Fox's Marine & Country Alton Water Frostbite Series - Day 6

An RS800 competes with the clock tower for good posture on day 6 of the Fox's Marine & Country Alton Water Frostbite Series © Tim Bees

'Wales is that way' on day 6 of the Fox's Marine & Country Alton Water Frostbite Series © Tim Bees

We have now caught up! This was the last of the three-race Sundays and, ever keen to take part in the celebrations, the Lasers and Asymmetrics pushed the line for two out of their three races, getting recalled black flagged starts for their efforts. Our penultimate and final Sundays of the series will revert to the more leisurely two race back-to-back format.

A forecast that promised some breeze and warmth was encouraging but on both counts fell short with just 10mph from the west and a temperature that never felt anything like the predicted 10 degreesC degrees. With a 'first time this series' westerly wind, a long first beat was set from the water tower towards Wales with the now usual beat/reach/beat/run/reach format with a run inshore past the club house – handy for the photographers and giving every opportunity for shore based encouragement (no protests for outside assistance).

A long course gave a useful time delay for the recalled starts to get away at the end of the start sequence but with the SIs providing the option to combine recalled starts it was 'interesting' to see the Lasers and Asymmetrics getting underway together as the fast fleet came around to complete their first lap. Three boats were caught under the black flag – two Asymmetrics going ashore for a pre-race coffee break and a Laser getting to go home early from the third race.

This coming weekend, 25th and 26th February, we will be joined by the 420 East of England Championship.

Fleet by fleet action:

The visiting Merlin Rocket of Frances Gifford and Charlotte Stewart once again showed the fast fleet the way around the course and was best scored on the day with only the Phantom of Bob Portway breaking their winning sequence. The RS300s again had close racing but have yet to appear consistently at the top end of the results.

In the Asymmetrics the best performers on the day were Stephen and Ian Videlo in their RS200 and Joshua Davies and Jack Oakley in their Feva XL, who as well as collecting a first and second got a BFD. A sight to see was the RS800 making the best of the long course and ideal breeze to finish first on the water and a mid-fleet handicap result. A special mention for the BFD'd RS200 who returned to race and, suitably refreshed, won their first race of the Series.

With more breeze than previous weeks there was a reshuffle amongst the Laser fleet and the Standards benefited from the fact that a few of the Radials were away at Weymouth for a Qualifier. Close racing and extremely close finishing (4 boats within 4 seconds at each end of the line – we will soon need to video as well as voice-record the timings) saw Peter Kyne in his Standard taking the best of the day award.

In the Medium fleet the Larks returned to form with Harry Pynn/Gemma Cook coming out ahead of Alan Krailing/ Katie Spark over the three races. The Solo of Robert Laurie put in good performances on the day and now is best placed among the single-handers (consisting of Solos, OKs, Finns, Europe, Devoti, Solution.... and others).

On the line and away on day 6 of the Fox's Marine & Country Alton Water Frostbite Series - photo © Emer Berry

The theme of Toppers vs Cadets continues in the Slow Fleet with the Toppers of James Deaton and Euan Harris coming out on top this week with the weather probably in their favour. The runner-up position in this fleet is still up for grabs so hopefully we will see the Cadets returning to form (and from their training weekends).

The recently introduced 'best club' challenge shows a change on last week with Brightlingsea SC retaining the lead but Waldringfield taking over second place from Alton Water. As we approach the prize-giving there is expected to be interest in who are their clubs best performing sailors.

Overall results are produced across all fleets using average lap times and this being subject to the vagaries of changing breeze and conditions produces some interesting results. We currently have three different boat designs in the top three places.

See full fleet results here and overall results here.

Frostbite Series 2017 position and points and this week's results: (by fleet)

Best Club

This is the added scores of the top three boats from the same club from the overall race results.

There are currently 114 entries from 22 different clubs with Alton Water SC having the largest entry with 38 boats.