CULL WINS FIREBALL COLLEGE INVITATIONAL

22/04/2007

Former Mirror star Ronan Cull has won the Fireball Inter Collegiate Invitational Championship held at the DMYC, Dun Laoghaire on Saturday, beating many top sailors from Ireland's most prestigious universities. A lot of green lifejackets were on show, but were unable to beat the ISA bronze medal winner from last year's nationals.

Ronan sailed mirrors from 2002-2006, and is now experiencing much success on the laser circuit.  He is currently studying marketing in DCU.

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Official Report used by kind permission of Conor Byrne-

Dublin City University won possibly their first ever title in college
sailing last weekend, as a new format of event was staged last weekend in
Dublin Bay, with 9 borrowed Fireballs and crew, and 9 invited helms from
third level institutes from across the country; Dublin City University,
Trinity College Dublin, Dublin IT, Waterford IT, University of Limerick, NUI
Galway, University College Cork and University College Dublin. This novel
event was organised to promote the Fireball amongst younger sailors in an
effort to increase the already rapid growth of the Fireball youth scene.
Unfortunately, top rankers Cork IT could not attend, and young Fireball
sailor Brian Flahive gladly stepped in to take the tiller in their place.
To help even up the odds, helms swapped boats for each of the 4 races, and
one discard was allowed. Race conditions were very variable and shifty, but
allowing for quite a few powerful reaches and big swell from the south to
give great downwind planing conditions. And some seasickness.

The exciting racing saw lots of place changing throughout the day as helms
grappled to grips with the unfamiliar boats, and some of the crews who were
more used to the back of the boat got the hang of being told what to do for
a change! I heard that there was even some capsizing but we saw none of that
now did we?!

Owners were able to release their breath during lunch in the bar afterward,
as the day ended with no damage reported, except my darling boat had her
mainsheet frame collapse and had to retire after race 2. Thankfully, all the
boats were of a high standard and many of the boats are recent competitors
in international events.

The winner of the event came down to a tie-break between Brian Flahive and
Ronan Cull from DCU, but Ronan had more race wins and thus held the title.
Places for 3rd and 4th were also tied between ever-consistent Bryan Byrne of
DIT and Simon Rattigan of Trinity, Bryan earning the old leather medal as
Simon held a race win and a better placing in the final race.

First Crew prize went to Hugh Butler and first lady helm was Kate Rainey.

Reports from the day were good on all sides, and questions were already
being raised on when the next Fireball intervarsities will be held! Most of
the college sailors gathered later for a Barbeque in Dublin to finish off
the day... and the night..

Many thanks must go to Bob 'I think the wind just shifted back again' Hobby,
Matt and Derval on the mark boat, Marie Barry and Rachel O'Brien on the
committee boat, Joe Fallon, Eoin, and Carlos from the DMYC, Kate Rainey and
Karl Cooney for assisting with racing after 14340 (and Marie) was retired.
And a very special thanks to the owners of the boats who very kindly gave up
their boats and time for the event, which is a credit to their generousity
and dedicated support for their class; Hugh Butler, Mick Creighton, Steve
Oram, Andy Boyle, Siobhan Hayes, Derval O'Carroll, Frank Miller, Hugh
Johnson, Ed Butler, Mary Faherty, Leo Bishop, and Henry Rice.

Some more photos can be found on
http://picasaweb.google.com/emailconorbyrne/IntercollegiateFireballChampionships2007

Conor Byrne