After a 3 week break due to the storms, the HYC Dinghy Frostbites resumed regular service on Sunday 11th Feb.

With 3 weekends missed, the race organisers aimed to complete 3 races to get the show back on the road. 24 boats across the ILCA and PY fleets hit the water, where they raced in an easterly breeze up to 20 knots, with a strong ebb tide for the sailors to fight against as they headed upwind.

Dan O'Connell captured the moment with some great footage in the video below:

The ILCA 7s saw series leader Rory Lynch battling with Dan O’Connell and Conor Murphy for podium places in the first 2 races, with Conor taking a win in the first and Rory taking it in the 2nd. The 3rd race saw a strengthening tide pushing everyone down onto the pin, and an individual recall was signalled, so a number of boats returned to restart. Conor Murphy didn’t return, either confident he was not OCS, or after seeing a number of his competitors returning to restart, saw an opportunity to put some distance between them! He led the race, and was followed by Colm Cunningham and Rory Lynch who rounded out the podium. Lynch leads the series on 9 points, followed by Murphy (10) and O’Connell (18).

The ILCA 6s’ results showed some symmetry, as results were the same in the first 2 races, with Tom Fox followed by Peter Hassett and Viktor Samoilovs. Their pace was undeniable, making inroads into the usually faster ILCA 7 fleet. The 3rd race saw a shake up in the results, with Peter Hassett claiming victory, followed by Tom and Darragh Peelo. Fox leads the series on 9 points, followed by Samoilovs (15) & Hassett (20).

The ILCA 4s were on the water early, many of them taking part in the training led by Luke Turvey & Rocco Wright. Harry Dunne seems to be the biggest beneficiary of the training, coming away from the day with a 2, 1, 1. Stan O’Rourke had a great day, following closely with a 1, 2, 2. Oleksandr Bezpalyi and Freddie Doig claimed the remaining podium places for the day. O’Rourke has a healthy lead on the series with 8 points, followed by Oleksandr Bezpalyi (20) and Connor O’Sullivan (24).

The battle between GP14s and RS Aeros continues to rage in the PY Fleet. Daragh Sheridan’s RS Aero, and the GP14s of Conor Twohig & Alan Blay each had a race win in the hard day. Sam Street’s GP14 rounded out the podium places among the race winners above. Alan Blay holds a narrow lead on the series over Daragh Sheridan, followed by Sam Street in 3rd place.

The Annual Round the Island Race will take place on Saturday 9th March, followed by an afternoon of prizes, lunch and rugby on the TV in the HYC clubhouse. It’s always a great day, entry and NOR will be available on hyc.ie shortly.

Full results are available here.

Report kindly provided by Conor Murphy and photo credits to Neil Murphy.