Freeport Marine Frostbite Series

by William Harris on 15 Dec 2006 The third race in the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club’s Freeport Marine Frostbite Series was held last Sunday morning when 17 boats came to the start line in the Small Roads leading to St Helier Harbour.

Unlike the previous race, held two weeks earlier, when southerly winds gusting to nearly 30 knots caused a degree of mayhem on the leg to the East Rock buoy, taking five boats out of the race in the process, there was not so much as a puff of breeze in the starting area for the nine o’clock start.

This was bad news for a race committee that is earning itself a reputation for postponements, now three in a row. However, there was little choice as boats sat motionless with the sea like a millpond. This despite a strong wind warning! Shortly after nine, a relieved committee spotted breeze filling in from the south and some twenty minutes later there was a fresh breeze blowing from just west of south. Happily, the breeze continued to build and boats enjoyed a fast sail, giving crews plenty of opportunity to sharpen up their spinnaker drill.

The sportsboat and IRC cruiser/racer classes got away to a clean start, heading off to the Platte Beacon, temporarily substituting for the East Rock buoy, a victim of the recent gales. The Sugden/Baines ILC30 Toybox took an early lead that she held to the finish, although constantly challenged by David Jones’ Bénéteau 34s Jackana and accompanied throughout by the Brown/Cooper/Birbeck Melges 24 The Dog’s ……..!

These three boats finished within two minutes of each other with Toybox taking the race on corrected time by just one second ahead of the series leader, the Pipon/Williams J92 Jammin’. This lead was, conceivably, curtailed by Toybox having met another boat on the Vrachére buoy, the leeward mark of the course, that had decided to try a port rounding rather than starboard as the course demanded. Vince Smith’s Laser 28, Shasa, finished third on corrected time, shunting Jackana into fourth place.

With three races run, Jammin’ leads with five points whilst Jackana lies second with thirteen and Toybox third with fifteen.

Eight boats raced in the club handicap class, the numbers somewhat reduced following the previous race’s trials and tribulations. Once again, Bruce Harland’s Mustang 30, Cavallo, led the way round the course with the Farr 727 Genie, skippered by John Le Maistre, challenging strongly throughout the race.

Further down the field, the Weeks/Petra Starlight 30, Cassiopeia, and Julian Rogers’ Sigma 33, Canders, duelled their way round the course with Cassi beating Canders over the line and on corrected time. Although Cavallo chalked up her third line honours she had to give way to Genie on corrected time who took the race by some twenty-two seconds. Cassiopeia came third.

Cavallo currently leads the series with four points, closely followed by Genie with six whilst Cassiopeia lies third with twelve.

Two races remain, 7 and 21 January, with one discard being allowed in the series.

Results:

Class 0 - IRC Sportsboat
1 The Dogs ….! Melges 24 A Brown & Ptnrs 1:12:00

Class 1 - IRC Cruiser/racer
1 Toybox ILC30 R Sugden & Ptnrs 1:11:32
2 Jammin’ J92 G Pipon & P Williams 1:11:33
3 Shasa Laser 28 V Smith 1:11:53
4 Jackana Bénéteau 34S D Jones 1:12:04
5 Jaya of Jersey J92S N MacLachlan & A Ohlsson 1:13:46
6 Jungle Fever J92S J Chinn 1:14:32
7 Cordon Bleu Dehler 39 D & J Langlois 1:17:48
8 X2C X346 B Milner 1:19:31

Class 2 - RCH Cruiser/racer
1 Genie Farr 727 R Perkins 1:20:51
2 Cavallo Mustang 30 B Harland 1:21:13
3 Cassiopeia Starlight 30 C Weeks & C Petra 1:25:59
4 Matchless UFO27 K Holden 1:26:56
5 Valhalla Bénéteau 317 J Barber 1:27:52
6 Canders Sigma 33 J Rogers 1:28:05
7 Warrior Sigma 33 A Pitter 1:32:06
8 Optimum Westerly Storm W Toporis 1:40:03

NB - The 9th Jersey Telecom Regatta is scheduled for 7 - 9 September, 2007. Details will be posted on www.rciyc.org and www.shyc.je

See www.rciyc.org for full details