Frostbite Series 1 - it's a wrap!

While the weather hasn't been kind over the last few weekends, the calendar has marched on and we have come to the end of Series 1 in the Frostbites.

The results are here.

PY Dinghies - http://goo.gl/Uli4eu

Junior PY Dinghies - http://goo.gl/8EMhLz

Laser class - http://goo.gl/rCzYd8

Laser Juniors - http://goo.gl/ZGXkIQ

RS class - http://goo.gl/34VNtv

Fireball class - http://goo.gl/BI2H2r

Thanks again to Olivier and all the helpers at the DMYC!

Onwards to Series 2!!

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No Racing Sunday 8th Dec

There was no racing on Sunday 8th December due to strong winds.

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December 1st challenges

What a set of challenges we all faced!

K1 - 1st place in PY

The committee faced a very unstable wind, changing direction far to much and too frequently. The sailors faced a chilly day with large fleets and confused breezes.

Who would handle it best? The answer was clear in all the fleets.

In PY Tom Murphy walked away with it. His K1 and his tactics had great effect and he finished more than 5 minutes ahead of a tight group of two IDRA 14s.  The OK Dinghy and the 470 were a minute further back from them and only 5 seconds apart. After that there was a gap of 15 minutes on corrected time to the next finishers!  Unusually large gaps in PY, which is typically very tight.

PY Results - http://goo.gl/QGICtS

PY Juniors - http://goo.gl/BgIqqA

The Laser fleet saw new challenges to Dave Cahill's dominance. Richard Harding won, with Cahill second and a returning Graham Elmes showing his speed to come in 3rd. With 22 boats on such a quiet day it was a challenge to keep the boat moving, and the leaders deserved their results.  It was interesting to note that the Lasers didn't catch the IDRA 14s, which they would normally do.  Sloops faster than cat rigged boats in such light airs, perhaps?

Laser Results - http://goo.gl/KOUnjt

Laser Juniors - http://goo.gl/Hx3MHA

The RS400s had their way in the RS fleet again, taking the top 3 spots. Actually rather a surprise in such light airs to see the RS200s so far back. Emmet Ryan finished clear ahead in his cool grey boat, with O'Leary next and Algeo 3rd. These top 3 finished just 3 mins apart, impressive in such light airs.

RS 200 and 400 - http://goo.gl/4tTNR8

Rumball, Clancy and Malcolm took the top 3 spots in the Fireballs, and it's a tight battle on the overall results there too. First, second and third are on 12, 15, and 16 points respectively. Tight stuff!

Fireball - http://goo.gl/muQFba

Again, the number of juniors was truly impressive and a great day was had by all. 

Roll on Xmas!

Post by Dun Laoghaire Dinghies.

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Light wind, light fleet

With many of the Toppers sailing in Dun Laoghaire in their own event rather than the Frostbites and several other people staying onshore to watch the rugby, the fleet was a little light this weekend. A light fleet matched the light wind, which was a classic example of Frostbite Flukey.  You can see the slow speeds in the OK Dinghy's GPS track here.

Nice roll tack, but what's the bit of duct-tape?

In the PY fleet the IDRA14s and the OK Dinghy sailed away on the water, with Frank Hamilton's IDRA14 taking the win by more than 2 minutes over Sheehy's OK Dinghy, but all four of these finishing more than 6 mins clear of the next boat.  This pattern was repeated in all the fleets.

PY Results - http://goo.gl/QITtgj

Dave Cahill continued his domination in the Lasers, taking a huge win from Conor O'Leary.  Even in a reduced fleet there were 15 boats racing.

Laser Results - http://goo.gl/JGG90e

The RS fleet saw Emmet Ryan sail to a monster win in his RS400. He finished legs ahead and more than 4 mins clear on corrected time.  Andrew Algeo was 2nd in another RS400.

RS Results - http://goo.gl/0PrkZ0

Victory in the Fireballs went to Conor Clancy, with Butler and Rumball taking 2nd and 3rd.

Fireball Results - http://goo.gl/yJocA4

All in all a quiet day for sailing, but good fun again!

Post by Dun Laoghaire Dinghies.

Well outside!

Another day and the DMYC fleets got to sail well outside the confines of the harbor.

Two tracks of the two courses - RS400/Fireball and the others

On the day the committee were miracle workers to get a race off at all, and a reasonably good one too! Very variable winds made it hugely uncertain that we'd race, but patience and persistence paid.

Results are here.
PY Overall
PY Junior
Laser Overall
Laser Junior
RS Overall
Fireball

Everyone was greatly cheered to see Des picking up the mug for the day in his Finn. A great show!

Post by Dun Laoghaire Dinghies.

A black mark for the RS fleet!!

The water was full of dinghies.  There were 20 PY dinghies, 28 Lasers, 12 Fireballs and 10 RS 200/400s, now in their own separate class after the change in SIs.  It's worth pointing out again the number of juniors racing in the DMYC series. It's a great and successful aspect of the winter sailing and makes the DBSC's exclusion of juniors even more of a puzzle.  Summer sailing should be like this too!

With the National Team Racing Championships and several junior squad trainings taking place inside the harbor the DMYC Committee took the fleets outside to open water.  The new trapezoid course took a little longer to set up but a 5 minute postponement allowed the wind to settle too, and off we went on a long 4-lap trapezoid course. 

DMYC Frostbites Outside the Harbor

The PY fleet was led around by the IDRAs, with the Finn and OK Dinghy close behind on the water. But the many Toppers were chasing hard and stayed well in touch on corrected time.  Frank Hamilton's IDRA was the clear winner, with nearly a minute lead at the end. Fergal O'Flaherty was 2nd, with a solid block of 4 Toppers next.

Post by Dun Laoghaire Dinghies.

DMYC Change to Frostbite Sailing Instructions

After the huge increase in boats entered in the DMYC Frostbites, the committee has decided to rearrange the classes and have published a new SI (see below)

They have decided to:

1. Create a “RS Class” regrouping RS400s and RS200s. 
2. Change the “default” course from a triangle to a trapezoid.  (This is to avoid situations whereby the PY class comes back through the start line at the end of their first lap while we still try and start other classes, notably the Fireballs) 
3. The Fireball Start is pushed back by 3 mins.

All competitors entered with a valid email address are copied on the original email from the DMYC (about 85%).

Please make sure to “spread” the word among the various Clubs and classes.

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Frostbites HO!

It's that time of year again. The DMYC Frostbites started up again with a HUGE fleet in PY and Laser and about the same size in Fireballs as last year.

The main feature in PY was the burgeoning RS200 and 400 fleets. Many new boats, recently bought. It was a great sight. Plus, in contrast to the DBSC in the summer racing where juniors aren't allowed, juniors are fully welcome in the DMYC Frostbites.  They were there in RS200s, Toppers, etc. Great to see.  And they won too, in PY.

The results are online at DMYC.ie and you can also see them in this post below.  The OK Dinghy version of events is online here.

In any case it was a great day.

More pics below. But - an important question! Who'll write up the Laser and PY stories?  Volunteers, please.

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DMYC Frostbites 2012/13 – Final

As usual recently, there's a write up on the PY fleet activity over on the OK Dinghy site here.

However, this was also the last day of racing for the Laser and Fireball fleets, as well as PY.

The cold windy week hadn't left many people still believing that we'd get one final day of racing in the 42nd DMYC Frostbite series, but there was a good crowd in Dun Laoghaire just in case and ready to race. There were even boats being rigged in a couple of clubs before the final decision had to be taken and racing was cancelled for the day.  A good thing too, looking at the wind data from the East Pier.

25-40 knots. 2 Deg C. Brrrrr...

The prize-giving was accompanied by good spirits, pints of beer, and rather excellent Irish Tapas. Mmmm.

These are the overall top 3 in the PY, Laser and Fireball classes.

Laser	Fireball	PY
Galavan	Rumball	OK Dinghy (Sheehy)
Elmes	Butler	IDRA14 (Long)
Arrowsmith	Clancy	IDRA14 (Hamilton)

Here are the final Series 2 and Overall results for Laser and PY.

Laser:    Series 2           Overall
PY:         Series 2           Overall

So, the end of another DMYC Frostbite season. Hopefully the weather'll get better soon!

Kudos again to the organizers for running a great event. 

Patrick's Day Racing

The weather forecast for Patrick's Day turned out to be accurate. Cold, occasional rain or even snow, light winds.  Nevertheless, and despite it being a holiday weekend, good fleets appeared in PY and Laser and headed for the course outside the harbor in (vain) expectation of 2 races.

There's a report of the PY racing, complete with full results, on the Irish OK Dinghy Association website here.

The Ryan brothers were sailing Richard Tate's RS400 and made a winning return to the PY fleet, with the fading wind helping them to a big winning margin.  The OK Dinghy was the best of the rest in 2nd and O'Hare's RS400 topped off the podium in 3rd - in a race where the faster boats generally had the best of things.

The Ryan brothers returned in style.

The overall in PY sees the OK Dinghy clear ahead, with a 6 point margin going into the final race.

On the Laser side it was a similarly challenging day, with the wind dropping off dramatically on the 2nd beat and the following two reaches being a great test of light wind skill and the ability to sit still.

Outside the walls - March 3

Sunny weather, light winds and awkward sailing times of the HSS ferry made a trip outside the walls the call on Sunday March 3rd, with the Laser and PY fleets pouring through the harbor mouth en-route to a compact 6-lap course.

The track of the OK Dinghy on March 3 2013

There's a full report on the PY race over on the OK Dinghy website, with the two IDRA14s of Long and Hamilton leading the way, and the Lyttle sisters' 420 in 3rd.

Hamilton in the winning IDRA14

RS200, 420, OK Dinghy at the windward mark

Enzo Michel got 4th in his RS200 and the OK Dinghy struggled home in 5th.  The raw results are here.

The Laser race, where the shifts were just as important as in the PY race, was good because Sean Flanagan finally got the chance to show his speed in conditions that suited him.

Sunburn time - in February

The DMYC Frostbites were cancelled today just as the boats were leaving the slipway. There was no wind at all and it was cold.

Some sailors were so enthusiastic to go sailing that a fairly large bunch of boats went out anyway. An RS400, six or seven Lasers (O'Beirne, Deladienee, Dwyer, Ryan, Flanagan, O´Leary, etc), a Finn and an OK Dinghy sailed out into the light westerly winds and increasing sunshine.  The change in the weather transformed the harbor compared to thirty minutes earlier.

An impromptu windward leeward course was quickly set up and the singlehanders - which are all reasonably close on PY - enjoyed three quick races in blinding sun that made Dublin Bay look like the Med.

Dun Laoghaire.
It was supposed to snow.

The harbour was also full of  Oppies and Laser Radials in the various coaching schemes.

Guinness induced capsizes - Feb 17th

No...the fleet was neither inebriated nor hungover, but many of the capsizes were still the fault of Dublin's famous black beer.

There's a report on the OK Dinghy site that explains everything.

Meantime, here are the Laser and PY results from 17th February...and a couple of pictures.

One of the PY fleet's IDRA14s
[photo from DMYC Frostbite's Facebook page]

And a Laser capsizes to windward.
[photo from the DMYC Frostbite's Facebook page]

Results - Sunday Feb 10th

Between the charming weather (rain, cold, windy) and the fact that the Ireland/England rugby match was on, the attendance in the fleet today was pretty small.

However, it turned into a good day's sailing. As long as you don't mind rain!

PY Results  The Irish OK Dinghy Association also puts up a weekly PY report. It's here.

Laser Results

DMYC Frostbite cancelled - Feb 3

Sadly, we lost another day of Frostbite racing to the weather.

Faced with gusts up to 35 knots, the organizers decided to cancel again today, making it two weeks in a row that the racing is off.  A pity, but a safe call.

Onwards to another day!