The HYC Dinghy Frostbites wrapped up an action packed winter on Saturday 11th March. Across 17 weekends, 28 races were run and over 50 sailors took part across the 4 fleets.

The 2022/23 season saw the debut of racing for non-ILCAs and the number of boats in the PY Class grew steadily over the Winter. There is clearly a demand for winter-long racing on the northside with the Club welcoming GP14s, RS Aeros, an RS800, a Fireball, RS 600s, a B14, International 14s, IDRA 14s, an RS Neo, Mermaids, RS Fevas for the season and for the fabled Round the Island Race.

Sailors from near and far took part with HYC members being joined by sailors from our neighbouring clubs in Sutton, Malahide, Rush and Skerries with good representation from Dun Laoghaire, Blessington and much further afield!

The 7 week pre-Christmas series was plagued by un-seasonally strong winds, ultimately resulting in 3 weekends being missed due to strong breezes and rough seas. The top 3 of each Class were:

•        PY: Hugo Micka (Fireball, Howth YC), Daragh Sheridan (RS Aero, Howth YC), Abby Kinsella (RS Aero, Howth YC)
•        ILCA 4: Riaghan Boardman (Rush SC), Aisling Kelly (Rush SC), Cillian Twomey (Howth YC)
•        ILCA 6: Marco Sorgassi (RStGYC), Hugh Delap (RStGYC), Fiachra Farrelly (Howth YC)
•        ILCA 7: Ronan Wallace (Wexford HBTC), Daragh Kelleher (Skerries SC), Rory Lynch (Baltimore SC)

The post-Christmas series not only saw the PY fleet participation grow in a huge way with the addition of many GP14s, but was special in that every scheduled race took place! For a 9 week series spanning January to March, it’s a remarkable record. The winners were:

•        PY: Daragh Sheridan (RS Aero, Howth YC), Alan Blay (GP14, Sutton DC), Conor Twohig (GP14, SDC)
•        ILCA 4: Aisling Kelly (Rush SC), Viktor Samoilovs (Malahide YC), Riaghan Boardman (Rush SC)
•        ILCA 6: Marco Sorgassi (RStGYC), Darragh Peelo (Malahide YC), Fiachra Farrelly (Howth YC)
•        ILCA 7: Ronan Wallace (Wexford HBTC), Dan O’Connell (Cobh SC), Rory Lynch (Baltimore SC)

The Annual Round the Island Race unfortunately didn’t go ahead this year – the rough sea conditions and excessive breeze led the Race Officers to an early decision not to send the 80 boat entry around Ireland’s Eye. For a while on Saturday morning it looked like short-course racing might proceed on the more sheltered waters of Howth Sound, but ultimately the breeze rose as forecast and all racing was cancelled. The braver sailors still took to the water to get their last taste of the Winter water, but most remained ashore!

At the prizegiving lunch the unanimous verdict of the competitors was that the 2022 / 2023 event was one of the best ever. The feedback received emphasised the quality of the racing and the participants’ enjoyment of the event with particular reference made to the contribution of the race management team, including the range of course layouts used and the quick turnaround between the races each day. The Series will be back and bigger than ever next November and HYC looks forward to welcoming an even wider range of boats from a broad variety of clubs.

---Report by Conor Murphy