“Dear All

 May 31^st is on Thursday!!!!

 Please make sure all entries with their entry fees are in the Danish bank by Thursday.If a competitor has not given you his / her money, please do not forward his / her entry. There are a potential 132 entries – this is a very large number on a start line, so we need to start planning the on-the-water regatta details immediately.

A very busy time for you all, I know but it is important that the Worlds is a fair regatta.

Kind regards

Mary”

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The boats left Dun Laoghaire harbour and planed off down towards the race area. The waves were choppy and tricky to ride for long, but it was fun nonetheless.  The wind was blowing the promised 15-20 kts.

And then the wind switched off. We’ll have to read the Wind Strategy book to figure out why, but the Seapoint corner of Dublin Bay had no wind for the afternoon.  Further out, particularly across nearer the Bailey, we could see the cruisers and Dragons blasting along. Further in, we chased zephyrs.

The OK Dinghy won both races of the day, with a margin of 2 seconds in one and nearly a minute in the other.  That puts the OK clearly in the lead of the Saturday series but no sailor could reasonably claim to have dominated the day. The flaky breeze wins that prize and – we’re told – even managed to prevent the Moth from making it to the sailing area.

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Race 1 started with a small boat end bias. Galavan in a Laser and the OK Dinghy went for the pin to get clear air while Tate, Keane, Kenneally in Lasers and Mehgan in an RS400 started mid line or further up. Galavan got breeze first, then the OK, then the rest, with Mehgan stuck waiting for a while.  The first beat then had real wind. Kenneally and Keane chased Galavan up the centre-left while the OK went a little too far right and missed a small shift, reaching the first mark close to the Lasers but behind. The RS400 was right there too, but hurting on handicap.

The run had wind most of the way, with Keane out to the right, Galavan in the middle and Kenneally and the OK to the left. The RS400 was sailing big angles and catching up on the water, but had to be well behind on handicap.  Sailing wildly by the lee and heeled onto the chine, the OK seemed to be able to hold onto the Lasers downwind but it was struggling to stay upright.

Then the land breeze raised its head and we all sailed into a parking lot, now beating to the leeward mark.  The Lasers and RS400 rounded just ahead of the OK.  The committee wisely shortened the course and the wind turned again so now we were beating to the finish but with little or no wind and steep left-over chop it was a struggle. Galavan crossed a few metres ahead of the OK Dinghy, with the rest pushed too far right. On corrected time it was the OK Dinghy from Galavan by 2 seconds. Strangely, Keane, Mehgan and others appear in the results as DNC, but they were clearly there.

Race 2 was a simpler affair. The committee set a much shorter course and aimed for a 2 lap windward-leeward.  Just before the Flying Fifteens started the light breeze flicked about 30 degrees right giving a BIG boat bias. In light breeze and big chop the boat was the only place to start, with the rest of the line in dreadful wind shadow.  Galavan and the OK both aimed right for the boat with Tate probably being too conservative about 15 metres further along the line.

The OK dinghy had slightly better timing and that was the race right there. The beat was a fetch and the run a reach. Two laps of patience and the OK reached the line ahead of Galavan and Tate, all of them having overtaken much of the Flying Fifteen fleet along the way.

So, beautiful sun, not a cloud in the sky, but much less wind than expected.  Still, a bloody good day on the water.

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Dublin Bay served up a cocktail of glorious sun, warm evening temperatures, apparently entirely random wind, and a strengthening tide. The race committee set an ambitious 4 lap course.  The sailors set off with more hope than expectation.

From the OK’s point of view the evening started badly.  Stuck with one of the better Lasers in an entirely windless patch on the way out to the course, the OK was ultimately about 2 minutes late to the start.  The several Fireballs who decided to tack on top of the OK as it struggled against to the tide to the start line didn’t help either.

Dublin sitting in an isobar-free zone. And the wind went AWOL.

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Then the randomness kicked in.  With an uncertain wind and self-confident tide running in the same direction there was always the possibility of trouble.  With the tide strengthening as fast as the wind dropped trouble duly arrived in the form of a leeward mark parking lot that got bigger and bigger on each lap.

On the 3rd lap the committee shortened the course but many boats simply got swept past the leeward mark and couldn’t make it back upwind to the finish.  The OK finally scraped across the line, but only after spending about 10 mins tracking over and back along the line several times without being able to actually cross.  It was the last boat to finish.  Having been at the last mark with several of the Lasers (O’Hare, Lyttle, Arrowsmith, etc.,) it was frustrating to cross the line MUCH later than them.  Ah well.

So, not a good result today.  A finish is better than nothing, but still frustrating.

However, several people came to talk about sailing OK Dinghies and how they were pretty cool boats. And it was a beautiful warm evening and the beer was cold.  Better then being indoors watching Jedward in the Eurovision.

The results show Colin Galavan winning the night.  He’s re-entered the Laser fleet after a long time away and quickly become one of the most consistent racers. However, there was some surprise that the RS400 didn’t win tonight. It held off the 49er for much of the race and actually completed the original 4 lap course before most other boats finished 3 laps.  But huge kudos to all the sailors who handled tonight well.  It was a Zen thing. Or something.

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The first race ran with a windward-leeward course.  This suited the OK Dinghy which – despite a slightly flaky start – used the waves to good advantage downwind while the RS400 and Moth had to sail wide angles and longer distances.

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In the second race, this time with a triangle course, the roles were reversed. The RS400 had a flaky start but used its power to steam ahead on the broad reaches.  With the breeze softening and the waves at an awkward angle the OK Dinghy couldn’t plane regularly enough to keep up.  The Moth was doing surprisingly well in the heavy seas and going extremely quickly, but needs more consistency to compensate for its PY number.

So, despite the absence of the Lasers it was a very good day.  Indeed, 2012 is quite different from 2011 in that the Laser fleet is not seeing the same total dominance in PY that it did previously.  The OK and – particularly – the RS400 are regularly challenging for top places in the results even when the Lasers are present. The Lasers will have to watch out.  They’re a hot bunch of sailors and still winning most of the races, but it’s not all one-sided any more.

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Sailing against Lasers in the PY fleet in Dublin Bay (mostly members of the Laser Master fleet) has been great to get a level to aim at (and a high level too) but even they are working hard to learn and practice kinetics properly so there was a bit of a hunt on for good coaching material.

This old video of Robert Scheidt in a Laser gives a masterclass in upwind and downwind kinetics.  (the downwind section starts about 2 mins in) Several of us are surprised that this is all legal under Rule 42, but if he’s doing it then it must be.

So. Expect to see an upside-down OK Dinghy fairly frequently in Dublin Bay as we practice all these moves!

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The committee set up a trapezoid course in Scotmans Bay, nicely aligned for the moderate Northerly.  The wind kicked left and eased just before the start making the first beat rather one sided and putting a big pin bias on the line, but racing got underway.  Things started to get really funny by the start of the 2nd beat, when the wind died and kicked further left.  The PY fleet’s usual leaders, the RS400s, were nearly caught by the OK Dinghy which got into a line of breeze that the 400s didn’t get until right at the end of the beat.

By now the wind had turned the beats and runs into reaches, and the fleet was getting stretched and concertina’d as puffs crossed different parts of the course. Colin Galavan had gotten well ahead of the Laser pack but nearly found himself overtaken on the 3rd downwind leg.  As he worked his boat through light airs and rolling chop, the rest of the Laser fleet was planing up behind him in 15 knots of breeze on a broad reach.    50 metres away the OK Dinghy was sitting totally becalmed with a group of Fireballs.  It was that kind of night.

Colin stayed ahead of the Lasers and certainly won the PY fleet overall (a transcription error currently shows him joint 3rd).  The OK Dinghy somehow managed to even out the concertina effect and finished mere seconds behind Lyttle and Arrowsmith in the other leading Lasers. There were several dead heats, both on the water and on corrected time, showing again that the PY racing is pretty competitive even in such wierd conditions.  The RS400s never recovered from that second beat and finished untypically far down the results, although still just a minute or so off the pace on corrected time.

Just as the fleet hit the last run and the short beat to finish the wind came in strong and the fleet worked its way home through 20kts of north-westerly wind and a now thoroughly confused chop.

Beers and a fascinating seminar by Graham Elmes completed an excellent evening. Not a night of classic racing, but a classic night of Dublin Bay.

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This Saturday was a beautiful day, albeit with a wind that was up and down and over and back like crazy.  The changing conditions provided two challenges (i) stay in phase with the shifts and (ii) keep the rig adjusted for the conditions.  The main learning on the OK was that rig adjustments need to become MUCH more automatic than they are today.

In the first race, with a huge pin-end bias, the Lasers and OK got clean away at the start but somehow none of the single handers were really sailing well and were struggling to keep consistent speed. Paul Keane, in one of the Lasers, finally got his ass in gear and sailed away with a big win.  Persistent uncertainty over the amount of mainsheet tension required and some bad shifts kept the OK back in 3rd, but the single handers finally did come out on top in the results.

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In the second race the 49er team showed everyone how fast they could go. Last in the first race, they won the second by a GIGANTIC margin.  Again, a huge pin-end bias was best exploited by the single handers starting almost line astern on starboard at the pin.  The rest of the fleet was lined up behind. The whole fleet then tacked on to port and headed upwind with the OK and two Lasers clean ahead and actually reaching the 1st windward mark before the 49er got into gear….although then those 49er boys were GONE. Slick handling and rocket speed downwind had them lapping the fleet.

Erratic upwind, the OK was actually quite quick downwind as some of that kinetics practice seemed to pay off.  The two Lasers of Keane and Galavan got away upwind and had a real battle which Galavan finally won by just 6 seconds with the OK just another 8 seconds behind Keane.  14 seconds covering the three single-handers….but minutes behind the 49er.

A beautiful and tricky day on the water. Lots of learning. Lots of fun.

Tuesday had seen showers – but we mean SHOWERS – interspersed with glorious sunshine. The typical Irish forecast of “sunny spells and scattered showers” was more than usually appropriate for the day.

As the boats rigged we had another heavy downpour that saw uncertain sailors clustered under yacht club awnings. But then the sky cleared and Scotsmans Bay put on a show of beauty that’s hard to beat.  The wind was a little light and the tide was a little strong but hey, it’s Ireland.  The current and the dying wind made for interesting racing, but at the end of the day at least one conclusion was clear.

The OK is definitely getting up to speed.

The leading Lasers got a puff down the last run that brought them 30 secs clear of the OK, but the OK had managed to stay ahead until the last mark of the course and beat most of the Lasers on the water. Of course it’s only fair to say that it was one of those nights where a puff or a lull could mean a difference of several minutes so we can’t draw too many conclusions.  Suffice to say that there’s been progress since the Autumn.

The time limit caught out several boats who struggled to get to the last upwind mark against the tide and they’re shown as DNF or even DNS (not sure why).  It was a bit brutal up there at times.

So, the last weeks have seen encouraging trends.  OK Dinghies on Dublin Bay can (for the moment anyway) compete on handicap with a variety of other classes and even with some of the better Dublin Bay Lasers.

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As usual a high class fleet and a fantastic time had by all. Or most, anyway.

Photos when we get them.  Results below.

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Competitors from 10 nations and 3 continents competed in this prestigious event, held since 1994.

Dublin Bay was covered in boats, with racing in classes from the big cruisers to a couple of foiling moths blasting around at the dinghy course.  There must have been at least a thousand people on the water.

Although late for the 1st start, the OK Dinghy was finally more or less on pace with the Lasers in the PY fleet (they were late for the start too). Still a bit slower overall, but certainly hanging on.  Since most of the PY boats were also late for the start the overall result wasn’t too bad, with the OK finishing 2nd.  Several boats raced but don’t seem to have entered yet, which makes the participant list look a bit scanty.

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In the 2nd race the OK got an excellent start with speed and clear wind, and paced a group of Lasers up the 1st beat. Although one Laser got away on a big right shift on the second beat, the OK was nip-and-tuck with the others all the way around.  It was hard work to stay in touch downwind, but upwind speed seems to be coming along nicely. By the finish the OK was only headed by Graham Elmes’ Laser, and for some reason he’s shown as DNC in the results.

The Ryan brothers, who are normally dominant in the PY fleet in their RS400, had a bad start (a strong upwind tide caught them out on the line and they had to re-start) but since the OK beat them by nearly a minute on corrected time it must have been going reasonably quickly.

So, this leaves the OK looking good in the PY fleet at the moment.  Let’s see if it lasts.

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