Alton Water 2016 Fox's Marine and Country Frostbite Series - Day 3

Size does matter ... for clear wind on day 3 of the Alton Water Fox's Marine & Country Frostbite Series © Emer Berr

A hang-glider tries to beat the parking problems on day 3 of the Alton Water Fox's Marine & Country Frostbite Series © Tim Bees

The mid-week signs for week three of the Alton Water Frostbite did not look good – not an isobar in sight over East Anglia. The forecast improved a little as Sunday drew nearer and the actual conditions on the day gave good sailing in a lighter breeze than for previous weekends, that built and veered during the day.

We are close to our maximum entries with 115 boats signed up to date and with entertaining the Topper Squad and the Burnham Feva Squiddies we had over 100 boats out on the water. There were new challenges this week for the on-shore team and improvements are planned with the M25 motorway expected to arrive at Alton on Friday – okay, if not the actual M25 then road chippings to be re-laid in one of the top car parks.

On the water activity saw the now familiar course laid but with the use of all inflatable moveable marks (bar one) to accommodate the anticipated shift in the breeze from NE towards SE. A bright if cold sunny day saw the racing get underway with a well behaved pin end mark remaining attached to the bottom. Individual early starters were spotted and recalled – the light breeze gave a longer than usual first race with the course being re-laid as soon as the marks became free, such that the back to back race could be started with minimal waiting in what was now a reasonable 10mph ESE breeze.

There was no malice intended on the race committee's part but with the majority of the fleet on the outer 'loop' at the same time, morning coffee on the committee boat was a relaxed affair with no lapping boats. Rather crowded and with the differing downwind angles this outer loop provided the bigger challenge of the day – with a lifting breeze off the shore (bank?).

The five boat start sequence is now in place for the rest of the series along with a change to SIs re crossing the lap/finish line – you only do it at the end of the lap going to windward!

Fleet by fleet

The fast fleet sees a resurgence in RS300s with 4 of the 5 entries out racing joined by the hardcore of the Phantom fleet, with the visiting Merlin Rocket towards the front of the racing. Mention must be made of our 49er visitors – why go sailing off Barcelona in January when you can race the Alton Water Frostbite? No mention so far of the Finn... this was the best weekend for Will Patten in the lighter breeze as he collected two firsts to take him to the top of the fleet leaderboard.

The asymmetrics now have 15 RS200s entered and the front end of the class are giving all other boats in their start an on the water race. Leading RS400 on the day was Oli Harris and Alex Drayson with a mid-fleet position on handicap. The leading Feva of Matt Smith / Issy Taylor-Jones dropped a place in the overall standing with David Conlon and Sarah Bines taking two wins on the day as the leading RS200 and joint overall leader.

The talk within the Laser fleet is around handicaps with the Radials appearing to benefit from the recent change even in the lighter breeze where they were penalised. Pete Kyne restored the Standards' reputation equalling Arthur Brown's results on the day. Overall with two discards from six races we have all podium places taken by Radials.

In the medium class the RS Aero 5 of Ant Law broke into the dizzy heights of the results taking a first place in the race one of the day, only to drop back in the building breeze of the afternoon. The ever-present Larks, National 12 and 420s had, as usual, close racing with Alan Krailing and Charlotte Stewart being best on the day.

In the slow class we lost a Topper to the training camp but were joined by around 15 or so Burnham Fevas that joined in the racing but with a different lap/finish line to that of the regular fleet. It was a Waldringfield Cadet day with them taking three of the top four places with Harry and Faye Chatterton taking top place and new arrival Euan Harris in his Topper also having a good day.

Away from the racing...

Seen in the car park were adults with binoculars - are these the Tiger Mums that David Cameron was referring to? More likely they were local bird watchers looking out for the red necked grebe as were possibly the stand-up paddle- boarders too.

Race by race results and overall placings after six races with two discards can be found here.

Pictures are from our regular photographers Tim Bees and Emer Berry and a further collection of Tim's photos can be found here.

Day 3 Results: