Fleet caught in unusual doldrums

Sailing: With virtually the entire European Continent basking in a heat wave, the fleet competing in the Subaru Flying 15 World Championship was last night engaged in collective prayer for a change to the Irish summer.

Having waited ashore until mid-afternoon, the 77 boats went afloat only to return when sufficient breeze failed to become established.

Ironically, the weekly Dublin Bay Sailing Club Tuesday evening race enjoyed a perfect easterly force three that would have ideally suited the 15s.

Principal race officer Jack Roy, who holds the unenviable role of keeping the show running, intends to attempt two races today - weather permitting.

Roy would not be drawn on how late he will stay afloat other than to remark that the Flying 15 does not carry navigation lights.

The PRO also rejected previous reports that Sunday's opening race had a 40-degree windshift on the first leg. "Perhaps there was up to that amount over the entire race, but on that first beat there was a 20-degree change and that's a marginal call for binning the race."

Synoptic weather charts suggest that his plans for today may be erring on the optimistic side, and clearly the organisers are relying on the fine weather producing a local sea breeze.

Such winds occur when the land is sufficiently heated to draw colder air in from sea areas so producing air-flow, often referred to as "thermals" close to the coast.

But MET Éireann forecaster Michael Cleary had little good news for the fleet last night.

"It's not going to get any better, today's conditions were about as good as you'll get for a sea breeze," he said last night.

"We have a very slack pressure gradient over Ireland and the warm weather is going to continue until the weekend at least."

While this prediction applies to 15-mile segments and takes no account of sea-breeze potential, the 48-hour prognosis suggests little change with the state of the large high pressure systems dictating the possibility of change.

For the assembled fleet at Dún Laoghaire, for the time being at least, it seems the best chance of a sea breeze depends on a ready supply of cranberry juice in the bar of the National Yacht Club.