Andy Prior was crowned Welland Yacht Club’s Frostbite champion by the barest of margins after he and Tom Bell bossed its Boxing Day season finale.
Persistent rain and a strong breeze didn’t put off the five crews that attended Welland Yacht Club’s Brass Monkey race which doubled as the last of Frostbite series.
Prior and Bell, sailing a Wayfarer, got the best start and were soon around the windward mark with Andy Agar in his OK and Alan Cox in his Laser Radial close behind.
Next came Alistair Mitchell while Gerri van Haren had struggled to get his Phantom dinghy off the bank in the strong onshore breeze and was a long way behind
Unusually the wind direction was south, south east which meant it was possible for most boats to get around the course without having to put a tack in allowing a long two lap course.
Despite this, Prior and Bell were able to complete the race in under half an hour and led from start to finish with the wind conditions suiting the Wayfarer perfectly.
Once past Agar, Cox did manage to challenge for the lead a couple of times and although he didn’t achieve this he would only finish 21 seconds behind Prior and Bell on corrected time.
Next came Agar and then van Haren who had made up a lot of ground following his delayed start but not enough to challenge for places.
Mitchell brought up the rear but did beat van Haren once handicaps were applied.
With Prior and Bell taking the first in this race it gave Prior five points overall in the Frostbite series which matched Cox’s score exactly.
With the first count back applied it was still a tie as both boats had two first places and a second.
This meant that the second count back was applied which gave Prior the overall victory as he had the first place in the most recent race giving him victory over Cox by the smallest margin.
Third over all was Andy Agar from Paul Burton and Mark Holland joint fourth, Alistair Mitchell and Katie Follington joint fifth and Gerri van Haren sixth.
The 2020 season returns in March in what will be Welland Yacht Club’s 70th year.
Anyone wanting to find out more about sailing should contact the club via email [email protected]
