Irish Fireball Nationals

5 July 2012

The Irish Fireball Nationals, sailed this past Friday, Saturday, Sunday were certainly not short-changed in terms of available wind. Friday saw heavy conditions for the three races of the day with the fleet being taken off the water between races 1 and 2. Saturday saw a tired fleet come ashore after four races in challenging conditions but by Sunday the breeze had eased to produce what were described as "champagne conditions" for the last day.

Friday' results were a key element to the overall situation and being able to finish all three races was a significant building block in getting to a podium finish. Simon McGrotty & Darragh Dineen produced the best performance of the day to take two race wins, either side of a race win by Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. This left the Skerries combination with a 1pt lead on the Friday evening over Butler/Oram. Third place overall saw Ed Butler (Jnr) teamed up with recently selected Irish 470 Olympian crew, Scott Flannagan, three points adrift of 2^nd place.

Saturday saw four races sailed and Butler/Oram put together a solid performance relative to their close rivals to effectively tie up the regatta with a day to spare. Counting a 2, 1, 3, 1 suite of finishes they opened up a huge gap on their rivals, most of whom carried at least one bad result on the day. The next best result for the day was that of Kenneth Rumball and David Moran who put together a 4, 3, 1 5 followed by  Neil Spain and Francis Rowan who scored a 3, 4, 4, 10. However, in terms of total points this left them 20 points adrift of the leaders.

With the first discard coming into play on Saturday evening, the actual situation was as follows;

Wind conditions eased for Sunday's proceedings and the final three races of the series were completed. Butler & Oram sailed the last day even though they effectively had the regatta sewn up.

McGrotty/Dineen came back from a dreadful Saturday (2 x 21pts) to post a 1, 4. Rumball/Moran scored a 4, 2 while Spain/Rowan's regatta came unstuck with a 21 in the last race, which undid all the good work of a 3^rd in Race 8.  Butler/Oram had a 9 and another first to close out the event with some authority. The nine was to become one of their discards, the other being a third.

The Silver fleet was won by Dave Coleman and Glen Fisher in 17^th, followed by Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire. The ladies applied discretion rather than valour to Friday's racing but finished all the remaining races of the weekend. Dave and Glen had a difficult day on Saturday but had other results just off the top tem. The Classic Trophy was not awarded.

Noel Butler offered the following additional oversight of the regatta;

Quite a few combinations flirted with the front end of the fleet and led races at different times. Frank Miller and Grattan Donnelly sailed a very consistent Friday to lie in 5^th overall and their "counted" results showed a consistency that saw them finish in 8^th overall. Michael Ennis and Marie Barry also led a race, lost the lead and regained it. Niall McGrotty & Neil Creamer, scored a 2^nd to Butler/Oram in Race 7 and Noel admitted they only just caught the former combination in time. In some of the heavier conditions Michael Murphy and Alex Voye got their chance at the front and they secured two 2^nd places in their set of results. In Race 8 an OCS was signalled and Butler/Oram and Butler/Flannagan went back. It afforded the former combination an opportunity to see how an Olympic-qualified crew works the boat around the course. Butler/Flannagan eventually got back to 5^th in this particular race. From a rare trip through the fleet, as a consequence of going back at the start, Noel also confirmed that there was competition all around the course with individual ba