After the howling gales of the previous weekend, the opening Sunday of the Viking Marine sponsored Frostbites was an absolute pleasure with sunshine and genteel winds that peaked at 13/14 knots from a Northerly direction. And the Frostbite fleet responded with 55 boats on the water, comprising 22 ILCA 6s, a 22-boat PY Class and a combined fleet of ILCA 7s and 4s of eleven boats. The Aero and Fireball classes both had very good turnouts with a GP14 and a Feva joining the fray. 

On their way out to the race area the committee boat and the supporting RIBs gathered for a minute’s silence in memory of our former colleague and Frostbite stalwart who passed away earlier this year. In addition to being a key part of the RC Team, Rodney took particular care of the flags and routinely took them home to be washed and ironed during the Frostbites.

Given the wind direction, the first two races of the day were 3-lap Olympic courses and all three starts in each race got away cleanly. There was a deliberate bias on the pin, but it seems that it was a bit more generous than it was intended to be – as per a Fireball Class WhatsApp posted report from the winning Fireball on the day. It seems it was rather obvious that the pin was the place to be to facilitate an immediate tack onto port to navigate the left and middle of the beat. Subsequent roundings of the leeward mark offered the fleet more choice as to how to mange the beat leading to a better distribution across the course.

The leading Fireball dominated the racing on the water but in terms of corrected time could not defend the position on corrected time and Aeros occupied all the podium places in the three races of the day.

The final race was a 2-lap Windward/Leeward course to take advantage of light, time and wind conditions and to “bank” an extra race against cancellations later in the series. The reaction on the water and in the clubhouse afterwards was very supportive of the decision.

So, an excellent start to the Frostbites with three races completed in sunshine that only disappeared when the sun dropped behind clouds at the end of the afternoon.

As of Thursday afternoon, entries to the Frostbites stand at 97 boats with just less than half that number made up of ILCA 6s. The Fireball Class have also seen a boost to their numbers with twelve boats entered and ILCA 7s have also seen a number of additional entries. ILCA 4 numbers have nearly doubled since last weekend.