ILCAs in the Frostbite Series 2023/24 at Queen Mary Sailing Club - Week 3
by Tony Woods 8 Jan 12:33 PST
7 January 2024
ILCAs in the Frostbite Series week 3 at Queen Mary © QMSC
As the temperature falls, the competition hots up at Queen Mary Sailing Club's Frostbite series. The 170+ entries for the Bloody Mary gone, it was back to blue sky and a good breeze at QM.
An impressive turnout this week for the continuation of the QM Frostbite Series. Despite the chilly northerly conditions - there was ice on the covers for the first time this winter - 23 keen ILCA sailors lined up for the start. Great to see the Wembley Sailing Club contingent joining us whilst their club is not available. The breeze started as a 12 knot northerly, but increased during the day, up to 18 knots, and veered to NNE, as per the forecast.
Race 1
An unbiased start line resulted in the fleet spread evenly and we got away first time. The pattern for the day seemed to be big gusts filling in from the right, but there were often shifts from the left, possibly from the land effect. On this first beat of the day Tony Woods found a nice shift from the middle left and rounded first, hotly pursued by Olympian Marshall King and Rupert Bedell. Our other Olympian Mark Lyttle, who is usually favourite to win, was involved in a port/starboard incident on the first beat with his mentee Guy Noble. The crash tack and resulting capsize put him out of the running for this race.
On the second beat Tony took a few wrong turns into holes/bad shifts allowing Marshall and Rupert to slip through. On the third beat the breeze was settling into a more right phase and Tony managed to pass Rupert and closed the gap on Marshall. As he had gained on the right of the beat, Tony opted for the left side of the run and managed to regain the lead. Meanwhile Mike Hicks was gaining ground and shot through Rupert's lee on the final reach to the finish. Podium results were Tony 1st, Marshall 2nd, Mike 3rd.
Race 2
The tricky conditions continued as the wind had by now increased, and as the fleet lined up for the start the breeze headed, resulting in a port biased line. In these shifty conditions it was important to tack as soon as possible. The person who read these shifts the best on this beat was David Casale. He rounded first, closely followed by Mark Lyttle and Rupert. Mark was now finding his form and got water at the leeward mark. David was sadly on the outside of the rounding and allowed Rupert and Tony through. Guy Noble had a good battle with Rupert, eventually coming out on top. Gary Bullock was also having a good race and ended up 5th. In the end it was Mark 1st, Tony 2nd, Guy 3rd.
Its not too late to join us...
Full results at www.queenmary.org.uk/results-2024/frostbite-series-202324-results