Chichester Yacht Club Snowflake Series concludes
by Biddy Colbourne 19 Mar 15:29 GMT
12 March 2023
Chichester Yacht Club Snowflake Series © Chris Turner
On Sunday 12th March we saw the series come to an end with the last two races of the winter season, and we were very pleased to welcome so many old and new friends.
The series has been plagued by very difficult weather - either too much or too little for most of the races. However, there were many who had the skill to enjoy fully the exhilarating conditions and some spectacular sailing was much enjoyed by those on land and on the committee boat. In contrast there were times when there was so little wind that competitors needed all their skill to just get round the course at all! In spite of all these challenges, around 30 boats sailed in each race.
There was some very competitive racing indeed this series. Steve and Sarah Cockerill (SBSC), sailing their RS200 won the fast fleet, but they were given stiff competition as there were four different race winners. Overall Richard Sharp (ESSC) finished second in his Finn and George Yeoman/Holly McArthur or Rob Henderson (ISC) came third in their Merlin, with Luke South (ESC) sailing the tricky RS300 in fourth. The two RS400s of Rob Gullen/Jack Holden (CYC) and Jim Downer/Jono Price (Gurnard SC) were very competitive, and each won a race.
In the medium fleet Mark Riddington (ESSC) sailed consistently in varying conditions to take the overall honours in his Aero 7, with Alex Butler (HISC) in second. The Europes of Gareth Tweedle (ESC) and Lucy Boreham (CYC) had some close racing and came third and fourth.
Terry and Charlie Hunt (Netley SC) in their Mirror dominated the slow fleet with some very skilled sailing in all conditions. Karen Cheeseman (CYC) in her Byte came second and Mark Conroy (CYC) sailing a Topaz Vibe was third. A brief cameo appearance was made by Ben and Keira McGrane (NetleySC) sailing their Mirror in the medium fleet finishing in front of some of the 2000s, this was one of the high lights of the series! CYC looks forward to welcoming more visitors and its members to upcoming open meetings throughout 2023.
Details on the CYC website, www.cyc.co.uk/openraceresults