Seventeen Lasers turned out for the final Sunday of the pre-Christmas Frostbite series on a clear sunny morning.  However, lessons learned from recent weeks led one of the rib drivers to place a hot water jar inside his jacket to help deal with the cold. 

 

With a light southerly breeze flicking back and forth through an arc of about 20 degrees, the race committee decided on a windward/leeward format for the day.  On the first race, four boats took advantage of the pin end bias and crossed the fleet on port. Ronan Wallace on starboard immediately found himself challenged to keep his winning streak going.  The lead gained on port tack proved critical, resulting in a bullet for Dan O’Connell with Darragh Sheridan coming in second and Ronan Wallace in third place.  Dylan McEvoy won the radials and Sophie Kilmartin won the 4.7s. 

 

On the second start, the accepted wisdom seemed to be to opt for a port end start again and the bunching at that end resulted in a general recall.  On the restart, no sailors fell foul of the U flag and the whole fleet got off the line together in a classic Laser start. The wind picked up to over 10kts and all returned to normal in the standard fleet with Ronan Wallace claiming first place, Conor Murphy who has been very competitive this season coming in second and Dan O’Connell in third place. Peter Hassett won the radials and Scott McNally won an exciting close finish with Sophie Kilmartin in the 4.7s.   The next race is the New Year Day race with first gun at the later time of 11.55.