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. 

1	70507	Gold	C Hickey	C Croasdell		11
2	70533	Gold	J Maye	S White	Sligo SC	16
3	70529	Gold	K Boylan	G O'Connor	SSC	17
4	70123		R Armstrong	S Armstrong	Sligo YC	23
5	70580	Gold	B Armstrong	S Wray		25
6	70428	Silver	S McLoughlin	Ben Jennings	SDC	29
7	70620	Gold	S Dickson	E McMahon	HYC/SDC	41
8	70607	Silver	M Boylan	E Ennis		42
9	70508	Silver	T McCullough	R Caddy	RNIYC	46
10	70355	Gold	J Ryan	B Graf	LRSC	52
11	69797	Silver	K Hackett	C Hackett	Mullingar SC	55
12	702	Bronze	E Hickey	S Culleton	SSC	67
13	70076	Silver	R Murphy	R Moore	LDYC	74
14	70518	Bronze	G Roche-Griffin	H O'Reilly		77
15	69558	Gold	R Hackett	E Broderick	Mullingar SC	91
16	21645	Bronze	C Foley	R Foley		95
17	70036	Bronze	R McAllistar	O McAllistar		98
18	70425	Silver	D White	S Doyle		99
19	69037	Bronze	C Nash	G Fisher	Coal Hbr	105

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!




Here's Glen's report.  Anyone who's sailed Mirrors will recognize the competitiveness of the fleet. No prisoners taken, and many more experienced sailors would learn a lot trying to match the level among the Mirrors!

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I thought I might share a few special moments from this weekend.

I persuaded Clodagh, my 10 year old daughter, to join me in participating in the Mirror Leinster Championships organised by the RIYC. The event was extremely well run, the hospitality and encouragement great (we needed a lot) and the standard of sailing was exceptional.

The event was held over two days with 4 races on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, the conditions could not have been more varied with winds on Saturday of 15-20 knots on average gusting 30, Sunday a little lighter with a spell of sunbathing between races two and three waiting for the wind to regenerate. 

As I was saying the standard of sailing was exceptional. At one point whilst trying to overtake a competitor to windward on a run I was astounded that they (two girls probably aged around 13) had the audacity to move over to protect their wind. Alas with all my Fireball training I was able to gracefully with skill and good fortune smile and edge forward (I think they were too polite not like fireball sailors) only then to be attacked by another boat coming screeching out of the sun and determined to overtake us to windward. This was serious!!  

It was now a race to the upcoming mark and we were perilously sandwiched like a slice of salami in brown bread being tossed about in high rolling seas, maybe too much centre board, kicker, loose gaff rig, who knows in high rolling seas with severe gusts. 

I had to remind my challenger that he had to give us room as he was in fact a Port tack boat and I was a starboard boat. It's the only thing I could think of in this sticky situation to get the edge. Anyway everything was taken out of my hands shortly after. Whether it was a gust or a rouge wave I'll never know but we were screwed up to wind in an instant and with utter shock, bewilderment and a little embarrassment collided with the port tack boat.  My fellow competitors (age 12 & 9) although a little shocked recovered from the insane actions of this mad sailor and we continued with the race intent on recovering our pride. Well mine actually. The rest of the weekend went without a hitch well apart from two capsizes. 

Clodagh couldn't wait to tell her mum that she had had her first capsize. The second was a little more eventful which I'd say she would prefer to forget. I certainly haven't. The lesson to be learned is to practice capsizing in the calm waters of the harbour first.

The courses were ideal with on triangle and sausage and beat to the finish. All boats had to go through the starting line on beat to the windward mark and on the run before the beat to the finish. As you can imagine this had boats approaching the finish line and boats still racing running to round the mark and beat to the finish.  

It provided quick turn around, close racing and interesting finishes and maybe something we could try. For those of you who want to tune up their skills a Mirror championship takes a lot to beat. 

I'm looking forward to Killaloe were i can put into practice all i have learned. 

Glen. 

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