FIFTEEN boats came to the startline for the third of five races in the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series held on Sunday morning in St Aubin’s Bay.

They faced fairly fresh conditions, with a 20 to 27 knot breeze from 240 degrees, a breeze that was destined to veer to the north-west and drop as the morning wore on.

The IRC Sportsboat and cruiser/racer classes were first away.

The mêlée at the start was soon sorted with the Benest/Fellowes Ker 11.3 Voodoo Doll breaking away and taking an early lead that she held to the finish, some 70 minutes later, albeit with the Sugden partnership’s IRC30 Toybox chasing hard along with the Pipon/Williams J-92 Jammin’ and the Perkins partnership’s X-332 Xtravaganza.

Happily, the course held fairly true throughout the race with only a slight clockwise shift, giving the fleet an acceptable couple of one mile beats and runs between the Vrachére and Grûne du Port buoys.

Toybox Despite leading the fleet home by some seven minutes, Voodoo Doll had to settle for fourth place after some very close racing.

The fastest boat, on corrected time, however, proved to be Allen Brown and partners’ Melges 24, The Dogs, with Jammin’ winning the cruiser/racer class by just seconds from Toybox and Xtravaganza.

After three races, Xtravaganza leads the series with eight points, ahead of Toybox and Voodoo Doll on 14 and Jammin’ on 15.

With two races to go, there’s all to play for in this very competitive class.

Seven boats turned out to race in the club handicap class.

The Jones partnership’s Farr 727 Micmac established a clear lead from the start that she held to the finish although constantly threatened by the Sigma 33s, Julian Rogers’ Canders and Andy Pitter’s Warrior.

The class sailed the same course as that set for the IRC boats but their slightly slower progress meant that they were still racing when the wind veered further to the north-west and dropped, putting the back markers at an even greater disadvantage.

Micmac, therefore, took both line honours and the race on corrected time with Canders some four minutes behind, closely followed by Warrior.

Canders leads the series with ten points ahead of Warrior on 12 and Micmac on 13.