RS Elite class in the Frostie Series at Strangford Lough Yacht Club - Day 4
by Ed Cody 13 Oct 2020 08:57 BST
10 October 2020
Saturday was the penultimate date of the Stranford Lough Yacht Club Frostie Series and a further two races were sailed in a gusty North Westerly breeze. Six Elites made the start with 3 home boats joined by 2 Royal North boats and Storm, from Royal Ulster.
The start line for race 7 saw a group of boats vying for the favoured starboard end of the line. With a biased starboard beat towards a windward mark. Speedwell, helmed by Ed Cody were in a good position from the start and led the drag race towards the windward. Storm helmed by Stephen Polly were behind and closely followed by Illegal helmed by Phil Anderson. Speedwell led from the start but were closely followed by Storm who made ground on the final beat but were unable to overtake.
Race 7 results: 1st Speedwell (Ed Cody, Keith Mcpartland and Martin Mahon), 2nd Storm (Stephen Polly, John Gunning and David Kelso, 3rd Illegal (Phil Anderson, Mark Fletcher and Clive Corry)
Race 8 had a similar start and first beat with slightly less of a starboard bias than Race 7. Storm led the drag race with the rest of the fleet hot on their heels. The Elites really showed how closely matched they are leading to challenging mark roundings where all boats were looking to gain an advantage.
On the first downwind the fleet spread out across the wind. Storm unfortunately had bad luck choosing the left, Illegal and Bamboozled chose right and at the end of the leg Speedwell in the centre was 1st having benefited from slightly more breeze. The second sausage saw increased wind strength which created additional obstacles on the course as a few cruisers broached losing control..Ed Cody and crew in Speedwell again held off the series leaders Storm who were followed by Illegal. Bamboozled had a good final race of the day in 4th place ahead of Merlin and Usain Boat.
Race 8 results: 1st Speedwell (Ed Cody, Keith Mcpartland and Martin Mahon), 2nd Storm (Stephen Polly, John Gunning and David Kelso, 3rd Illegal (Phil Anderson, Mark Fletcher and Clive Corry)
We are hopeful the final day of racing will take place next Saturday subject to NI Executive rules. Storm has a fairly comfortable lead and 2nd place is tightly fought over between Illegal and Speedwell. When the discard is applied this will shake up results a little from what on the official SLYC website. Usain Boat and Bamboozled will be keen to get good results next week to move them up the ever competitive fleet.