Tide tactics

Tuesday saw the committee and the racers confronted by a delicate combination; a tide absolutely whooshing up towards the "windward" mark and a breeze that was playing hide and seek rather expertly.

Mind you, it was warm and dry and really a rather pleasant evening so everyone took on the challenges in good humor.  Several boats stayed out after the racing until it was getting dark.

Drifting home as the sun sets.
A good evening.

But - before all that the racing was the main priority.

After a short postponement the committee sent the Fireballs off first. Even though the line had only been dropped minutes beforehand, there was already a huge boat bias and the mark was almost a fetch on starboard.

The PY start lined up and Sheehy's OK Dinghy won the start, hitting the boat end with speed (ehem) and almost hitting a port-tacking IDRA14 that was - and stayed - over the line. Des Fortune's Finn and Tom Murphy's K1 footed fast out to the left looking for stronger tide while the OK Dinghy pointed high and stuck to the inside of the course, hoping for more right shifts. The rightie came just as the OK Dinghy approached the mark, turning the beat into a fetch and leaving Fortune and Murphy downtide of the mark AND on the wrong side of the shift.  Argh.

Meantime, the Lasers were coming in pursuit.

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Sheehy sneaked around the windward mark and set off after the Fireballs, many of who were by now getting seriously downtide of the gybe mark. O'Toole and Nesbitt (not yet entered, so not in the results) were leading the Lasers up a windless beat with Keane just behind while the OK Dinghy barely made way down the middle of the course, not yet prepared to risk the stronger tide further out. Phil Lawton (2008 Olympian in the 470) was discovering that Qingado and Scotsmans Bay had some similarities, at least in terms of flukey wind, but was also well up the front.

Murphy's K1 got around the windward mark in the middle of the IDRAs and the slippery K1 soon managed to extract itself from the forest of sagging spinnakers. The leading Lasers weren't so lucky and found themselves clustered in a lovely little windless zone, forced to decide whether to go left or right around the IDRA14s.

Results - PY Overall
For Laser results remove any boat with PY not equal to 1087

O'Toole went the long way around and found himself falling off the Laser lead as the wind first cranked left but then went hard right even more than before. Sheehy's OK Dinghy was using all the tidal tactics learned on August evenings in Kinsale and was crabbing sideways across the tide towards the gybe mark and the gaggle of stalled Fireballs. The OK Dinghy passed the fireballs and led onto the second reach, which was by now actually a beat and where the indignant Fireballs quickly regained their leading on-the-water positions. From there it was plain sailing on a shortened course for the OK Dinghy, which won the overall PY race by nearly 2 minutes.

At the finish Murphy's K1 and O'Toole's Laser were next in the results with only 4 seconds separating them. Tight stuff all around.

O'Toole took 2nd overall and first official place in the Laser fleet. Will Nesbitt was first on the water but hasn't entered the DBSC racing. O'Toole's catchup was particularly impressive as he had to sail back around the stalled fleet of IDRAs and Mermaids and then around several Lasers before regaining a leading position. His Laser foes were both impressed and annoyed with this little demonstration of light air speed.

Paul Keane wangled up to finish as 2nd Laser (*actual finish place was 4th behind Nesbitt, O'Toole and visiting Olympian Phil Lawton), just 20 seconds further back. With the K1 intervening to take 3rd overall on the night you can see that the finish was tight. O'Toole, Lawton, Murphy's K1 and Keane all finished within 20 seconds.  The K1 again showed that it's fast, keeping its nose clean and staying out of trouble for most of the race with sensible tactics.