Chichester Yacht Club Magazine April 2018 | Page 20
Snowflake 3 & 4. Bright and Breezy! - by Mark Green
With the grey month of January thankfully
behind us, the first snowflake in February took
place on a beautiful bright, sunny, cold and
windy day. Perfect weather for the 40 boats
and their hardy winter sailors.
The racing was delayed by the high pressure
which held up the arrival of the tide to CYC's
lake. When the water eventually filled in, the
Wind from the North-East allowed race officer
Martin Orton to set a figure of eight course with
a long beat from Birdham to beyond Coperas
and wing marks making for an exciting
downwind reaching race.
When the first race started, the slight port bias
to the line saw a couple of boats overshoot the
pin end and have to double back before getting
under way. During the first lap, the gusty wind
caused a number of capsizes and led to some
early retirements.
In the fast fleet the Merlins, Rs400s and
Fireballs appeared to make easy going of the
conditions. Ben and Roz McGrane from Netley
SC extended their lead in the series with two
first places, followed by Andrew Dalby and
Gareth Porkins who finished second in both
races.
In the Medium fleet, Steve Cockerill
demonstrated how to get the Aero7 planing
downwind, sailing with very little of the boat
touching the water.
Steve finished the day with two first places to
extend his 100% record in the series. In the first
race Ian and Sarah Yardley from Silver Wing
SC kept up with Steve in the early stages of the
race, but finished second by a minute after the
results were corrected.
In the Second race Mark Riddington claimed
second place. The three 2000s had a
fascinating race, with Jonathan Townsend and
Barbara Langford sailing very quickly with a
reefed mainsail, they managed to keep ahead
of the other two boats for two of the three laps
but were overhauled by Ian and Sarah Yardley
on the final lap.
The Slow fleet started with 10 boats, but by the
second race the fleet was down to four, a
Mirror, a topper, a laser 4.7 and a Quba. The
Mirror sailed by Alice and Richard
Bullock from Itchenor SC took first
place in both races, followed by Alfie
Lester in the first race and Alice Serna
in the second.
Alice in the Topper, Owen Rowlands in
the Laser 4.7 and Alex Cray with Ellie
Cawley sailing in the RS Quba were all
justifiably pleased to complete the
course in the challenging conditions.
20