Highcliffe Sailing Club Icicle Series - Day 3

You have to question the sanity of people who still decide to go out sailing when their dinghy mainsheets and boat covers are frozen solid, their daggerboard casings have blocks of ice inside so large that their plates won't go down and when they have to launch from a snow covered water's edge using the bow of the boat to break through the ice on the surface of the water. It smacks of an addiction or affliction at some level, I don't know. Still the sun was shining and the wind was thinking about showing up.

The cast list for today's races was somewhat depleted after last time's 36 dinghy line up; the RS Aeros had gone off to play elsewhere and the Keyhaven boys were having some logistical problems retrieving their masts from the newly refurbished gear store at their club (we shall say no more about that...), so it was just the usual suspects who carved their way past the icebergs up to the start line.

Now, after Icicle races 3&4 gave us sailors some excellent practice in countdown sequences and start line argy bargy, it seems reasonable to assume that we were all now all well versed in how to start in a harbour with more obstacles than space, right?. Wrong. The word on the beach was that the course was to be sailed in a clockwise direction, with the first leg heading over to the Beach house before freeing off to reach up the channel. And, this is what we dutifully did, well, what some of us dutifully did, but it seems alas, a miscommunication somewhere down the line had translated the course instructions to read anti-clockwise and half the fleet dribbled over the line in the 1 knot of wind available in the opposite direction to the other half of the fleet. Um, two hoots.

Back in sequence for start number two and most people still didn't know which way round the course we were supposed to go, and I am pretty sure I heard some bad language somewhere..... but with a minute to go, somehow we were all finally on the same page and clockwise it was. But after all the fuss, it barely mattered in the end, the wind had dropped to half a knot and the tide was flooding in at 3.

Most boats managed to drift over the start line at some point and Highcliffe's Platt (Aero 9) with his new go faster, aerodynamic beardless look, was enjoying the idea of actually being the first round the windward mark. Unfortunately for him, however, this wasn't to be and after most of the boats found themselves revisiting the start line, stern first, almost in defiance of RO Jim's order to sail clockwise, the decision was taken and it was 3 hoots from the Clubhouse and generally speaking, a sigh of relief across the fleet as racing was abandoned.

Time for cheese toasties and tea on land and maybe, maybe, she says with fingers crossed, the wind will finally show up for the last two races on 10th March so that this Aero sailor can get to use the 5 rig purchased for the usually really windy Icicle racing series that so far has yet to blow more than 3 knots.

Results as per 20th Jan 2019, Christchurch Alex Atkins in his Finn is still in the lead. Final two races of the Icicle Open Series will take place on 10th March at 10:30.

Series Results after day 3: