News
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Helly-Hansen sponsored Fireball Nationals!
Repeat winners retain their title……but they had to
work for it!!
At a time when the
Irish Fireball fleet should have been in Howth, welcoming Fireballers from all
over the World to the 2020 Fireball World Championships, a 13-boat fleet was
contesting what we think is the first National Championship to be hosted in a
Covid-ravaged summer calendar. When the Worlds and Nationals in Howth were
cancelled due to Covid, Dun Laoghaire Motor Yacht Club offered to host the
event and principal regatta organiser, Neil Colin, secured sponsorship from Helly-Hansen.
The headline for this
report could have come from any number of sources, “Fireball women to the fore”
with reference to the three race wins achieved ...
Posted 11 Aug 2020, 01:52 by Stephen Oram
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TUESDAY DBSC RACE 22.7.20
A decent south easterly breeze averaging about 12 knots greeted the three Fireballs competing in last night's racing in Dun Laoghaire harbour. With another giant fleet of Lasers participating the start line was very long. Miller/Cramer opted for the slightly favoured pin end which took them towards the harbour mouth before tacking back under the layline to the weather mark Cariosa Power with Marie Barry had taken the exact opposite approach going inshore and their route proved the better one as they rounded the mark a few boat lengths ahead. Owen Sinnott and Grattan Donnelly seemed to take a middle course which left them a close third for the entire race. Power/Barry stayed ahead for the run ...
Posted 22 Jul 2020, 05:43 by Stephen Oram
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Fireball coaching sessions with Phil Lawton
Nine Fireballs took part in specialist coaching sessions at DMYC this weekend led by former Olympic sailor Phil Lawton. The event, supported by Irish Sailing, was geared towards optimizing crew work in a fast two-hander dinghy. Phil spent a solid year with Ger Owens practicing and perfecting their techniques in the 470 for the Beijing Olympics so it was a real bonus for the Fireball class to pick his brains. Amongst the regular Fireballers were some younger teams relatively new to Fireballs including Harry Thompson with Jack McDowell as helm, Ben Graf and Alexander Farrell from Lough Ree, and young Clodagh Fischer sailing with her father Glen. The opening message to the sailors was simple - there are two crews ...
Posted 21 Jul 2020, 01:22 by Stephen Oram
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DBSC Fireballs Tuesday night 14.07.2020
Four Fireballs raced in the third of the Tuesday DBSC series in Dun Laoghaire last night. Once again the harbour was the setting due to Covid19 restrictions on rescue personnel. Any fears that the enclosed waters may have resulted in dull racing were blown away by the weather conditions. What initially looked like a quiet night proved to be anything but with 11 knot westerly winds gusting up to 20 knots and beyond during the two windward-leeward races. For the Fireballs, starting alongside the mixed PY fleet which included a sprinkling of Aeros, Finns and IDRA 14s it was an effective 5 lap burn around the harbour with a downwind finish. For both races the committee led by Suzanne ...
Posted 15 Jul 2020, 01:21 by Stephen Oram
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First Tuesday racing DBSC
Four Fireballs made it to the startline of the long awaited first Tuesday DBSC races since lockdown. The forecast was not promising much more than 2 knots but actually sailors were greeted with a very decent force 2-3 southerly. On this auspicious occasion Dun Laoghaire Harbour was dominated by a huge fleet of Lasers, unsurprisingly given that it appeared for many weeks that singlehanded boats might be the only dinghies allowed to race this season. The singlehanders also included at least four Aeros, two of which were sailed by Fireball National Champions Noel Butler and Stephen Oram. So it was that the Fireballs got away in the first PY start in a five lap windward-leward race - Frank Miller ...
Posted 1 Jul 2020, 03:25 by Stephen Oram
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Announcement re Fireball World Championships in Howth 2020
In response to the global Coronavirus outbreak the Irish Fireball Association, Howth Yacht Club and Fireball International have been carefully evaluating plans for the Fireball Worlds in Howth in August 2020. Given the severity of the current crisis and ongoing uncertainty around travel, social distancing, club functionality, and the impossibility of getting any fix on the timing of a return to normality we must, with great regret, now cancel our event in August. We will be engaging together and liaising with Fireball fleets worldwide to see if suitable dates can be found in 2021 or further into the future to welcome Fireballers to Ireland for a World Championships. For those who have already registered and paid HYC will refund the ...
Posted 19 Apr 2020, 01:35 by Stephen Oram
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Calm between the storms!
With wind speeds
of 37 knots being recorded off the end of the East Pier at lunchtime on
Saturday (on a handheld anemometer) and Storm Brendan blowing hooligans today,
the Frostbites of Sunday 12th January could be said to have been
sailed in the (relative) calm between the storms! And the wind behaved in
accordance with the forecast, starting off quite strong first thing on Sunday
morning (09:00) but dropping off in strength as the morning wore on. At about
11:30 it was down to 10/11 knots and during the race it dropped below ten but
came back up again. The sun was out as well, but there was a slight coolness in
the air.
Numbers ...
Posted 13 Jan 2020, 05:55 by Stephen Oram
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