30 November Frost Bite 2

This was a much more pleasant morning than Frost Bite 1, nice and dry and even the sun was shining. The only downside was that there was not much wind again, about 1 – 2 mph NNW although it did get up to about 8 mph by the end of the race.

Newton had set X as the first mark up near the buoy line about 5 metres West of No 6, then across to 9, 5, 2, 4, 8 and back through the start line to X.
There were 20 starters this week and Karen (Laser) was leading at the first mark, but by the end of the lap Ian C (Supernova) had taken the lead by quite a distance. Karen was 2nd with Steve P (505) in 3rd, followed by David C, Curtis and Jon C who were all in Lasers. There was then a gap to the next group of five boats led by Sylvia, Adrian and Mike A in Lasers with Hugh (Byte) and Julian (Solo) sticking to them. There was another small gap to Peter R (Enterprise) and Mike C (Solo) who were locked together and then a much larger gap back to James P and Dave P in Lasers followed by Hadey (4.7), John C (Topaz), Sally (Comet), Alistair S (Laser) and finally young William P who was going very well in his Topper.
At the end of the second lap the first six boats were in the same position apart from David C taking 3rd place from Steve, but there was a really close battle taking place between Karen, David, Steve, Curtis and Jon. Adrian and Julian had moved up to take the lead in the second group who had now been joined by Mike C and Peter R. James P and Dave P were still leading the group further back but Sally had moved up two places passing Hadey and John C, but these three were also having a terrific battle.
At the end of the third and last lap Ian C crossed the line well ahead, but both David C and Steve had managed to pass Karen pushing her down to 4th and Jon C had managed to get past Curtis to take 5th place. Mike A had come through to lead the second group taking 7th with Adrian 8th. However Julian and Hugh were close enough to pip these two on handicap.
Sylvia was 10th but Peter had got the better of Mike C to take 11th, but again on handicap it was likely that these positions would be reversed.
Final positions on the water were 1st Ian C, 2nd David C, 3rd Steve P, however Steve was unfortunately disqualified as he was across the line at the start, returned but did not go far enough to recross the line completely.
The final position on handicap should be 1st Ian C, 2nd David C and 3rd Karen.
The winner of the second group on handicap and 6th overall should be Hugh in his Byte and the winner of the third group should be William in his Topper.
Well sailed Hugh and William !