Chilly conditions and a building easterly breeze forecast set the scene for the penultimate Sunday of the post-Christmas series of the HYC Dinghy Frostbites that kicked off on 25th February.

22 boats hit the water to fight it out for the remaining races and make any last attempts at climbing the leaderboards.

Race Officer Neil Murphy and his team set 2 Olympic courses and despite a general recall for the ILCAs due to the tide pushing them across the line, the rest of the starts got away cleanly.

With wind against tide, and both increasing, the sea state got lumpy and challenging as time went on. 

ILCA 7s - Gap shortens at top of leaderboard

The ILCA 7s saw consistency in Dan O’Connell leading each lap of each race, despite pressure from Conor Murphy and Colm Cunningham behind.

O’Connell took first in both races, as did Murphy in second. Colm Cunningham took 3rd in race 1, and Andrejs Samoilovs took 3rd in race 2, a strong showing for the Malahide contingent.

Rory Lynch (13) still leads the series, although his absence has shortened the gap to Conor Murphy (16) in the second place and Dan O’Connell (20) in the third spot.

With one more weekend scheduled, anything could happen at the top of the ILCA 7 leaderboard. 

New Faces in ILCA 6  

The ILCA 6s saw a new race winner in Dave Kirwan - the usual ILCA 7 sailor dropped to the ILCA 6 fleet and came away with two race wins.

He finished 4th on the water in both of the races, showing remarkable speed against the ILCA 7s despite the smaller rig. Ciara McMahon and Viktor Samoilov took 2nd in a race each, while Glenda Gallagher took 3rd in each of the races.

Tom Fox still leads the series on 13 points, with Samoilov (22) and McMahon (28) filling out the rest of the podium spots.

Consistent results across ILCA 4 competitors

The ILCA 4s had remarkable consistency in their results for both races. Harry Dunne was first, followed by Stan O’Rourke, Oleksandr Bezpalyi and Charlie Power in both races.

Their coaching from Luke Turvey and Rocco Wright is still paying dividends, as the ILCA 4s featured in the first batch of sailors around the top mark, demonstrating great starts and first beat speed & tactics.

O’Rourke (14) leads Bezpalyi (18) and Power (29) heading into the final weekend. 

Shaero Dominates PY Fleet 

The PY Fleet saw Daragh Sheridan continue his run of form, making it 5 firsts in a row after winning both races.

The triangular courses with fast reaches benefitted the light planing RS Aero, enabling Sheridan to win by nearly 2 minutes on corrected time in one of the races. GP14s of Alan Blay and Conor Twohig swapped 2nd and 3rd in each race. Despite winning one of the races by over 3 minutes on the water, the handicap on Jeremy Beshoff’s B14 unfortunately meant they didn’t feature on the podium.

Sheridan (11) leads the series, followed by Alan Blay (16) and Sam Street (26). 

A look ahead to the final weekend and the Round the Island Race 

One weekend of the regular Sunday series remains, after which all focus shifts to the Round the Island Race on Saturday 9th March.

This iconic race marks the end of the winter season in HYC, and all dinghies with a PY handicap are welcome to take part. With a strong RS Aero entry already, it’s shaping up to be a great event. Details and entry are available on the HYC Website.

Full results for the Dinghy Frostbites are available here.