News
-
Sunshine for Christmas countdown!
Fifty-eight boats
took to the water for the first Frostbite Sunday of December, which for a lot
of people is the trigger for the countdown to Christmas. From Friday afternoon
this column’s favoured web-based weather forecasting site was predicting northerly
winds up to 10 knots for the afternoon but at 09:30 on the morning the
direction wasn’t correct although the grey skies were as predicted. The larger
keelboats left the harbour with breeze outside but by the time I returned to
the waterfront area at 12 noon, the omens for vigorous racing in the afternoon
weren’t good. A walk of the east pier to just beyond the bandstand revealed a
very flat outer area ...
Posted 3 Dec 2019, 06:51 by Stephen Oram
-
Gamekeeper turned poacher!
XCWeather was
promising 8/9 knots of breeze for the critical part of Sunday afternoon and at
09:00 the breeze looked good as the keel boats went out for their Turkey Shoot!
Three hours later as I came back down to Dun Laoghaire the latter finishers
from the morning’s racing were struggling to get over the finish line in very
light conditions. Inside the harbour it had gone very flat and in the inner
harbour there was mirror-like conditions. Sailing Manager of the National Yacht
Club, Olivier Prouveur, however assured me that there would be wind for the
Frostbites, coming out of the south! By 13:15 when a decision to go afloat was
necessary, the die ...
Posted 11 Nov 2019, 07:54 by Stephen Oram
-
Munster Championship Report
Thirteen Fireballs gathered at Killaloe SC for the Fireball Munster Championships at the weekend. Initial indications were for a very wet and windy weekend but happily the fleet were rewarded with excellent sailing conditions on both days. While extremely wet most of the rain fell during the evenings and local hostel accommodation meant that nobody got too wet over the weekend. There was the small issue of a rugby match on the Saturday morning and commodore Sue Concannon hosted the entire fleet to breakfast at her home to watch the game. Screams and moans permeated the stunning landscape overlooking the lake. Once racing got underway Noel Butler and Stephen Oram dominated proceedings with three race wins from four races. The ...
Posted 1 Oct 2019, 04:28 by Stephen Oram
-
2019 FIREBALL IRISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT HOWTH YC
Noel Butler and Stephen Oram (NYC) have retained their National Champions title after nine races at Howth Yacht Club. The pair scored seven first places discarding a third and a fourth to take the title in style in a three-day event which featured a good variety of sailing conditions. The event started with light and patchy winds on Friday progressing to decent if shifty breezes on Saturday and to full on wind by Sunday. Second place was won by Niall McGrotty and Neil Cramer (SSC) who sailed consistently well and counted a string of second and third places in their scores to consolidate their second overall. Third were the up and coming youth team brothers Daniel and Harry Thompson ...
Posted 22 Jul 2019, 04:14 by Stephen Oram
-
Irish Fireball Family go North!
With a Worlds
coming up in Montreal Canada in August 2019 and Ireland hosting the Worlds in
August 2020 in Howth, as part of their 125th Anniversary
celebrations, the Irish Fireball Family had their first outing of the regatta
season with a trip to Newtownards on the Ards peninsula, at the top end of
Strangford Lough.
We last visited
the venue in 2006 and since then the club has had a major extension added on to
give them a substantial two-storey building with an upstairs bar and view from
Scrabo Tower to the right all the way to the Mournes and the lower reaches of
Strangford Lough on the left. At ground floor there is a substantial function ...
Posted 19 Jun 2019, 03:30 by Stephen Oram
-
Summertime boost!
The last Sunday of the 2018/19 Frostbites
coincided with the first day of BST – British (and Irish) Summer Time and the
race management team and contestants were treated to a good day on the water to
close out the event.
Race Officer Cormac Bradley, having
discharged his Mother’s Day responsibilities the evening before in Warrenpoint,
travelled down from the north in what looked like favourable conditions, only
to find that Frostbites Coordinator Neil Colin was suggesting that what wind we
had was dropping rapidly in strength! On getting out to the race area, a host
of Lasers were already afloat – seemingly having a Royal St George Yacht Club
facilitated coaching session in advance of the days racing proceedings ...
Posted 1 Apr 2019, 08:42 by Stephen Oram
-
Coaching Day with Barry McCartin
Between sailors and volunteers some 18 Fireballers took part in a coaching day with Barry McCartin at the DMYC on Saturday. The group ranged from class veterans to adult sailors from SID to young sailors taking a break from 420s with an eye to the #Howth2020 World Championships. McCartin is an experienced coach and also the top Irish Fireballer having notched up a top ten place in the most recent 100 boat world championships in Carnac. Participants benefited from an initial briefing by Barry on the finer intricacies of boat tuning to maximise boat speed. In particular subtle adjustments with strut or chocks to optimise pre-bend and sail shape for a range of conditions were explored. Sailors were reminded ...
Posted 25 Mar 2019, 04:23 by Stephen Oram
|
|
