Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club Frostbite Series - Day 3

The third race in the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club’s Freeport Marine Frostbite series was sailed in near perfect conditions in St Aubin’s Bay on Sunday morning. This, the first event in the Island’s racing calendar for the New Year, enjoyed fine weather with a moderate to fresh north-westerly breeze coupled with just a slight sea, that gave everyone a fairly exhilarating sail to blow away any lingering effects of the festive season.

Setting off from the St Helier YC start line, in the Small Roads to St Helier harbour, most boats hoisted spinnakers for the brisk run to the East Rock buoy where they hardened up before starting the mile and a half beat to the race mark off St Aubin’s Fort. With a decent breeze blowing, the race officer chose the longest course on the course card for the IRC boats that, in all, included three perfect windward legs providing super racing for this expertly sailed class.

With just over three minutes separating the first three finishers, the Sugden partnership’s IRC30, Toybox, took line honours after a little over an hour and a half of close quarters sailing ahead of the Perkins partnership’s X-332, Xtravaganza, with the Pipon/Williams J92 Jammin finishing hot on Xtravaganza’s tail. Jammin had sailed particularly well, however, to win by a decent margin on corrected time, with Xtravaganza holding second place and Toybox settling for a close third. Eight boats raced in the class.

The race for the Club handicap class saw six boats on the line, including the Jones’ partnership’s new acquisition Micmac, a Farr 27, making her first appearance on the Jersey racing scene. This course was a shortened version of that sailed by the IRC boats, including just two beats. Again, there was lively competition throughout with the first three boats finishing within the space of three minutes. The Stafford-Nelson/James Starlight 30, Starry Night, took line honours a minute ahead of the McLellands’ Beneteau 35S5, just ahead of the McGinleys’ Feeling Huff’n’Puff. Starry Night also took the race comfortably on corrected time with Huff’n’Puff second ahead of Trevor Collenette’s well-sailed Egythene24 Faraway.

With two races run, Toybox leads in the IRC class by just one point ahead of Xtravaganza whilst Starry Night has a three point lead over Faraway in the Club handicap class.

The race scheduled for 19th December was abandoned due to high winds and will be resailed on Saturday 15th January whilst race 4 will run on schedule on the 16th January. The final race takes place on Sunday 30th January. Entry forms are available from the yacht clubs and www.rciyc.org

Overall Results:

IRC handicap cruiser/racer class: Start: 0900 hours.

1st Jammin, Guy Pipon ptnrs 1.30.42
2nd Xtravaganza, Rhys Perkins ptnrs 1.31.38
3rd Toybox, Richard Sugden ptnrs 1.32.26
4th Contango, Steve Pearl ptnrs 1.35.37
5th Jubilee G, Nigel Guenier 1.35.40
6th Super Nova, Jason Lees-Baker 1.46.34
7th Cordon Bleu, Andrew Le Quesne 1.47.34

Royal Channel Handicap cruiser/racer class: Start: 0910 hours

1st Starry Night, Phil James 1.40.08
2nd Huff’n’Puff, Brendan McGinley 1.43.09
3rd Faraway, Trevor Collenette 1.43.33
4th Micmac, Steve Marie ptnrs 1.47.14
5th Cache Trappe, Daniel Kevan 1.49.34
6th Indulgence, Barry McClelland 1.51.19