Frozen Sheets Race at Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

A multitude of classes for the Frozen Sheets race at Thorpe Bay © Tim Grigsby

A multitude of classes for the Frozen Sheets race at Thorpe Bay © Mike Cable

54 crews of all ages and across a multitude of classes; monohull, multihull and even foilers ranging from a Laser Pico to a Tornado and all sorts in-between turned up from all over the country for Thorpe Bay Yacht Club's annual Frozen Sheets race, generously sponsored by the Wetsuit Outlet, which was held on Sunday 28th. So many, despite or maybe because of the promised forecast of up to 20 knots offshore, gusty, North Easterly winds and a wind chill of sub-zero proportions or was it was the promise of mulled wine and mince pies afterwards?

A reasonably large course was set and broad enough to keep the asymmetric sailors happy. The fleet got away well from a close reaching start on port with only a couple of boats OCS and the rest of the fleet charging down to the first mark.

From the Gun, David White in his Nacra 18 and Mike Lennon in his foiling Moth were off and duelling for line honours, Mike lead the whole race until the final beat.

The gybe mark was a testing place for many of the competitors due to the higher winds offshore and the interesting, short yet steep, wave pattern that had developed by the wing mark and running all the way along the second reach of the course, allow some of the boats excellent surfing conditions and equally good nose diving conditions for others.

The beat was a choice of more wind and going against the short waves offshore or flat water and shifty / gusty conditions inshore, each of which having their pros and cons depending on which phase you were in at the leeward mark.

The faster boats managed to put in 6 laps while the slower of the handicapped boats managed a creditable 2.

Once the results had been processed and the handicaps discussed at length, the event was deservedly won by Mike Lennon after giving us all a superb display of how to foil a moth in wind and waves closely followed (although just piped at the post on the water) by David White and a very creditable result from Nick Baker in his RS800 in 3rd, congratulations also go to Dan Henderson in 4th on a Musto Skiff and Dave Hall in 5th in his Fireball.

Thanks goes to all the guard boat crews, the race officer, Phil Crawford and his team and of course the ladies in the bosun’s hut who must have spent all Christmas making mince pies for us and of Course the wetsuit outlet for sponsoring the event.

Overall Results: (top ten)