Up River Yacht Club Icicle Race
by Simon Hopkins 6 Jan 2015 13:50 GMT
3 January 2015
Up River Yacht Club Icicle Race 2015 © Steve Le Grys
13 boats braved the wet conditions to what turned out to be a great race on Saturday 3rd January. Luckily the date had been changed from Sunday, as it proved to be much better weather conditions. 4 boats entered the fast handicap, with 9 boats making up the larger slow handicap fleet. Vicky and Millie Little, two budding young sailors from Thorpe Bay Y.C. were our star visitors, who competed together in their Feva XL.
Down river to Tower was the first mark, with the rest of the course meandering up and down the upper reaches of the river. In light winds the fast handicap set off first, with Tim Harris in his Phantom and Ian & Alex Gore in their National 12, being recalled as they were over the line. This allowed Marcus in his Phantom to take a clear lead.
Luke Lazell, sailing his newly acquired RS600, was pleased to complete the course with only one capsize! He did however manage to lose the course during his swim and had to guess which buoys were next. Needless to say he couldn't remember the long course Amanda had set and so retired from the race at the end. Ian and Alex kept on Marcus' heels the whole race as did Tim, despite going aground and getting caught up on a mooting buoy!
Despite finishing first on the water, Ian and Alex beat him Marcus handicap. However with what became a common theme, Marcus had also lost the course and went around two marks the wrong way and so also retired from the race!
In slightly better breeze the slow handicap fleet was clean away with the Streaker of Gerry Ledger accompanied by the Lightning's of Simon Hopkins and Ben Harris leading the tacking duel down the river. Gerry arrived at Tower first and Ben just caught Simon at the mark on Starboard to sneak around second. The long run down the river allowed the Lightning of Penny Yarwood and the Comet of Michael Ettershank to catch Simon up and Michael briefly held third on the water at one point before normal service was resumed on the beat back down the river.
However Michael had done enough on handicap to leapfrog the three Lightning's but not quite enough to catch Gerry in the Streaker who took the win 13 seconds. Respect to Paul Beven in his Lightning whose kicker broke at the first mark and he continued to complete the whole race without it for a respectable 6th place!
Thanks to Steve Le Grys for braving the cold to take the photos!
Fast Results:
1st: Ian & Alex Gore - National 12
2nd: Tim Harris - Phantom
Rtd: Marcus Ingram - Phantom
Rtd: Luke Lazell
Slow Results:
1st Gerry Ledger – Streaker
2nd Michael Ettershank – Comet
3rd Ben Harris – Lightning 368
4th Simon Hopkins – Lightning 368