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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

T2 = WGL + WL + W

Another light night on Scotsmans Bay and all credit to the committee for getting a good race in.

It looked like it would be a night of traffic jams on a slow moving course as the PY fleet cleared their start line. 6 minutes later the Lasers were a little too exuberant (who was pushing..!?) but the ensuing general recall, line reset and 5 minute delay ensured that the fleets didn't actually get tangled up.

On the race course it was all snakes and ladders though the left on the upwinds looked like it had the most wind lanes for going up in the world.

Sean Craig was lucky to have such a big lead in the bank when he sailed towards the Gybe mark on the second round. He almost got there until the debate in the chasing pack was sealed by Neilan O'Toolivic and Paul Keane sailing direct to the Leeward. The rest of the leaders followed but Paul & Neilan were able to sneak into second and third to finish behind Sean.

There were some new and some new old faces on the bay, Theo Lyttle, Ross O'Leary and Alain Deladienne all making a welcome return. Richard Harding, new to the fleet this year sailed in his first Tuesday race. Welcome Richard, it's not always like that...  no really.

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Monday, May 27, 2013

Local Sailors take 3rd and 4th in Laser Masters

Read the report at the link below from the Laser Masters which were held in Ballyholme over the weekend.

Local dinghy sailors Rob Cahill and Sean Craig took 3rd and 4th respectively in their fleet.

http://afloat.ie/sail/sailing-classes/laser/item/21883-kinsales-chaix-wins-irish-laser-masters-at-ballyholme

Saturday, May 25, 2013

pop..

Champagne sailing on the bay today, sun, southerly breeze. In the Battle of Richards, Laser Harding overcame R.S.Tate twice, though the second win was by a mere 5 seconds. We're assuming everyone else was at the beach. C u next Tuesday?


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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Whatever floats your boat

The writing was on the wall at the harbour mouth that the evening might be lottery funded. A 90 degree shift as the wind swung from gradient to some random local thermal said it all.

The committee got things underway promptly and opted for a (long) W/L course and a very optimistic 3 rounds. With the tide flooding across the course there was only one side to the beat and everyone in every fleet duly headed right to the starboard layline.

By the end of round two the wind was dying completely but strangely the course was not shortened and everyone was sent back up the beat in very very fickle breeze. The right side, which had paid all evening, was now glassy smooth and over on the left lotto numbers were beginning to come up.

In the Lasers, Neilan O'Toolivic from Croatia held his steely nerve to take the bullet, Sean Craig, who would have been due redress anyway for turning back to help Tom Murphy in his runaway K1 on leg 3, took a deserved Silver while the PY Commander in Chief, David Dwyer, completed the podium to finish 3rd.

Not the finest evening on the bay but thankfully warm air and no hailstones, which was nice.

Results, as always, by the dependable Kevin over here.

C U next Tuesday

In the red corner: O'Toolivic, and the Blue: Keane

Get your tracker on..

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

All Hail the Royal Irish

Well, the winter hasn't let go yet. After a sunny day the dinghy fleets launched into greying skies and then had a whopping hailstorm with BIG hailstones. Ouch, to put it mildly.

The start happened just as the hail eased off, from a line with a huge pin bias. The wind was around 20 knots from the south east and with a tide running east the trapezoid course left few tactical options despite the consistent right shift. Most boats went up the left through the heavy chop and only nibbled in on bigger righties as the wind died away through the race.

Wind for the evening.
Downwind was interesting with the waves running at an angle across the shifting breeze, making it tricky to catch and hold a ride.

Galavan and Keane from the Royal Irish again dominated proceedings, finishing clear ahead....hence the bad joke in the title.

Sheehy's OK Dinghy got in the middle of the Lasers on corrected time taking 3rd, with O'Toole the next Laser. The fleet got quite spread out with the chop making life tricky upwind and downwind. Plus...did Sean Craig capsize?

The time shown for Tom Murphy's K1 is incorrect and will have to be checked.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Dun Laoghaire sailors away from home

While the sailing in Dun Laoghaire itself was all cancelled due to the wind, some local sailors have been out in other places flying the flag.

The SB20 Westerns didn't see Dun Laoghaire on the top step of the podium this time, but there were still a number of recognizable names in the entry list.

The Ryan brothers were 5th overall in Sin Bin. They're proving their versatility, having recently placed very highly in the RS400 Easterns. Graham Elmes was also out, sailing with Aidan O'Connell.

SB20 Westerns - featuring Ryan, Ryan and Elmes

Meantime, we'd missed the news from the previous week.

Malahide held the 420 Leinsters and the Lyttle sisters finished a close 4th, missing the podium by a single point. And they qualified for the Junior Europeans!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Apocalypse now - and then the sun shone

The best description of Saturday's weather was that God had his weather iPod on shuffle.

With racing scheduled to start at 1400, 1350 saw the arrival of a squall with hailstones and 49 knot gusts.

Then the weather dropped to a lovely 10-20 for the time that racing would normally be held, before rounding back up to 39 knot gusts again.

Was anyone out there? Your correspondent wasn't!

See a report from the OK mob at http://iokda.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/were-chicken-and-were-ok-with-that/

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

A lovely Tuesday evening

It was. It was a lovely Tuesday evening.....for a walk along the East Pier.

However, with the wind dying away to nothing and the tide starting to get up to speed it was a bad evening for a sailboat race in Scotsman's Bay. The committee wisely called a halt to proceedings just as the first few boats got to the mouth of the harbor.

A perfectly timed wind failure.
Two OK Dinghies, one Finn, several Lasers, a K1 and a Vago were on their way out to the PY racing. Plus a bunch of Mermaids, Fireballs and IDRA14s.   The OK Dinghies, Finn, K1 and a couple of Lasers hung around and tried some light air practice, but there really wasn't enough wind even for that.

The GPS track from one boat shows that there were three times the speed got above three knots........




So.....off to the bar!!


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Mirrors in the sun

Apart from the regular DBSC racing and the Island Trial, a rather redder event was held in Dun Laoghaire over the weekend. 

The Mirror Leinsters were hosted in the Irish and saw a solid turnout and sunny conditions.  Sligo Sailing Club's sailors showed their strength, taking most of the top places. The Dublin area was best represented by Sutton and Howth with Dun Laoghaire boats sadly rather thin on the water. 


170507GoldC HickeyC Croasdell11
270533GoldJ MayeS WhiteSligo SC16
370529GoldK BoylanG O'ConnorSSC17
470123R ArmstrongS ArmstrongSligo YC23
570580GoldB ArmstrongS Wray25
670428SilverS McLoughlinBen JenningsSDC29
770620GoldS DicksonE McMahonHYC/SDC41
870607SilverM BoylanE Ennis42
970508SilverT McCulloughR CaddyRNIYC46
1070355GoldJ RyanB GrafLRSC52
1169797SilverK HackettC HackettMullingar SC55
12702BronzeE HickeyS CulletonSSC67
1370076SilverR MurphyR MooreLDYC74
1470518BronzeG Roche-GriffinH O'Reilly77
1569558GoldR HackettE BroderickMullingar SC91
1621645BronzeC FoleyR Foley95
1770036BronzeR McAllistarO McAllistar98
1870425SilverD WhiteS Doyle99
1969037BronzeC NashG FisherCoal Hbr105

We also had a more personal report from one of the competitors.....one of the Dun Laoghaire competitors in the fleet, and someone who normally sails Fireballs.  

Glen Fisher was kind enough to share his experiences in a fleet that's far more competitive than most senior sailors would dare to imagine...or have the skills to survive in!


Monday, May 6, 2013

May weekend - puffy choppy speed

A sunny windy Saturday was in store for the sailors on the May weekend. Much windier than forecast with 30+knot puffs sweeping the bay instead of the 10-15 forecast.

Graham Elmes' Laser headed for the Island Trial course while Sheehy and van der Wolf's OK Dinghies lined up for the DBSC racing. While the wind made it a great day for sailing, it was a bit rough so Elmes wisely chose to do the "Junior" Island Trial course instead of the full route and van der Wolf stayed inside the harbor walls while only Sheehy's OK Dinghy headed upwind to the DBSC course in Seapoint.

26-32 knot puffs. And maybe more in Seapoint!
Elmes took quite a chunk off Paul Keane's previous best time on the Island Trial and showed that a Laser shouldn't be underestimated on this kind of challenge. He was able to reach out and back and put in the high sustained speeds that could scare a Moth around the full course. Certainly not the same peak speeds, but no crashes either! See the full report on the Island Trial event site.

Meantime, Sheehy's OK was learning how to go upwind through brutal Seapoint chop. He only really got it right in race 2, but was holding Mermaids upwind in the blow and staying upright on the runs despite the puffs. Like Elmes, he was hitting 11 knots plus on any kind of beam reach.  There's a full report over at the OK Dinghy site.

Well earned pints for all at the George afterwards as the sun shone and the BBQ produced excellent burgers!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Tuesday - Baptizing the season

No doubt about it, but there's tide in Scotsman's Bay!!

The PY fleet, 11 or 12 strong, headed out into sun and a moderate breeze. Several boats are still not formally entered, but were there racing nonetheless. 

The committee set up a trapezoid course with the start off the east pier and the windward mark in under Sandycove harbor. Maybe a little too close in. Tuesday nights have a separate start for the Lasers, and this week the committee sent them off 6 minutes after the other boats, which means there's a big gap between boats in the same race. Not so ideal, frankly. 

The OK Dinghy, Finn and RS 400s set off along with the Mermaids and we saw Richard Tate zoom off ahead quite quickly. The OK was just about getting ahead of the Mermaids, with the Finn mixed in among them.  Everyone went left up the beat to get most benefit from tide and wind, and struggled with the chop as a result. 

Sheehy, who had arrived barely in time for the start, apparently hadn't read the course board and made a sudden 90 degree course change on the downwind legs when he realised that we were going a trapezoid and not a triangle. That cost him about a minute. That'll teach him! 


Meantime the Lasers were chasing hard and Keane - in particular - was catching up (see video). Keane got ahead early, followed by O'Toole (not entered yet), with  Craig and Galavan (not entered) following close behind. The second beat was tricky. Should you go for the expected right shift, or stay left for the tide. Well, the tide paid. 

At the finish Keane was still ahead and took his third straight win in this DBSC season!

The top 7 boats, down to the confused OK Dinghy, finished across a 2 minute spread. Slightly more spread than most nights, but reflecting the tricky conditions.

Full results here 
(note several boats aren't shown as they aren't entered yet)