Fox's Marine and Country Alton Water Frostbite Series 2015 - Day 8
by Martin Pavey 26 Feb 2015 10:21 GMT
22 February 2015
Races 15 and 16 and catch up 10
For those readers who noted the once in a lifetime easterly breeze from last week... well, it was back to type for this week with the wind from the south west. A forecast that had remained constant over the week promised a substantial breeze over the weekend.
Pre-briefing lobbying mainly consisted of pleas to get the racing over and done with as soon as possible. With the course laid to a 10mph SW and then re-laid to accommodate the slightly backing breeze, all in pleasant sunshine, what was there to be concerned about?
East Anglia and especially Suffolk and its Frostbite competitors made the best of the day. With no hesitancy racing got underway on time and with three back-to-back races the plan was to get everyone off the water by 2pm when the fun was expected to start. All three races were sailed in a breeze ranging from 12mph to 20mph with the promised storm arriving later than expected with all competitors home and fed.
To date it has been a light wind series and this week gave an opportunity to those who prefer the stronger breeze. Very close racing was the order of the day especially in the Laser and Medium Handicap fleets with what seemed like 20 boats finishing in 2 minutes and with various overlaps and a true and honest finish line no race time or position could be anticipated until it actually happened.
The suggestion from the race timekeepers was to do like they do on the M11 and make them keep at least two chevrons/boat lengths apart! Either that or the results team get to listen to the race recording for their Sunday night entertainment. We will work on this for the 2016 SIs along with perhaps copying the football free kick marking for the start line. Seriously though, it was great to see such close finishing with a great turnout from what now stands at a 144 boat series entry.
Fleet by fleet action highlights:
- the Merlin Rocket showed how it should and could be done with three firsts whilst the Phantoms and Finns enjoyed the 'lighter' breeze of the first races
- the OKs mixed it with the Lasers at least initially but such close racing amongst the Lasers was probably detrimental to their overall position. With different podium places for all three races and a mix across the Radials and Standards most could claim "if only"
- symmetric or asymmetric - there was not too much difference in speed with some spectacular reaching from the Larks and RS200s
- for once the heavier wind stretched the ability of the slower boats and it was great to see all having high speed fun out on the water and competing the majority of the racing
The family rivalry of the Peak family will need to roll over to next week as the young'uns were dismasted and the old'uns, anticipating fog (?!), stayed ashore.
With the last racing of the series planned for next weekend, there was an early presentation to some of the race team who are taking their leave early to spend it on the English Riviera enjoying idyllic weather and racing at the first of the 2015 Laser European and World Qualifiers.
A big 'thank you' to all the competitors and Alton Water staff and race team from the race officer followed the presentation and true to form no mercy was shown with three boats being called back for early starts.
A reminder that Fox's Marine and Country will be making vouchers available for our Series prize giving on March 1st as well as Club glassware being presented when we hope to have completed all 18 scheduled series races. No prize for the Dragon Boat, not now or ever.
Pictures of the on-water action can be found here and a big thank you to Tim for his time spent with his camera every week.
Races 15, 16 & 10 Provisional Results:
| Helm | Crew | Club | Boat Type | R15 | R16 | R10 |
|---|
| Fast |
|---|
| Daniel Willett | Peter Nicholson | Brightlingsea SC | Merlin Rocket | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Matt House | | AWSC | Phantom | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Fiona Gray | Steve Dunn | Waldringfield SC | Fireball | 5 | 2 | DNC |
| Will Patten | | AWSC | Finn | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Mike Bees | | Brightlingsea SC | RS300 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Jerry Andrews | | AWSC | Finn | 9 | 7 | 7 |
| Laser |
|---|
| David Reason | | Harwich Town SC | Standard | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Ben Powell | | AWSC | Standard | 1 | 6 | 2 |
| Adam Fuller | | Royal Harwich YC | Radial | 3 | 1 | 6 |
| Cameron Harris | | AWSC | Radial | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Pete Kyne | | Brightlingsea SC | Standard | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| Gary Pilgrim | | AWSC | Standard | 12 | 5 | 4 |
| OK |
|---|
| Robert Deaves | | Waldringfield SC | OK | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Daniel Ager | | Waldringfield SC | OK | 2 | 2 | DNF |
| Luke Farthing | | Waldringfield SC | OK | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Robert Campbell‑Gray | | AWSC | OK | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Medium |
|---|
| David Conlon | Sarah Bines | Brightlingsea SC | RS200 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 |
| Alan Krailing | Joe Hunt | Waldringfield SC | Lark | 1 | DNF | 2 |
| Matthew Stearn | Kerry Robson | Waldringfield SC | Lark | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Ben Alexander | Gemma Tomson | Deben YC | RS200 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| Tim Granville | | AWSC | Solo | 6 | 4 | DNC |
| Katie Spark | Ellie Wooton | Waldringfield SC | Lark | 7 | 5 | DNF |
| Slow |
|---|
| Ollie Dixon | | Royal Harwich YC | Topper | 1 | 2 | DNC |
| Archie Penn | Hazel Whittle | Waldringfield SC | Cadet | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Ashley Deaton | | AWSC | Topper | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Benjamin Reason | | AWSC | Topper | 4 | 5 | DNC |
| Richard Townley | | AWSC | Topper | 5 | 6 | DNC |
| Harry Triffit | | AWSC | Topaz | 6 | 7 | 6 |
The top four overall (across all fleets with combined results) and with 16 out of 18 sailed and with 5 discards:
- David Conlon/Sarah Bines (RS200)
- Alan Krailing/Joe Hunt (Lark)
- Matt House (Phantom)
- Harry Pynn/Gemma Cook (Lark)
Full race by race results can be found here.
Overall (combined fleet results) can be found here
Please contact the office or call 01473 328408 regarding any queries.