News / Irish Frostbites Day 5

Rumball gets pushed... on the last lap!

The Frostbite racing of the 1st Sunday of Advent, December 2nd was held under grey skies with rain from the start, with the consequence that it was the coldest Sunday of the series thus far.

Coincidentally, the fleet size was also the smallest to date with only 12 boats out in the Fireball Class, though Dun Laoghaire's harbour was a "sea" of activity with Optimists, Toppers and Laser Radials in training mode on the fringes of the Frostbite course. The wind was in the SE sector of the compass which meant that the weather mark was in a similar position to last week, just off the ferry gantry, but closer to the eastern pier.

Hard left didn't appears to pay quite as much as it had done the previous Sunday when the wind was from a similar direction, a middle and right approach seemed to pay bigger dividends when the fleet congregated at the first weather mark. Kenny Rumball & Conor Kinsella were in close company with the Clancys, Conor and James, followed by Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. Nothing unusual there then!

Behind them there was frenetic activity in the next group which consisted of Mick Creighton & Joe O'Reilly (14937), Frank Miller & Grattan Donnelly (14713), Alastair Court & Gordon Syme (14706), Gavin Doyle & Dave Sweeney (14676) and Louis Smyth & Cormac Bradley (15007). While the first three pulled away from the chasing group this latter bunch of five boats criss-crossed each other for the next couple of laps until the third lap when Creighton & O'Reilly pulled away into a safe and secure 4th place.

Next to escape the close quarter stuff was Doyle/Sweeney and then Court/Syme. Miller/Donnelly then decided that trying to better their fellow Fireballs didn't provide enough of a challenge and in the third rounding of the leeward mark decided to try and get inside two Lasers. The first part of the manoeuvre, the lead-in to the mark was executed well, but the actual rounding of the mark went awry when Miller lost control of his tiller and got tangled with one of the Lasers. A 720º penalty was taken! This allowed Smyth/Bradley to overtake them.

Luke Malcolm and Shane Divinney also had technical problems when a close and potential overtaking encounter with Smyth/Bradley went pear-shaped due to an errant mainsheet. They would recover to challenge briefly in the latter stages of the race, but it wasn't their day. By the final beat of the race, Rumball and Butler were effectively match-racing each other even though Rumball had what appeared to be a comfortable lead. Tacking immediately at the 4th leeward mark, Butler went left. Rumball was obliged to cover and as they rounded the fifth weather mark there was only a boat length or two between them.

Within the first 50m of the first reach Butler/Oram had gone through Rumball/Kinsella's weather to take the lead. However, going into the gybe mark, Rumball was able to secure the inside berth and gybed inside the other pair to retake the lead which he held to the finish. This left Team Clancy and Creighton/O'Reilly as the most secure boats on the water position-wise. Court and Doyle were enjoying close quarter exchanges until Doyle capsized at the last weather mark to let Court into 5th.

This correspondent took an unscheduled swim on the last beat when the trapeze hook disengaged from his harness. The water temperature was bracing! Fortunately, the impromptu incident didn't cost any places but allowed Malcolm/Divinney and Miller/Donnelly to close the gap. There was no place changing down the last two reaches for these three but Miller crowned a frustrating day by falling out of the boat at the last leeward mark, inducing a capsize which Donnelly was completely unprepared for... and the proximity of a pontoon raft only added to their demise.

Race 7 Results:

In writing these columns I try to highlight performances across the fleet, not just concentrate on the top guys. Last week, watching from the harbour wall, one would have thought that the records would be quite accurate as I had the advantage of a good position with a panoramic view of the course. Cheap Ugg Sale UK outlet store. However, I did miss a significant performance that was brought to my attention (in good humour) and necessitates a correction. Mary Chambers and Brenda McGuire who have just defended their Silver Fleet Champions status of the 2011 season by winning the Silver Fleet again in 2012, were third around the first weather mark last Sunday, 25th November.

Series Results: (after 7 races)