19 November 2014
The third Sunday of the 2014/15 Frostbite Series saw the fleet break out of the constraints of Dun Laoghaire harbour and race offshore yesterday. My interaction with the fleet afterwards suggests that the dominant feature of the day was the big sea running outside the harbour, which combined with a light-ish breeze, gave everyone a bit of a challenge.
A five lap trapezoid course was set with a separate weather mark for the Fireball fleet. My contacts also suggested that there was a lot of place changing going in the bottom half of the fleet, but couldn't offer a "blow by blow" account of what was going on ahead of them.
However, I was told that for the second week in a row, a member of the fairer sex became detached from her boat and had to be rescued by her (female) crew. Well done Hermine! The previous week, in zero wind, another all lady team capsized while they floated around waiting for the wind to fill in……….which it never did. Oops, Mary & Brenda!
As I was not present to watch the racing and with it being offshore I might have had difficulty anyway, a detailed account of the racing is not available! Apologies!
However, I can surmise that with a finishing order of;
There would have been lots of fun and games at the front end of the fleet. Neil Colin admitted to being asleep at the start with his watch being a minute out, so he and Margaret (14775) spent the rest of the race catching up.
Alistair Court & Gordon Syme were pleased to find that their efforts had resulted in a 4th place finish.
With Rumball & Byrne also winning the first round race, yesterday's Frostbite Mugs went to the Clancy Brothers.
Irish Fireballers are reminded that the Class Prize-giving takes place on the last Friday of November, the 28th, in the National Yacht Club. In addition to awarding prizes for the season-long Traveller's Trophy, there are a number of Class Awards to be handed out - The Asterix Trophy, The India Trophy, The Captain's Trophy, The Lady's Trophy & The Liam Bradley Trophy. It is also an evening where the season-long post-mortems take place.
Hope to see you there! Please let a committee member know if you will be in attendance.
