SAILING
GURNARD SC
AN EXCELLENT turnout of 32 boats braved a cold westerly breeze on Sunday to compete in the first races of the appropriately named Frostbite Series.
Paul Tanner’s new Nacra F18 led the cats at the end of their first round, but was eventually overtaken by Robin Leather’s Shadow on the penultimate leg.
Keith Hayden’s RS700 revelled in the fast-reaching conditions to win by an impressive margin in the fast group, while the RS400’s of James Downer and Graham Deegan enjoyed much closer racing, the former emerging victorious after a prolonged duel.
Mark Harrison continued his domination of the RS100’s, but places were continually changing behind him, with James French finally getting the better of Giles Peckham and Chris Gillies. A similar pattern emerged in the Lasers, with the second to fourth finishers separated by only 20 seconds behind runaway leader Martin Bean.
BEMBRIDGE SC
The club’s Illusions took part in the Trafalgar Regatta over the weekend.
Saturday was almost madness with a bitterly cold Northerly F6 breeze, however a few die-hards did try and had three short races in the very difficult conditions.
Although it was a matter of survival most of the time, there was still the occasional opportunity for tactics to come into play. Indeed, in the second race Graham Sunderland and Mark Downer were match racing to the leeward mark on the second round.
Sunday was a whole different ball game with a nice South Westerly F2 breeze and racing was able to be run outside the harbour off Silver Beach. Well done to Rudy Jurg who was the overall winner a couple of points ahead of Mark Downer. Graham Sunderland was third.
Despite the unkind weather and difficult tides, 13 cadets and one from Royal Victoria had an excellent two days of coaching.
Our thanks to the coaches, Ollie Spensley-Corfield, Chris Rashley and Phoebe Jervis and the Bruce Huber who organised it all.
YARMOUTH SC
Strong winds resulted in the cancellation of Saturday’s races but the wind was a more manageable Force 3-4 westerly on Sunday, which made for a fitting end to the season.
Ian North’s Mirror provided competition for the Picos in the handicap class. Helen Sceales was soon out in front followed by Ian and Alex Gallimore and crew Dan Lee.
However, by the run back from B, Alex and Dan had overtaken Ian and these positions were maintained for the remainder of the race but on corrected time Helen retained her first place to win the series, Ian was second and Alex and Dan third.
In the Scows, John Smith, in his new boat, demonstrated he’ll be one to watch next season and Joy Mowle deserted the Picos for her first race in the class.
All boats started well, with Graeme Bowen just ahead of Dick Davis, who was in clear air. Joy was in the lead at B followed by Graeme and Peter Giles but by the time they entered Mill Creek, Graeme was at the front ahead of John and Dick was third. These positions were unchanged until the second leg into Mill Creek and as they tacked back out John was seriously challenging Graeme and Dick had an encounter with the mud, which allowed Peter, Joy and Alan Toms to overtake him. Graeme held off John to take first place and Peter’s third was sufficient for him to gain the overall series win.
BRADING HAVEN YC
The fourth race in Brading Haven’s Frostbite series attracted nine boats in the fast handicap when once again Simon Cooper blasted out the harbour pushed along by a south westerly Force 3 breeze ahead of the chasing group.
Despite some exhilarating reaches and runs surfing with the waves, as the race settled down so did race positions with the Wayfarers of Duncan Bates and Jonathan Hoare managing to stay ahead of the Vareo of Marten Spingett and small fleet of Solo’s, which was only spilt by young Ed Cooper performing well in a Laser.
Cooper took the gun ahead of Bates and Hoare but once handicaps played its role with Bates being awarded top slot ahead of Cooper and Coleman taken the final position in his Solo ahead of Hoare.
The slow handicap was reduced to three boats but this did not prevent some very tight sailing, the entertainment being provided by Michael Quinn and M. Bottoms who fought tooth and nail for the lower positions behind Barry Dyer, with Quinn taking silver.
ROYAL VICTORIA YC
After the storm, the calm on Sunday proved perfect for the third round of the Frostbite series, with another impressive turnout of 32 yachts. In the fast cruisers, Chris Turner got the jump at the start on Hilary Martin to lead at the windward mark but once the kites went up, the advantage went to Martin, who took the lead and won line and handicap honours. Mark Weeks and Stuart Peters won the slow cruiser class.
The fast dinghy class was won by Derek Stroud, but Paul Griffiths leads the series with his third second in a row. Neil Griffiths and Mark Turner took third.
Markus Bettum joined the Laser fleet but his day was spoiled as his mast broke. In the end, Jim McMillan held off Richard Talbot for his first win of the series, with George Downer third.
Charlie White led the Optimist fleet and won, with brother, Tom, in second, and William Baker putting in a superb performance to take third.
Nine Squibs took to the line, and Emma Baker and Sam Prime made a cracking one at the pin-end and never looked back.
In the mix were Lizz Whizz (the Primestocks), Aquabat (Steve Warren-Smith and Dom Lamb), Firestreak (Sally Everitt and Angie White) and Satu (Kev and Marnie Gibson). It was Aquabat and Satu who filled the next two places leaving it very close in the series.
In the second round of the Frostbite series, there were so many cruisers that they had to be split into two classes.
In the fast handicap, Hilary Martin won from Chris Turner with Alan Colville in third. In the slow handicap, former commodores Ian Murray and Andrew Porteous, in Amery, were unable to prevent Mark Weeks’ return to winning ways in Pendragon.
The Squib class was won by the Downers, with Steve Warren-Smith and Dominic Lamb taking second, and the Gibsons third.
The fast handicap saw Neil Griffith and Mark Turner regain bragging rights in the RS400 class while Paul Griffiths took a well-deserved second.
In the Lasers, Richard Talbot took victory with George Downer second and Fred Warren-Smith third. The White boys took the podium places again in the Optimists, with Charlie winning fro Tom and Harry.