The past two Sundays of Series 2 of the Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites, hosted by DMYC, saw contrasting wind conditions for the assembled fleets. The forecast for Sunday 18th suggested light winds and these manifested themselves for the forty-eight boats that came to the starting area. There was a light breeze coming from a South-Easterly direction for the start of the racing but as the race got underway it started to fluctuate in terms of strength and direction. Despite these variable conditions, all three starts got away cleanly for the first round of races but as can be imagined with the fickle conditions, the mix of boats in the PY Fleet at the first mark indicated the varying fortunes of the respective classes that make up this fleet – Aeros, GP14s, Fireballs, a Mirror and an RS200. Due to crew availability, one RS 200 dropped out but the helm than took her Aero out and was rewarded by getting a Frostbite Mug for the day.
Thomas Chaix (Aero 7) was the first boat home in Race 1 with a 2:23 time difference on the GP14 of Sean Craig and Stephen Boyle with the Aero 6 of Stephen Oram home 0:05 ahead of the GP14. On corrected time, the first three were Craig & Boyle, Chaix and Oram inside a 2:19 window. The Fireballs struggled in the light conditions.
In Race 2, Chaix was first home again, and further back, nearly seven minutes down on Chaix, the GP14 of Craig & Boyle sneaked over the line, three seconds ahead of the Aero 6 of Noel Butler. These three boats took the podium places on corrected time with the finishing order in this domain, Chaix (48:29), Craig & Boyle (51:40) and Butler (53:41), shutting out the Fireballs again.
Twenty-two boats contested the PY fleet.
In the eight-boat ILCA 7s, four boats shared six podium places with Conor Byrne taking a first in Race 1 and a third in Race 2. Matteo Valentini was second in Race 1 and won the second race while Hugh Delap was third in Race 1 with Neil Hegarty second in Race 2.
The ILCA 6s had a 17-boat fleet and saw Max O’Hare take two race wins, with Darren Griffin second in both races and Owen Laverty and Gareth Giles taking the third places in Race 1 and Race 2 respectively.
Conditions throughout the afternoon were difficult for the race team and competitors alike, but the sentiment that it was better to be on the water than sitting on shore seemed to prevail and there were no raised voices from any of the fleets as they headed shore wards.
For the following Sunday, 25th, both the wind forecast and the temperature forecast suggested that a good afternoon might be had and the Race Officer toyed with the idea that maybe three races might be possible, especially as sunset was predicted for 16:54.
An Easterly breeze was in place for the afternoon and stayed fairly constant for the early part of the race with a weather mark in the water inshore from the obelisk on the upper deck of the East Pier. That allowed a gybe mark to be set close to the harbour mouth with a leeward mark just to the north of the marina entrance. With hindsight this was not the correct place for this mark, but I had forced my own hand by setting up the committee boat in the first place. Forty boats took up the racing challenge with 16 in the PY fleet, 7 ILCA 7s, 16 ILCA 6s and a solitary ILCA 4. Included in the PY Fleet was the Mirror of Sam Smith & Freddie Nelson who have sailed all the races of Series 2 and a Topper debut helmed by Ben Chaix.
An early setting of the weather mark allowed for a number of practice beats, notably by Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle, while others availed of the same opportunity.
Two Fireballs were deemed to be OCS for the first start of the PY Fleet and while neither of these went back a third Fireball did go back only to suffer a gear failure shortly into their restarted race that prevented Cariosa Power and Marie Barry taking any further part in the afternoon’s proceedings.
Thomas Chaix took the win on the water with the “usual suspects” for corrected time podium places also well placed on the water, Noel Butler finishing 25 seconds behind the larger rigged Aero and Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle coming in 44 seconds behind the smaller Aero. On corrected time the 1-2-3 went to Craig & Boyle, Butler and Chaix with 25 seconds covering these three positions. The Mirror of Sam Smith & Freddie Nelson claimed fourth place on corrected time which was enough to claim the Frostbite Mug.
The seven ILCA 7s enjoyed close racing with Conor Byrne taking the win from Hugh Delap and Gary O’Hare.
The 16-boat ILCA 6 fleet saw a win for Owen Laverty, with Darren Griffin and John O’Driscoll second and third respectively.
However, in the latter stages of the first race the wind went further to the south which necessitated a rejig of the course. While the first race was finishing, the RO reset all three marks in accordance with the new wind direction. However, during this second race it would continue to flick rightwards, but for most of the time came back to where the new weather was located.
As the first race had been shorter than intended the RO gave the PY fleet a 5-lap race of an Olympic course while the ILCA fleets each got a 4-lap course. The were some surprised gasps at this decision, but ultimately the race was completed and the fleets were ashore by shortly after 16:00.
GP14s dominated the corrected time results for the PY fleet with Craig & Boyle winning by twenty seconds from the Aero 7 of Chaix with the second GP14 of Norman Lee & Adam Leddy finishing down a further 1:06 down on the Aero.
The ILCA 7s enjoyed tight racing around the course and at stages an oversized blanket would have covered the majority of the fleet. By the end of the 4-laps, Conor Byrne was able to claim a second win with Matteo Valentini and Hugh Delap in second and third.
While the ILCA 6s might have baulked at the idea of a four-lap race, for one high profile competitor four laps allowed him to recover from a poor start – by his standards. Darren Griffin and Owen Laverty swopped places from Race 1 and Conor Clancy joined them in the podium places.
Thus, two races were sailed during the afternoon and the fleets were ashore relatively early. While a number of people were very happy with the racing, making favourable comments as they finished, post-race some additional commentary was genteelly offered to the RO by one highly regarded competitor who made some very valid points about the day’s racing. The spirit in which they were offered was supportive rather than critical.
| Viking Marine Frostbites, Series 2; Hosted by DMYC. | |||
| 18th January | PY Fleet | ILCA 7s | ILCA 6s |
| Race 1 | Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle
Thomas Chaix Stephen Oram |
Conor Byrne
Matteo Valentini Hugh Delap |
Max O’Hare
Darren Griffin Owen Laverty |
| Race 2 | Thomas Chaix
Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle Noel Butler |
Matteo Valentini
Neil Hegarty Conor Byrne |
Max O’Hare
Darren Griffin Gareth Giles |
| 25th January |
|
||
| Race 1 | Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle
Noel Butler Thomas Chaix |
Conor Byrne
Hugh Delap Gary O’Hare |
Owen Laverty
Darren Griffin John O’Driscoll |
| Race 2 | Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle
Thomas Chaix Norman Lee & Adam Leddy |
Conor Byrne
Matteo Valentini Hugh Delap. |
Darren Griffin
Owen Laverty Conor Clancy |
| Viking Marine Frostbites, Series 2 Overall | |
| PY Fleet
Series 2 Overall |
Sean Craig & Stephen Boyle
Thomas Chaix Noel Butler |
| ILCA 7s
Series 2 Overall |
Conor Byrne (6)
Matteo Valentini (9) Hugh Delap (9)
|
| ILCA 6s
Series 2 Overall |
Darren Griffin (7)
Owen Laverty (8) Conor Clancy (15) |
| Fireballs
Series 2 Overall |
Pat McGoldrick & Jude O’Reilly (11)
Colm Breen & Paul ter Horst (13) David McIlwee & Peter McMullan (13) |
| Aeros
Series 2 Overall |
Thomas Chaix (5)
Noel Butler (8) Gordon Syme (15) |
| ILCA 4s
Series 2 Overall |
Peter Murphy (2)
Amy Selby (8) |