Mild temperatures and light winds
With high pressure to the south west of the UK, & after the gales of the previous week, a light 4-5 knot breeze from the West South West direction greeted the 65 competitors for the first day of the Chichester YC Snowflake winter series supported by Rooster Sailing and Hawk Marine Products.
An early start of 10.00hrs and a high water just before 11.00hrs the racer officer for the day Martin Orton laid a figure of eight course with the usual committee boat start from the middle of Chichester Lake.
The fast fleet of 18 boats got away cleanly from the slightly port biased line, with the Jason Kirk for Chichester YC in his RS400 leading the fleet to the windward mark, closely followed by the two Finns of John Tremlett from Itchenor SC and Mark Harper for the home club.
Steve and Sarah Cockerill in their Scorpion from Hill Head SC, however made good steady progress in the constant 5 knot breeze and with just over an hour of racing, they and had moved up to second place on the water. On corrected time the RS400 had held onto first place, with the Scorpion second, followed by the two Finns.
In the medium fleet, (24 starters) the two National 12's of Alex Jackson & Sarah Bines, (Ranelagh S.C) and William Warren & Sophie Mackley (Shoreham S.C) had a close race and lead the fleet. The leading Laser of Jimmy Carter from Chichester YC finished in third place on the water. However, on corrected time the Solo of Chris Powles from Hayling Island SC who led the Solo class took second place.
In the large youth slow fleet of 23 starters, the Mirrors from Itchenor Sailing Club made welcome return to the Chichester Lake and provided some very close racing (Itchenor Sailing club will be hosting the Mirror Nationals in late August 2012). However, it was the Optimist sailed by Arthur Fry from Chichester YC that won on corrected time by 6 seconds. Second the Mirror sailed by Grace Yeoman and Izzy Barker – Itchenor S.C. Third was Imy Pudney & Jonny Pudney (also from ISC) in another Mirror 70500.