clancy have enjoyed a lot of success in this series with John O’Driscoll keeping pressure on them both, but the likes of Judy O’Beirne and Shirley Gilmore found themselves further up the pecking order when the winds were lighter. Owen Laverty and Max O’Hare also enjoyed spells at the head of the fleet. In what turned out to be the last race of the Series, Max O’Hare, Darren Griffin and Shirley Gilmore took the podium places.

If the ILCA 6 results change when the wind goes lighter, the PY fleet suffer even more and the Jekyll & Hyde nature of some of the boats in this fleet come to the fore. If the breeze is “up” the 29er will literally race away from its competitors to finish comfortably ahead on the water, leaving the likes of the Fireballs and Aeros in its wake. In contrast, one might expect the heavier GP14s to struggle in the lighter winds, but that doesn’t always happen. The pecking order in the Aeros will change in accordance with rig size as the wind strength changes and the Fireballs seem to manage both ends of the wind strength spectrum.

Thus, in the 10knots that blew at the start of Sunday’s race, the Fireball of Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915) thrived and finished the two-lap course in 22:17, nearly three minutes ahead of the next Fireball of Louise McKenna & Hermine O’Keeffe (15016). In the lighter winds the Aero 9 of Paul Phelan came home in 24:20, followed by two Aeros 7s in the hands of Kevin Stallard (24:32) and Thomas Chaix (24:44) before the first Aero 6 of Noel Butler (27:30). The three-GP14 group within PY was led home by Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle (26:04) with Norman Lee & Alan Leddy at 28:47 and Ciara Mulvey & Peter Murphy at 31:50.

But after the application of handicaps, the finishing order was Craig & Boyle (22:51), Stallard (23:05), Miller & Cramer (23:14), Chaix (23:16), Phelan (24:13) and Butler (25:01). The first 29er on corrected time was back in 17^th on 30:22.

As the wind faded and moved around in direction, the RO was actively trying to see if a second race could be started, but Mother Nature had other ideas and shortly after 15:00, the 2025/26 Viking Marine Frostbites was brought to a close with three sound signals and the raising of appropriate flags.

2025/26 Viking Marine Frostbites, hosted by Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club
March 22nd	1st	2nd	3rd
PY Fleet	Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle GP14	Kevin Stallard Aero 7	Norman Lee & Alan Leddy GP14
ILCA 7s	Matteo Valentini	Conor Byrne	Hugh Delap
ILCA 6s	Max O’Hare	Darren Griffin	Shirley Gilmore
ILCA 4s	Amey Shelley	James Crawford	Jacob Browne
Viking Marine Frostbites: Series 2 Overall
	1st	2nd	3rd
PY Fleet	Thomas Chaix Aero 7 [17]	Noel Butler Aero 6 [27]	Norman Lee, Adam & Alan Leddy GP14 [32]
ILCA 7s	Matteo Valentini [31]	Hugh Delap [49]	Conor Byrne [73]
ILCA 6s	Darren Griffin [20]	Conor Clancy [32]	John O’Driscoll [36]
ILCA 4s	Amey Shelly [12]	James Crawford [15]	Alex Butcher 25]
Viking Marine Frostbites 2025 – 2026 Series Overall
	1st	2nd	3rd
PY Fleet 39 boats	Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle GP14 [30]	Noel Butler Aero 6 [45]	Norman Lee, Adam & Alan Leddy GP14 [64]
ILCA 7s 17 boats	Matteo Valentini [31]	Hugh Delap [49]	Conor Byrne [73]
ILCA 6s* 32 boats	Darren Griffin [36]	Conor Clancy [42]	John O’Driscoll [73]
ILCA 4s 14 boats	Alex Butcher [26]	Amey Shelley [27]	James Crawford [38]
Aeros**	Noel Butler (Aero 6) [26]	Stuart Harris (Aero 7) [67.5]	Thomas Chaix (Aero 7) [77]
Fireballs***	Frank Miller & Neil Cramer (14915) [46]	Colm Breen & Paul ter Horst (14683) [68]	Pat McGoldrick & Jude O’Reilly (14691) [69]

 

*ILCA Overall prize goes to the largest ILCA Fleet – ILCA 6s, 32 boats.

**Aeros have a dedicated Class Trophy for the Overall Series, scored on handicap, with a trophy donated by Sarah Dwyer.

***Fireballs race as a fleet within the PY Fleet, with a dedicated Class Trophy.

At a well populated DMYC Clubhouse after the day’s racing, the prize-giving for Series 2 and the Overall Series took place. DMYC Commodore, Derek Gill welcomes the Frostbite “family to DMYC and gave a brief history of the origin of the series, initiated by two Mirrors and sailed in May.

Derek thanked the Frostbite volunteers for the dedication and time over the series which ran from the first Sunday in November to today. While he noted that a number of Sundays had to be cancelled due to adverse forecasts, his sense was that the Series had seen good sailing and he was delighted to see so many competitors in the Clubhouse.

Race Officer Cormac Bradley ran the prizegiving for the day’s racing (Frostbite Mugs), Series 2 and the Overall Series with due thanks to the sponsors, Viking Marine and Ian O’Meara. 

On behalf of the competitors, Sean Craig thanked DMYC, the volunteers, Race Officer Cormac Bradley, his crew (and boat owner, Stephen Boyle) and his fellow competitors saying that while he hadn’t been sure how racing in PY would work after his years in the Laser/ILCA, he found that he had really enjoyed the racing and the camaraderie that went with it. He commended the organisers for the early cancellation of racing on a Saturday evening when the forecast was poor, confirming that this meant the following day wasn’t lost, and an alternate plan could be made.

In closing, Cormac Bradley reminded the fleet that the first leg of the ILCA Sprint Series 2026, would be hosted by the DMYC on the last Sunday of April and he looked forward to seeing many of the visitors back again on that date.

[1] Following the racing on 8^th March we initiated a Survey Monkey poll to gauge the interest in extending the Series by a week to compensate for the loss on the three previous Sundays. While the poll returned a favourable result, the poll size was less than half the total entries. Today, 29^th March, which would have been the last day of racing if the poll had been more conclusive……….but there is a howling gale blowing across Dublin Bay, we would not have been racing! Karma!!