Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 4

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 4 © Emer Berry

A return to grey skies and a south-westerly breeze, forecast to veer to the west, greeted sailors for week 4 of this nine-week series. There was a fairly gentle breeze as the course was set and some sunshine at first but with the sun disappearing and the temperature dropping the wind increased to the forecast 12mph.

The Race Officer's intention was to start on time, in practice for making sure people (mainly him) were home in time for the Rugby Six Nations, which would be starting the following week, but after the recent rain the water levels are well up, making the reservoir very deep in places and there was a brief delay while anchoring the committee boat and having the pin buoy moved to take into account the swinging breeze.

A slightly shorter course than previous weeks was set, with the option to shorten the number of laps if the wind became unmanageable, but great sailing conditions were enjoyed by all and the Fast fleet sailed the full four laps for the first time this series. The wind was gusty and shifty as usual and there were a few capsizes but most of the 53 boats stayed out for the second race. The Asymmetrics behaved themselves this week, perhaps wanting to be ashore before the rain arrived and there were no general recalls.

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 4 - photo © Emer Berry

There were some new entries, notably the return of some enthusiastic Cadet sailors after class training the previous week, some Royal Hospital School pupils and Stephen Videlo who very successfully changed boats from his RS200 to a Laser for the week. It's good to see such a wide age range out on the water.

In all five fleets the same boat won both races, indicating that the conditions were fairly consistent all morning, but which must be something of a record.

We are now nearly halfway through the series and while the Asymmetric, Laser and Slow fleet series leaders have improved their overall advantage, the others are all very close but, as those who have sailed in this series before will be well aware, with four discards still to come anything can happen.

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 4 - photo © Emer Berry

Tim Bees' photos can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/186283532@N03/albums/72157712847629578 and there are more photos on the Alton Water Sailing Facebook page. Race and series results to date can be found on the Alton Water Frostbite Results Facebook page.

Top 3 in each fleet for week 4:

Series leaders after eight races:

Alton Water 2020 Fox's Chandlery & Anglian Water Frostbite Series - Week 4 - photo © Emer Berry