Harlow (Blackwater) Sailing Club Icicle

NATIONAL 12s AND PHANTOMS CLEAN UP

Harlow (Blackwater) Sailing Club hosted the 40th Icicle race on Saturday, 6 January 2007. It was a dark, miserable, rainy day so the Club were thrilled to see a great cross section of 25 boats ranging from RS600s to Solos. The main fleets, however, were made up of the National 12’s from Up River Yacht Club, Phantoms from Creeksea Sailing Club and Fireballs from Brightlingsea Sailing Club, Blackwater Sailing Club and Harlow’s own Club Fireball fleet.

The conditions for the race were far from ideal with light and variable winds but with the start a little delayed the breeze picked up slightly and the fleet were off with a very close start by all. This was followed by a convergence of all the boats at the first mark with a lot of verbal going on. With some of the fleet coming to a standstill Jim McLeod in his Phantom took advantage of this with a very sneaky manoeuvre to round the inside of the mark making up several places.

The fleet were then led out of the creek by Tim Gold in the RS600 followed by the leading fireball, Ozzie Aldridge and Dasten O’Reilly, on the run out to Steeple where testing conditions saw positions changing throughout the whole fleet. The return to the creek saw the National 12’s and Phantoms sailing exceptionally well. There was close racing between the top Fireballs with Martin Scarth/Mark Batt, Andy Bines/Kerrie Forster and Ozzie Aldridge /Dasten O’Reilly in the top three chased closely by Terri Sharman and Tony King, closely followed by Dave Islin and Don Aers. There was a good battle going on in the trailing fleet between Merlins, Fireballs and Lasers and John Giles in his Finn and Rod Martin in his Solo

In the end it was the National 12’s and Phantoms that stole the day with a very impressive win by National 12 sailors Ian and Alex Gore of Up River Yacht Club, followed by Chris Roberts (Creeksea Sailing Club) in his Phantom in 2nd place. In 3rd place was National 12 sailor, Gerry Ledger, with crew, Claire, also from Up River Yacht Club, in 4th and 5th place was Rod Thorpe and Paul Neve respectively both in Phantoms (Creeksea Sailing Club). Congratulations to all.

Congratulations should also go to Martin Tarling sailing a Laser, being first Harlow boat, who finished in 6th place.

Thanks should be conveyed to everyone who helped on the day, including Maylandsea Bay Yacht Club, to make this a successful event.

Congratulations should go to Martin Tarling in his laser being the first Club boat back across the finish line.

Many thanks are conveyed to all and sundry who helped during the event.

Full results are available on the Harlow Blackwater Sailing Club web site.