Alton Water 2019 Fox's Chandlery Frostbite Series - Week 7

by Jenny Pavey 22 Feb 2019 13:12 GMT 17 February 2019

At last we had near-perfect conditions for week 7 of this nine-week series; a gentle (no need for sausage roll fuel for Matt in his Phantom this week!) and slightly fickle, force 2-3 southerly which was forecast to veer to the south-west but actually backed slightly to a south south-easterly. It was sunny and mild and the only slight negative was that the wind being from anywhere in the south limits the length of the second windward leg.

Just over 60 boats turned out, a good number considering it was half-term and some were away, and with racing back on schedule after the previous weeks' three-race catch ups, two slightly longer than usual races were completed. As has happened regularly in this series, the large and very competitive Asymmetric fleet (18 RS200s, four RS800s, three 29ers and a Laser Vago) just couldn't contain their excitement at being on the water again after a week at work or school and had a general recall, starting under a black flag in the first race.

The wind increased slightly for the second race and the marks were shifted to reflect the slight change of direction and, although the layout of the course remained the same, three Laser sailors who were not concentrating (perhaps due to heatstroke, or at least bright sunshine), missed out a mark in the second race and subsequently retired. The shifty, fluctuating breeze meant that race wins were spread throughout the fleets this week, and no-one won both races in their fleet.

The series leaders remain the same as last week apart from the Slow fleet where Alissa and Jorja Marshall have taken the lead in their RS Feva from Hazel Whittle and Gwen Thorogood in the Cadet.

Four races remain and the forecast for this Sunday looks good again.

We can reveal that after fourteen races, with results taken from the overall (not fleet) results of the top three performers from each club, the three highest-placed, battling it out to be top club are:
1st - Brightlingsea Sailing Club 275.5 points
2nd - Waldringfield Sailing Club 290.5 points
3rd - Alton Water Sports Centre 391.5 point

Full results of the series so far can be found at www.altonwater.co.uk/index.php?pid=167&series=480&full_series_fleet=480

Tim Bees' photos can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/144523097@N07/albums/72157689779481133 and there are more photos on the Alton water Sailing Facebook page.

Week 7 Results - top three:

Pos	Fleet	Helm/Crew	Boat	Club	R13	R14
1	Fast	Alan Krailing/Pete Nicholson	Merlin Rocket	Brightlingsea SC	2	1
2	Fast	Robert Portway	Phantom	Alton Water SC	1	3
3	Fast	Matt House	Phantom	Alton Water SC	4	2
1	Asymmetric	Dave Conlon/Sarah Bines	RS200	Brightlingsea SC	6	1
1	Asymmetric	Ian Videlo/Alyson Videlo	RS200	Waldringfield SC	1	6
3	Asymmetric	Adam Fuller/Aaron Woolf	RS200	Waldringfield SC	5	3
1	Laser	Graham Ireland	Standard	Royal Harwich SC	5	1
2	Laser	Mark Schofield	Standard	Alton Water SC	4	2
3	Laser	Martin Hawkes	Standard	Waldringfield SC	6	3
1	Medium	Harry Pynn/Gemma Cook	Lark	Waldringfield SC	1	1
2	Medium	John Ball	Solo	Brightlingsea SC	6	2
3	Medium	Ben Powell	RS Aero 7	Alton Water SC	2	6
1	Slow	Alissa Marshall/Jorja Marshall	RS Feva XL	Alton Water SC	1	2
2	Slow	William Thorogood	Topper	Orwell YC	6	1
3	Slow	Hazel Whittle/Gwen Thorogood	Cadet	Waldringfield SC	3	4
4	Slow	Daisy Nunn/Oscar Bush	Cadet	Waldringfield SC	2	5

Series leaders after 14 races:

Class	Helm/Crew	Boat	Club
Fast	Robert Portway	Phantom	Alton Water SC
Asymmetric	Stephen Videlo/Ethan Davey	RS200	Waldringfield SC
Laser	Graham Ireland	Standard	Royal Harwich YC
Medium	Tom Stewart/Charlotte Stewart	National 12	Royal Harwich YC
Slow	Alissa Marshall/Jorja Marshall	RS Feva XL	Alton Water SC/RHS