Lucky 7 Fireballs

2 December 2014

Seven lucky Fireballs were again treated to a race outside Dun Laoghaire harbour this past Sunday! The seven headed out to the bay on Sunday afternoon for Race 5 of the 2014/15 DMYC Frostbite Series, a race in the bay giving them a chance to stretch their legs on a longer course but with spring tides in play, some tidal calculations were needed at all the turning marks of the course. 

Watching the PY fleet start before the Fireballs, it was clear that a conservative start was needed and after waiting for our turn, all seven fireballs got away cleanly with no OCSs to mention, a rare occasion for Irish Fireballers. 

Given the shifty conditions, the first beat was almost a fetch to the weather mark and most of the fleet tacked on to port almost instantly after the start, the Clancy brothers (15113) mastered the start line and took a dominant role on the left hand-side of the fleet.  Neil Colin and Margaret Casey 14775 went out towards the right hand-side while most of the fleet kept towards the middle of the course. 

At the top mark, the Clancy brothers had held their lead and rounded first, followed by Colin/Casey (14775), then Rumball/Byrne (15058) followed hot by Butler/Oram (15061).  A quick hoist saw Rumball/Byrne overtake Colin/Casey on the top reach and then set off in hot pursuit of the Clancy brothers.  At the first gybe mark of the trapezoid the Clancy brother still held their lead.  Up the next beat Rumball/Byrne had closed the gap while Butler/Oram had managed to overtake Colin/Casey.

Round Two of the course saw some good match racing between Rumball/Byrne and the Clancy brothers with Rumball/Byrne only managing to gain first place on the next upwind leg.  The race continued with little place changing from here on as far as this writer can tell.

The finishing order is below with mug winners on the day of Louise McKenna & Hermine O'Keefe (14691).

With five races sailed and assuming no discards have kicked in yet, this leaves the Rumball/Byrne partnership with a healthy 12 point lead over Butler & Oram, having won all five races. In third place lie the Clancy brothers, Conor and James, with 21 points, only one ahead of Luke Malcolm & Harry O' Reilly sailing out of Howth Yacht Club.