Today the Ballyholme Yacht Club Icebreaker series truly lived up to its’ name. It is always a bit disconcerting to actually have to break the ice off your Laser before you go sailing. My toes and fingers were like blokes of ice before I even launched!
74 other boats, including 47 Lasers on one start line, joined in the fun. The Laser fleet were back to their usual tricks with a number blackflagged on the first start and a general recall for the rest of the fleet… and we had been behaving beautifully for the past few weeks. At least there was only 6 minutes to wait until the restart – time to do a few more warm up exercises… even the race officer joined in on the committee boat at one point!
Unfortunately not much wind joined us so it was light wind sailing for most of the afternoon. Usually when the wind is from the south like today, it pays to stick to the shoreline on the beats; however today it wasn’t so straight forward as there was more wind in the middle of the bay. I decided to head towards the shore and play the shifts – it didn’t work for me though and I ended up 11th out of 13 Radials… a bit of a come down after last weeks 1st place!
All that was left was to retire to the bar and discuss the afternoons events over a drink and a slice of Icebreaker Cake – a fantastic marble cake with chocolate icing. Not a bad consolation prize.