What a season for Brass Monkeys and Frostbites! Last weekend saw the culmination of the winter Brass Monkeys series and the winter Frostbites series, the latter of which is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a series. A warm and cheery prizegiving was held for the Brass Monkeys aftewards at the Clubhouse, and both series are looking forward to more sailing on 1 January, when the annual New Year's Day racing is expected to start 2025 with the bang of a starting gun! Read on for more about last weekend's racing; many thanks to Mike Head and Richard Kissane for the reports.

Brass Monkeys

The last day of the Winter Brass Monkeys saw two races held  in a wind of approximately 270 degrees and a strength of 8-9 knots. The courses used were 13 and 14 for the first race and 13 only for the second.
On the first start a class 3 boat  managed to take the pin end buoy for a trip along the line so the class 1 and 2 had a longer than usual start line!

On the second race the timer on the committee boat was surprised to hear a competitor calling out the times for his helm but five seconds ahead of the correct time. The boat however came back from being very OCS.

Getting two races in on the day certainly changed the fate of a few sailors, notably the McCabe-helmed Arcturus, which was in fourth place going into the last day of sailing; Arcturus took two first place positions to leapfrog into 1st overall for Class 1!

Other top spots:

Class 1
1. Arcturus (McCabe)
2. Tiger (Harris)
3. Amuse (O'Leary)

Class 2
1.NYYC Dev Team (Wright)
2.Age Before Beauty (Cullen)
3.Fifty Shades of Spray (Sargent/Johnston)

Class 3
1.Jokers Wild (Flood/Greene)
2.Thar Saile (O'Laoi)
3.C'est La Vie (Flannelly/Spain/Staines)

It was a great series, thanks in part to generous sponsors, Euro Car Parks, and the lunch and prizegiving back at the Club was enjoyed by all, rounding off a brilliant season!

Frostbites

After last week’s cancellation due to storm force winds, the Frostbite sailors were keen to finish the first series on a high note before taking a break from Sunday morning sailing for the festive season. On arrival at the club, the noise of the wind whistling through the rigging in the marina seemed to be casting some doubt as to whether the series would finish with a flourish.

The Race Committee team took to the water early to check out the conditions afloat. On exiting the harbour, the base windspeed was over 20kts with gusts to 28kts. However, after about ten minutes the wind dropped to the forecasted base windspeed of 15kts and the decision was taken to go racing with a triangular course of three laps. The Melges 15 sailors requested a tight top reach to avoid using the kites, to get through the gybe mark safely and then have an exciting deeper second reach with kites up. This plan worked well and was also helped by the gybe mark being partially protected from the westerly wind. The conditions were challenging and with the wind rising towards the end of a physically testing race, the team on Sea Wych decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day with the usual second race being cancelled (to the great relief of some). A great finish to the series with some exciting racing and spectacular planing in the downwind legs.

ILCA Fleet: O'Connell and Hasset Edge Out the Competition

Dan O’Connell recorded another race win in the ILCA 7 class to take the overall series with Colm Cunningham finishing the series in second and Darragh Kelleher in third place. Peter Hassett won the ILCA 6 Class to finish the series in first place ahead of Carla Fagan.

PY Class: Sheridan Finishes Strong

In the PY Class, Daragh Sheridan dominated the series in his RS Aero 6. Tristan Nelson who won the race on Sunday was second in the series in his RS600 with Ryan Cairns third overall in his IDRA 14.

The first Melges 15 in the series was Karena Knaggs with Charlie Robertson second overall.

Full results here.

Don't forget to sign up for the spring series of both Brass Monkeys and Frostbites, and we'll see you for New Year's Day racing!

Photos courtesy of Rupert Jeffares and Richard Kissane