Chichester Yacht Club Magazine January 2019 | Page 14

Frozen Toe 5&6 – Spills and Thrills - by Mark Green
The final day of this year’s frozen toe series
was forecast to have strong winds decaying
through the day. The Race officer and race
committee exchanged many emails over the
weekend trying to decide whether to go
ahead with the event. In the end, the morning
wind was lower than feared but more than
enough for an exciting sail.
Due to the forecast the number of
competitors was lower than previous weeks,
but not surprisingly a healthy number of
Merlins chose to sail.
The race officer, Martin Orton, assisted by
members of the CYC Solo and Laser Fleets,
laid a trapezium course with the committee
boat close to the marina, and the windward
mark close to the shore on the west side of the
lake. Fortunately, the wind fixed on a Westerly
direction, giving the racers a relatively long
beat, and avoiding the trees on the far bank
which cause the wind to shift.
In race 5, the fast fleet were
quickly up the beat and
launching spinnakers on the
reach. There were a number
of early capsizes as the
helms struggled with the
gusts. On the downwind leg,
the helms were all hanging
over the transom of the boat
to lift the bow and minimise
drag. The RS400 sailed by Steve and Sarah
Cockerill was especially quick on the
downwind legs, with some spectacular gybes,
they built a lead over the chasing Merlins.
Unfortunately on the last lap, they suffered a
catastrophic failure, when their mast broke in
two just above the spreaders. Impressively,
they managed to control the boat and sail it
back into the beach with a safety boat flanking
them. The race was won by Tim Saxton
and Holly Scott from Itchenor SC.
In race 6, the remaining fleet was further
reduced such that only four boats
finished, with another Merlin from
Itchenor taking the prize sailed by Neale
Jones and Isabel Fitzgerald.
In the Medium fleet there was some
impressive sailing and more than a few
capsizes, including on one downwind run a
gust caused a Devoti D-Zero to pitch-poll (the
sailing equivalent of a forward summersault).
At the end of the day Felpham's Liam Vass
had taken both races in his Aero7. In the first
race Ian and Sarah Yardley took second in
their 2000.
The Slow fleet was reduced to two boats, who
battled their way around a slightly smaller
triangle course. Felpham's Alfie Lester took
both races, followed by CYC's Ollie Randall-
May.
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