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!

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!

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)

Kicking the DBSC season off in STYLE!

What a day!!!

Sun. Breeze. Waves (well, chop really).  What more could you ask for?

Many boats hadn't got themselves ready for the season yet, but one Moth did the Island Trial and has laid down a solid time. And several dinghies headed out for the start of the PY season.  Only a few Fireballs and a few IDRA14s made the trip, with only one Squib in sight!

Apart from the IDRAs, now in their own fleet for the summer, two OK Dinghies and three Lasers hit the water, although neither Sean Craig's Laser nor Nicole van der Wolf's OK Dinghy made it to the racing.  Practice, perhaps!

The RS contingent were off at their Easterns, sailing a little closer in to Seapoint.  The Ryan, Tate and Mehigan boats defending Dun Laoghaire's honour, with the Ryan brothers apparently going well against all the visiting talent!!!  Another bunch of Dun Laoghaire's dinghy sailors were off helping make SB20s go fast at their Easterns in Howth. Galavan (on the winning boat), Dwyer, Laverty, etc,.

So, meantime Keane, Sheehy and Harding lined up for two races in lovely conditions. Mr. Harding said it best..."Where is everyone? It's lovely out here!"



Paul Keane dominated the day, with a 27 second win from Sheehy's OK Dinghy in Race 1 and a massive win in Race 2 when he got well away on the 2nd beat and extended when Sheehy had problems on the last run.   Sheehy and Harding raced in close proximity for most of the day, enjoying champagne sailing.



(Remember the videos don't include the effect of handicap!)

The results are already online but they have the handicap wrong for Sheehy and show Harding as DNC. We'll try to get them corrected.

Race 1
Race 2

Season Start!

Well, the lead bottomed camper vans already had a good set of races last night and tomorrow the real boats get to start their season too. Get your boat organized and down to the harbour asap!

The season kicks off on Saturday 27th with the first racing of the summer. This will include PY (including Laser/Torch) and all the other dinghy fleets too; IDRA14s, Mermaids, Fireballs, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/micsworld/8130787141/

Then, the evening racing starts on Tuesday 30th and will be followed by drinks in the George to baptize the arrival of the summer.

Look out for the new fleet of Moths sailing on the bay too. Sadly they're not being accommodated by the DBSC and are organizing their own racing, but will be out on Saturdays and during the week in a flexibly scheduled evening.

Island Trial Course is Open!

The Island Trial course is open and the entry form is online.

The first around the course were Paul Keane and Will Nesbitt, sailing Lasers out of the Royal Irish. Paul was carrying a tracker so the event has its first entrant too.  They only completed the Junior course and sailed in less than ideal conditions so have a crack at their time.

Off to www.islandtrial.com with you and start planning!

Lift ins underway

While the DMYC postponed its lift-in until next week, several other clubs moved ahead. The faster the mobile homes are in the water the sooner proper sailing can resume.

Get that dinghy straightened out and get your gear ready for the summer!!

Meantime, not much other news.

Except that the Dun Laoghaire webcam was finally straightened out. It had been pointed at the walkway for about a week.

And that there was still some light in the sky at 920pm!!

Dinghy sailors of the year in the George...nominations

The George gives out awards each year in various categories of sailing. Offshore, keelboats, cruises, etc. The Vice Commodore’s Cup is the one for "Significant Dinghy Performance"

The nominees should be well known to anyone who's been on the water in Dun Laoghaire during the last year.

Lyttle, Ryan, Craig
Nominees for "Significant Dinghy Performance" in the George

The detail of the nominations are;

1. Theo Lyttle
• Laser Frostbite winner 2011/2012.
• Theo was the winner of the Frostbite series in 2012 by a large margin, standing on a podium position 12 out of the 18 weeks racing.
2. Emmet & James Ryan
• National RS 400 champions 2012.
• The Irish version of the 'RS Games' proved a big hit with all competitors at the RS Nationals in HYC this year. Despite some of the shiftiest conditions seen for years, in the RS400 class, brothers Emmet and James Ryan from the Royal St George Yacht Club took the top spot.They didn’t make things easy by using up a discard on the first race of the event and only snatched the win on the last run of the last race having rounded the final weather mark in fourth place. However true class always shines through and we are delighted to applaud their victory as national champions.
3. Sean & Stephen Craig
• Father and son combination of Sean and Stephen Craig won the RS200 Nationals 2012. Sean also came third Master (over 35s) in Laser Nationals 2012 behind Nick Walsh of Cork and Stephen Penney of Carrickfergus.

Good luck to them all. 

If the other clubs in Dun Laoghaire have similar awards, do let us know!!

Younger DLDinghies

The ISA Youth Nationals start today at the Lough Derg Yacht Club in Dromineer.

There are plenty of talented local Dun Laoghaire sailors taking part like Dan O'Beirne, Luke Murphy and Finn Lynch in the Lasers and the Lyttles in the 420 class.

That's only a few of the names, with more across all the fleets; Lasers, Toppers, Oppies, 420s, even Fevas.

Show your interest in our younger DLDinghiers and follow the event and their results here:
http://sailing.ie/ISANews/tabid/115/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/52924/ISA-Youth-National-Championships.aspx

Laser Munsters

It looks as if Dun Laoghaire's sailors did reasonably well at the Laser Munsters in Baltimore at the weekend, but also that the talent in the Laser fleets is very well distributed across the island.

The south coast, the north east, the Dublin area - all fighting it out evenly in Baltimore's arena of racing.

Baltimore - an awesome dinghy arena!

The weather forecast for the weekend was for wind and COLD. The sailors got both. But mostly it was COLD. 

Racing was good on Saturday with 15-20 knots winds. As often happens with it's offshore in Baltimore it was shifty, with big lulls and the occasional really large gust. With rain and cold as well it's fair to say that the sailors were glad to get off the water at the end of the day.  Some sailors may even have been lucky to make it off the water at the end of the day. Anecdote suggests that there were lots of hypothermia cases by the end of the 2nd race, or maybe even earlier. It was COLD. 

With more wind and more cold forecast for Sunday it was a very popular decision to cancel racing on Sunday and let people head for home early.  Nonetheless, three good races were held and a strong start to the Laser season is under the sailors' belts. 

In the 4.7 Fleet there was - to be fair - a fairly serious South Coast domination, with a Kinsale winner, RCYC in 2nd and 4th, and Waterford in 3rd.  Sandy Aplin of the George was the top Dun Laoghaire boat in 5th, one point ahead of Jack Higgins, also of the George.

The picture in the Radial fleet was more positive for Dun Laoghaire with Annalise Murphy and Finn Lynch (both of the National) between them taking 1st and 2nd in every race. There was only one point between them, but a healthy margin to 3rd.

Dun Laoghaire's main hope for glory in the Standard Laser was Matthew O'Dowd of the George. He was in a tight three-way battle for the lead after two races but a 16th place in the 3rd and final race dropped him down to 5th overall, but still the top Dun Laoghaire boat.  The finishing order in that race is quite different from the other races, so the story of that last race looks like an interesting one!  Was it just the cold?

Apart from Mattie dropping back, the tight battle continued...just as a two-way battle. At the end of the event Philip Doran and Colin Leonard were equal on 6 points at the end of three races, with Doran getting the win on countback.

Meantime, here are the full results.