Thus far, the Viking Marine Frostbite fleet have enjoyed racing on each of the Sundays of February and on Sunday past, 16^th, they enjoyed another three races in an attempt by the Race Officer to make up for all those Sundays when racing wasn’t possible. This “quest” has meant that instead of looking at marginal weather forecasts and deciding that racing might be difficult and possibly cancelling early, the decision to race or not has been left to the Sunday morning.

Yet again, the Met Eireann and XCWeather forecasts were suggesting that while the base wind strength might be “fine” the gusts might cause problems. Unfortunately, I fell asleep before the Sea Area forecast on the Saturday night, having specifically decided that it would influence my decision for Sunday.  But again, on the water, the actual wind was not as severe as I was expecting and in direction terms, we were able to run a course that extended from the western breakwater to the bandstand on the East Pier, probably the longest dimension within the harbour.  

In reality, the air temperature was probably a bigger issue than the wind strength, which meant that races would have to be turned around quickly to minimise the “standing time” between races.

In Race 1, the PY fleet made a significant contribution to this plan, unbeknownst to them, by triggering a General Recall which relegated them to the last start of the sequence. That gave the ILCA fleets the “run of the harbour” and meant that the PYs, instead of waiting for everyone else to finish and getting cold, were able to have minimal time between the end of Race 1 and the start of Race 2. It also meant that the finishing window was much shorter. A bonus all round!

In order to ensure there was one good race in the sequence, the first course was a three-lap Olympic course for all three starts. Normally, a General Recall results in the docking of a lap but in the wind conditions, it made sense to let the PYs have the full race. A select and small “straw poll” of finishers suggested that a third race would be welcome in the conditions which had started in approximately 8 knots of breeze but rose throughout the afternoon with a high (gust) of 18 knots being recorded late on.

Again, in order to minimise time between races, two 2-lap races of triangles were sailed for Races 2 and 3 and the wind also cooperated by staying in the same approximate direction – 150°- meaning that the weather mark stayed in position for the afternoon.

With three races completed in good winds, the racing was completed by 16:30 marking a good afternoon’s work!