This last Sunday, the Mercator GYC Frostbite Series started with a bang. For those hoping for a race to gently ease their way back into sailing after the Christmas festivities, this was not to be!

Conditions were severe for dinghy sailing. The average wind speed was 25 mph with gusts of 35 mph which also kicked up a large swell, as the wind blew over the tide. The crews of four high-performance boats, two Hobie Tigers, an RS 500 and an RS 300, put in an appearance, but wisely decided against setting sail and Dave Aslett in his Laser and dressed in far too early on a Sunday morning mood turned around on the slipway.

Dave Le Page ventured out with his crew in the RS 400 that he is campaigning this Series but quickly decided that conditions were not conducive for a “test drive”. This left a race fleet made up of five Lasers, helmed by Andy Bridgman, Johanna Asplund, her father, Henrik, Nick Parkes and Keith Le Page, Johanna in the 4.7 and all others in radials.

A simple sausage shaped race course was set in Belle Greve Bay. Each lap comprised one upwind leg, heading towards the harbour, and one downwind leg to Vivian race buoy, towards St Sampson. Due to the conditions, the race time was cut in half to about 25 minutes.

Henrik made the best start and held onto a narrow lead over Andy for the upwind leg. Then turning downwind it became a “white-knuckle ride” as the boats surfed down the rollers on the edge of control. The slightest mistake was punished by the boat careering out of control and capsizing on top of you - the dreaded “death roll”.

Henrik managed to keep ahead of Andy on the downwind leg until the final approach to the leeward mark where he death-rolled letting Andy past. Andy then sailed a well-controlled second lap to take the race by 30 seconds ahead of Henrik.

Johanna finished a plucky third, despite capsizing several times. Nick and Keith struggled with the conditions and opted to retire before exhaustion set in.

So, after the first race in this series, Andy had laid down a marker that he is going to be a contender for the trophy and Johanna has gained some valuable experience to take to her GBR squad training. Meanwhile, everyone else hopes for less severe weather for the next race, to be held on 30 January.