Ireland Year End Wrapup

20 December 2013

FROSTBITE ROUND SEVEN

The last Sunday of Frostbite racing in Dun Laoghaire for 2013 was brought to an early close when the Race Team decided that the combination of the overnight weather forecast (Storm Force 9) and the actual conditions meant that racing should not proceed. There didn't seem to be too much objection to the decision from those who were in the clubhouse of the Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club when the Race Team made their decision public. Some three hours later, when a modest gathering formed at the clubhouse for the series prize-giving, the wisdom of the decision to abandon racing was confirmed when the comment was made "that you wouldn't have wanted to be on the water at 14:45!"

Considering that the entry level for the Frostbites is nearly ninety boats, the turn out for the prize-giving was modest - none of the four classes, PY, Lasers, RS Classes and Fireballs had a full turnout of the 1-2-3 prizewinners. Due thanks were recorded to the Race Team who have provided racing from November 3^rd by the principle organizer and MC for the prize-giving at each Sunday and yesterday, Olivier Proveur. He, in turn, was thanked by a member of the Race Team for all his effort.

 The Fireball results for Series 1 of the Frostbites have seen an unusual scenario, Messrs Butler and Oram back in third place overall, without a 2013/14 Frostbite Mug in their respective trophy cabinets. However, that observation has to be tempered by the fact that only four points cover the top three boats. The loss of yesterday's race also meant that there is no discard for Series 1 so the results of two weeks ago are now the final results.

Prizes took the form of "Frostbite calendars" based on the collection of racing photographs taken by Bob Hobby, a key member of the Frostbite Race Team.

For the Irish Fireball fleet, this brings the curtain down on the domestic season for 2013. It saw us lose one regatta during the year when the Open Championships was reduced to a single race in early May in Killaloe. The other stark feature of the season has been the fall-off in numbers, yet those who did turn out for the regattas enjoyed enhanced competition and some memorable racing, particularly at the Nationals in Skerries and the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta where we had wind and glorious sunshine. In what turned out to be a very successful venture we hosted an Open Day in November to try and attract new people into the fleet - we had seventeen "takers".

At international level we had six boats at the Europeans and Worlds in Slovenia and had a top ten finisher in the Europeans with the Rumball brothers, Alexander and Kenneth. At the Worlds, Noel Butler & Stephen Oram together with Kenneth Rumball and David Moran, flew the Irish flag in overall terms and we had one top-ten finish in a race, when Louis Smyth and Cormac Bradley recorded a 9^th place. Three Irish boats contested the UK Inland Championships and enjoyed the event so much they are already committed to doing the 2014 event. We should also be taking advantage of the UK Nationals which are scheduled for Wales in August 2014 as a preamble to the Worlds coming to Wales the following year. There is also an expectation that the Irish will be in the Shetlands for the 2014 Europeans.

At a committee meeting before yesterday's abandoned race, the provisional calendar for 2014 was discussed and while there are some key dates (and venues) that need to be confirmed we believe that we have a workable fixture list for 2014, which will be finalized over the next few weeks.

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to all! 

COME AND TRY DAY

The Irish Fireball Association's Open Day on Saturday 30th November was a great success with strong interest in both the morning and afternoon sessions. We were very fortunate with the weather - sunshine and good breeze - enough to allow the boat to be shown off to best effect without putting anyone off the idea of sailing them.

Four Fireballs were used in the morning session with rotation of helms and crews accommodated by having two ribs on the water. In the afternoon, a further two Fireballs were required and while the wind dropped for the latter session there was still enough of it in place to make the afternoon session viable.

The majority of the people who came to sample the boat were Dublin based and the majority of these had racing experience - Laser Vagos, Cadets, 420s, 470s, big boats. However, special mention must be made of the young man who persuaded his mother to take him to Dun Laoghaire for the afternoon - all the way from Youghal in the south of the country. Edward is a 15 year old who blew Noel Butler away with his enthusiasm and knowledge of all things Fireball, so much so that after a short stint on the helm, Noel took up crewing for the remainder of the afternoon to accommodate Edward's enthusiasm.

As a measure of the addiction" we all have for the Class, at least a dozen current Fireballers came out to lend their support to the initiative. Thanks too are due to those people who lent their boats for the day.

Special mention must also be made of the hospitality of the Irish National Sailing School who lent us their premises and two fully fuelled and equipped ribs for the day. Kenny and Mrs. Rumball, (Kenny's "mammy") went out of their way to make sure that we were all properly looked after with tea/coffee and biscuits and made sure that hot water was available for showers afterwards.

If you are interested in sailing a Fireball, be it on a Frostbite Sunday over the winter months, or during summer 2014, in Dublin Bay Sailing Club racing (Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons) or in our own regattas, get in touch with the class via its Facebook page or approach any of the Fireballers who congregate in the DMYC after Frostbite racing on a Sunday.

FROSTBITE ROUND FIVE

When taking up my station on the east pier of Dun Laoghaire's harbour to watch the day's Frostbite racing for this report, the wind direction was 289º. By the start of the Fireball race it had gone to 002º, then during the race the readings were 353º, 320º, 220º and by the end the reading was 49º. So it doesn't take much to imagine what it was like on the 4-lap trapezoid course set by the Race Committee. Though it was the 1^st of December and the start of Advent, the wind gods didn't bring any presents as the highest recorded wind strength of the afternoon was 5.1 knots and the highest recorded gust just over ten knots - though I don't think I saw that on the water and I'm sure none of the Fireballers did! 

The first start for the nine Fireballs was aborted - to the relief of Teddy Byrne & Conor Kinsella (14934) and Luke Malcolm & Shane Diviney (14790) as they had the door of opportunity at the committee boat end of the line firmly shut in their respective faces by the rest of the fleet. For this start a slightly oversized blanket could have covered the fleet as they fought to be at the committee boat end. A significant shift of the limit mark for the second start saw a much more even spread of boats along the line with Malcolm/Diviney securing the committee boat end and Byrne/Kinsella down towards the pin.

Eight of the nine boats went substantially left, but Malcolm/Diviney took a hitch to the right immediately after the start and another one halfway up the beat. This left them in pole position on the right-hand side of the course in the approach to the first weather mark, but by their own admission, after the race, they overstood to allow Noel Butler & Stephen Oram (15061) to lead round the mark, followed closely by Malcolm/Diviney and Kenneth Rumball and David Moran (15058). These three had a gap on the balance of the fleet who rounded in the following order - Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keeffe (14691), Mary Chambers & Brenda McGuire (14865), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713), Teddy Byrne & Conor Kinsella, Conor Clancy & Paul Devlin (14807) and Neil Colin & Margaret Casey (14775).

By Mark 2, Rumball & Moran had taken the lead, which they would not subsequently relinquish, and Malcolm/Diviney had passed Butler/Oram. The legs from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 allowed spinnakers to be flown but the leading three boats dropped their spinnakers early on the leg from 3 to 4.

Those who took a short hitch at Mark 4 to stay on the right hand side of the "beat" scored best on the second lap. Rumball and Malcolm adopted this tactic and it paid dividends for them. Butler had lost distance to them both by the time he arrived at mark 1 for the second time but all three sailed the same course to Mark 2. Further back, Colin & Casey gybed immediately on rounding Mark 1 in an attempt to catch up with the boats that had got ahead of them. The lead three boats were comfortable in their positions, but behind them McKenna, Clancy, Byrne, Miller and Colin were having their own race within the race.

Rumball/Moran grew their lead even further on the remainder of the second lap and the subsequent laps to record a winning margin of over 6 minutes. Malcolm & Diviney also managed to break away from the chasing pack until the last lap when their lead over the remainder of the fleet all but disappeared between Marks 2 and 3 for the last time.  McKenna/O'Keeffe also occupied third place for a while but ultimately Butler/Oram passed them out to close to within a few boat-lengths of Malcolm/Diviney at Mark 3 for the last time. Clancy/Devlin extracted themselves from the "van" to close on these two as well.

At Mark 4 for the last time, with only the short hitch to the finish left, Butler/Oram looked as though they had done enough to pass Malcolm/Diviney, but the latter pair just managed to hold onto 2^nd place by staying to windward of Butler/Oram. Clancy/Devlin did exactly the same thing to Butler/Oram and then to Malcolm/Diviney. The short hitch to the finish was now a lot freer and two of the three boats flew spinnakers! Not Clancy/Devlin who ghosted past the other two boats to snatch 2^nd place ahead of Malcolm/Diviney and Butler/Oram. The former combination must have been enormously frustrated to see what had been such a healthy lead over the third place boat(s) disappear over the three legs of the fourth lap, but that frustration would have been tempered by winning the day's Frostbite Mugs in the Fireball Class. 

As an indication of the competitiveness of this year's Frostbites, it is interesting to note that Noel Butler and Stephen Oram have yet to pick up a set of mugs and we are now into December. Noel acknowledged as much in the post-mortem in the DMYC afterwards saying that it is encouraging to see where the competition is at this year.

  (This prompts a correction to last week's report which awarded the Mugs to Messrs Butler & Oram. The report should have read that the Round 4 Mugs went to Conor Clancy and Paul Devlin.)

  With only two Sundays left in Series 1, there is still going to be a number of combinations trying to secure the daily prize before the Christmas break!