After three Sundays of no racing due to adverse forecasts, the Viking Marine Frostbites resumed last Sunday with three races completed in light to moderate winds. In advance of Sunday it appeared that the harbour was going to be very busy with a Match Racing event and a Schools Team Racing event scheduled to continue into Sunday. The Race Officer for the Match-Racing, Michael Conway kept his clientele on the water late on Saturday in what turned out to be a successful attempt to be off the water before the Frostbite fleet took to the water. As I drove to Dun Laoghaire, he was able to ring me to advise that his event was concluded and they were heading shore-wards.

The Schools event occupied a sizeable portion of the eastern side of the harbour which meant that the windward mark for the Frostbites was eventually located just off the dolphins for the ferry. That impacted on the placement of our gybe mark which eventually sat just inside the end of the West Pier. A second attempt was needed to lay the leeward mark to accommodate the spinnaker boats. However, to quote the “Bard” “All’s well that ends well” and three races of an Olympic configuration were completed in varying winds that started is the low teens for the first race, faded towards the end of the race, giving a light wind middle race, before it came back again for the third race.

Fifty-eight boats assembled for the three starts with the PY Class having the biggest representation on the water – twenty-five boats, made up of 8 Aeros, 4 x 6s, 3 x 7s & 1 x 9, 8 x Fireballs, 3 x GP 14s, 2 Toppers, 1 x Mirror, 1 x RS200, 1 x 29er, 1 x Enterprise and 1 x Finn. Across the two races for the PY fleet, the 29er of Caoillin Geraghty-McDonnell & Sebastian Wright was the very fast hare on the water that the greyhounds were chasing. Aside from the lighter-aired middle race they were comfortably ahead of the rest of the fleet. In Race 1 of the day they were 2:44 ahead of the Fireball of Frank Miller and Marjo Moneen with Thomas Chaix in the Aero 7 finishing 28 seconds down on the two-hander over the line. In a near 1½minute window, Stuart Harris led a further sequence of five Aeros across the finish line 1:19 behind Chaix. Included in this group was Noel Butler, Sarah Dwyer, Neil Colin and Stephen Oram.

Miller’s gap to the next Fireball was 45 seconds, in the form of Cariosa Power and Marie Barry. Norman Lee and Alan Leddy led home their GP14 rivals, Sean Craig and Stephen Boyle by a mere 13 seconds, while the two Toppers sailing two laps to the three of the bigger boats were separated by 26 seconds.

The second race was set at two laps of the course due to the lighter winds and saw the Irish debut of the new modified Fireball launched in 2025. Michael Keegan is the first Irish owner of the new model, sail number 15179 and for its debut he had Barry McCartin on the helm. They missed the start of the first race, so this was the “serious debut” and they led the PY fleet home in 18:26. This new version of the Fireball sees an extended cockpit, achieved by shortening the aft buoyancy tank thus allowing the boom to be stored on the floor of the cockpit. Additional structural changes see the angle of the side decks changed, but the biggest change see the rig tenson and rake now being adjusted by a single control line with the side stays adjusted using clam cleats with designated knots for the different settings. In practical terms it removes the requirement to release the rig tenson to adjust the pin positions on the side stays. These newer models are seemingly also promoting the use of twin shooting spinnaker poles. Interestingly, the most successful Fireballer of recent years, the UK’s Tom Gillard (North Sails) has added a retro feature to his brand-new boat – a spinnaker chute, set behind and to the port side of the forestay. The 29er was second home in an elapsed time of 19:02. Other times were 21:33 by Craig & Boyle (GP14), 21:06 by Butler (Aero 6) and the 20:55 of Chaix (Aero 7). The Finn  of Des Fortune set a good time of 22:10 only four seconds adrift of Sarah Dwyer in the Aero 6.

With the breeze back again, and causing a few capsizes, the 29er resumed the role of the hare, finishing in 27:31 to the 30:04 of Colm Breen & Paul ter Horst in the Fireball, the 31:20 of Chaix, the 31:53 of Butler and the 31:55 of Craig & Boyle. As to be expected in the Aeros, the 7 Rigs of Chaix and Harris invariably led the fleet on the water, but Butler was consistently leading the chasing 6s behind them.

The ILCA 4s only had four boats out and Alex Butcher claimed two wins in Races 1 and 3. The second race went to James Crawford who added a second and a third to his tally, while Amey Shelley had a 3, 3, 2 scoreline across the afternoon. However, it was noticeable that all four boats were in close company around the three courses and it seems the combination of coaching in the morning and racing afterwards is paying dividends.

Nine ILCA 7s also enjoyed close racing with Conor Byrne bookending a second in Race 2 with wins in Races 1 and 3. Matteo Valentini took the middle race and paired it with two second places in Races 1 and 3. Hugh Delap claimed two third places in Races 1 and 3 while Gary O’Hare gate-crashed the podium party by claiming third place in Race 2.

If the ILCAs could be perceived to be a “closed shop” in terms of accessing the podium in individual races, the ILCAs had slightly relaxed “conditions of entry”.  Darren Griffin swept the board with three wins, but second places were shared by Owen Lavery (R1), John O’Driscoll (R2) and Thomas Evans (R3). Third places were also shared with this position going to Brendan Hughes, Conor Clancy and Owen Laverty in Races 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Again, competition was tight at the front of the fleet.

In the variable strength winds, all three fleets got a full afternoon of races with the Olympic course being used for 3 laps (R1), 2 Laps (R2) and 4 laps (R3) with racing completed by shortly after 16:00.

Given the loss of three Sundays in a row, RO Cormac Bradley proposed the idea of extending the series by one Sunday to try and provide more races at the day’s prize-giving. It was met with a muted reaction, so the decision was taken to conduct a Survey Monkey poll of the Frostbite fleet, availing of the fact that the entry form had an E-mail address for everyone. The votes received were in favour of an extension but the total poll was less than half the total entry to the Frostbites. On the basis that this does not equate to majority support for the idea, the Series will conclude on Sunday March 22^nd as advised in the Notice of Race.  

As I write this report (late Friday) the forecast for Sunday (15^th) isn’t looking helpful, westerlies @18knots gusting to in excess of 30 knots. We will monitor the forecast and if needs be make a decision early if there is no sign of relief from Mother Nature.