Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3 © Tim Bees

Week 3 of this popular series brought a chilly but bright and breezy day and with a good imagination you could almost convince yourself it was summer. With a breeze from the north-westerly for a change, the sailors didn't have to sail very far to the start and the Race Officer was able to set a good-length course with two beats and a long and very exciting reach.

Fifty-three boats took to the water and with no start line bias it was a question of getting the shifts right up the first beat and making the most of the breeze. The very competitive fleet of asymmetrics had yet another general recall in the first race. It is an indication of the level of racing in this series that most of the sailors are jostling for position on the line just before the start and even on their black flag start the asymmetrics were all close, though no-one was over.

There was some very close racing in all the fleets and Tim Bees, our series photographer, was able to capture some excellent shots as boats rounded the final leeward mark close to the shore. The crew of the Javelin could be heard whooping from the Committee Boat as they took off on the long reach towards it with spinnaker flying. There were a few capsizes but most people stayed out for the second race, enjoying the sun and breeze.

Well done to Dan Willett & Pete Nicholson in their Merlin Rocket, Stephen Videlo & Ethan Davey in the RS200, James Deaton in his Laser Radial and Christopher & Cathy Fish in their Lark who all won both the day's races in their fleet.

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3 - photo © Tim Bees

With the first discards kicking in, places are particularly tight at the top of the Fast, Laser and Slow fleets, but leads have opened out in the Asymmetric and Medium fleets.

Tim Bees' photos can be seen here and there are more photos on the Alton Water Sailing Facebook page.

Race and series results to date can be found on the Alton Water Frostbite Results Facebook page.

Result highlights for this week:

Series leaders after six races:

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3 - photo © Tim Bees