Please select your home edition
Edition
A+T Instruments BFD 2024 Leaderboard

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3

by Jenny Pavey 23 Jan 2020 05:17 AEDT 19 January 2020
Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 3 © Tim Bees

Week 3 of this popular series brought a chilly but bright and breezy day and with a good imagination you could almost convince yourself it was summer. With a breeze from the north-westerly for a change, the sailors didn't have to sail very far to the start and the Race Officer was able to set a good-length course with two beats and a long and very exciting reach.

Fifty-three boats took to the water and with no start line bias it was a question of getting the shifts right up the first beat and making the most of the breeze. The very competitive fleet of asymmetrics had yet another general recall in the first race. It is an indication of the level of racing in this series that most of the sailors are jostling for position on the line just before the start and even on their black flag start the asymmetrics were all close, though no-one was over.

There was some very close racing in all the fleets and Tim Bees, our series photographer, was able to capture some excellent shots as boats rounded the final leeward mark close to the shore. The crew of the Javelin could be heard whooping from the Committee Boat as they took off on the long reach towards it with spinnaker flying. There were a few capsizes but most people stayed out for the second race, enjoying the sun and breeze.

Well done to Dan Willett & Pete Nicholson in their Merlin Rocket, Stephen Videlo & Ethan Davey in the RS200, James Deaton in his Laser Radial and Christopher & Cathy Fish in their Lark who all won both the day's races in their fleet.

With the first discards kicking in, places are particularly tight at the top of the Fast, Laser and Slow fleets, but leads have opened out in the Asymmetric and Medium fleets.

Tim Bees' photos can be seen here and there are more photos on the Alton Water Sailing Facebook page.

Race and series results to date can be found on the Alton Water Frostbite Results Facebook page.

Result highlights for this week:

FleetHelm/CrewBoatClubR5R6
FastDan Willett/Pete NicholsonMerlin RocketBrightlingsea SC11
FastDidge EverettFinnHarwich Town SC32
FastAdy PellsFinnHarwich Town SC42
FastSteve Hall/Ally HallMerlin RocketRCYC25
AsymmetricStephen Videlo/Ethan DaveyRS200Waldringfield SC11
AsymmetricDave Conlon/Sarah BinesRS200Brightlingsea SC24
AsymmetricHarry Pynn/Gemma CookRS200Waldringfield SC52
LaserJames DeatonRadialRoyal Harwich YC11
LaserBen ReasonStandardHarwich Town SC42
LaserHarry WallheadStandardRoyal Harwich YC63
MediumChristopher Fish/Cathy FishLarkWaldringfield SC11
MediumMatt Taylor RS Aero 5Haven Ports YC22
MediumLuke FarthingOKWaldringfield SC34
SlowOlivia Gowland/Nettie ThorogoodCadetWaldringfield SC21
SlowNathan RussellRS Tera ProRoyal Harwich YC12
SlowAndy Webb/Evie MayRS Feva XLHarwich Town SC43

Series leaders after six races:

ClassHelm/CrewBoatClub
FastDan Willett/Pete NicholsonMerlin RocketBrightlingsea SC
AsymmetricStephen Videlo/Ethan DaveyRS200Waldringfield
Laser James Deaton RadialRoyal Harwich YC
MediumMatt TaylorRS Aero 5Haven Ports YC
SlowAndy Webb/Evie MayRS Feva XLHarwich Town SC

Barton Marine Pipe GlandssMRT AIS Man Overboard Beacons AUS / NZSwitch One Design