Icicle Series 2026 at Bough Beech Sailing Club - Day 5
by Alastair Moppett 2 Feb 05:00 GMT
4 January - 22 February 2026
Bough Beech Icicle Series day 5 © Alastair Moppett
The Icicle series entered its second half on Sunday, with a smaller turnout than usual, no doubt due a forecast which appealed mainly to the local ducks.
This Sunday's race team, led by Race Officer Mike Warwicker, braved the rain to run the answering pennant up the club mast while the first of many cups of tea was brewing, with the feeling being that should any dinghy racing happen then it would most likely happen in the afternoon. A trio of very optimistic sailors launched at the usual time, as if the postponement was a matter for debate, and proved that no, there really wasn't any wind on the course. "You don't mind if the fleet has lunch two hours early?" is a brave question to ask of your galley, but Jess and team rose to the occasion, with the combined fleet of thirty-five boats having to make a tricky tactical decision while we waited for the wind to arrive: shepherd's pie or sandwich?
Fremantle has the Doctor, Garda has its Ora, and Bough Beech will find a suitable name for the booming six-ish knot Southerly that came in around midday, exactly as predicted by some esteemed members of the BBSC Supervision Corps (a fine body of men, with a decades-long tradition of watching things happen), and much to the relief of the race committee. Mike and team got the conventional fleet under way first time under the Uniform flag, with teenagers Harry and George getting a cracking start and leading the way for the first lap in their Snipe. Isn't it great when youngsters find a welcoming class that just works for them?
Perennial frontrunner Guy Marks, crewed by Sam Boniface in the Wayfarer, was the only one of the overall top-three at the halfway stage in action today, with top Snipe helm Matthew Wolstenholme away at the Tiger Trophy and RS600 legend George Smith away on a cultural exchange to the Netherlands. Quick and consistent, Marks and Boniface crossed the line less than a minute behind Neal Gibson's RS300, giving them the win, ahead of Jamie Clementson of Chipstead SC and Patrick Ward in a brace of Solos. Outside the top-three, Elliot Marks had another strong race in fourth, sailing his ILCA 7 really well in conditions more suited to the Solos and Snipes that made up the rest of the top ten.
On the asymmetric side of things, the Musto Skiff contingent had stayed at home, leaving the RS400s of Jonny Moss & Rich Sheridan from BBSC and Mick & Sarah Whitmore from Eastbourne Sovereign as the fastest boats on the water. Your correspondent, mindful of potential censure from the Crew's Union, agreed with his crew that it wasn't a day for the B14 and instead took notes from the shore while consuming tea at an alarming rate.
Moss and Sheridan, proving that coaches do occasionally practice what they preach, pulled out a near-ten minute lead over the chasing pack of 2000s and RS200s, giving them the win by thirty-odd seconds. In an infinite universe there may theoretically be conditions in which Paul Cullen and Verity Hopkins are not quick, but those conditions are, as yet, undiscovered: they came in second, with fellow 2000 teams Jonathan and Hayden Ching, Matt and Ollie Larkin, and Jo Field and Annabel Larkin chasing as hard as one can in less than five knots of breeze.
The wind was starting to die off as race nine finished and so race ten was abandoned. It will be resailed next Sunday, along with races eleven and twelve. Huge thanks as ever to all of our volunteers this weekend. We can't do it without you.
Provisional Results: