SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23: The York regatta was held despite the weather. We had severe gales again on the Friday and forecasts of snow and all sorts of undesirable conditions. It blew its boots off throughout Friday night and continued to do so all day on Saturday. I opened the curtains on Saturday morning to be greeted by the sight of a snow-covered garden. Scotland had blizzards and reported 20 foot deep drifts in places. Here in Yorkshire there was 5 to 6 inches of snow in places, though just a dusting here. I arrived at the airfield after a windy drive and as I collected some plastic traffic cones from the yacht store to use as racing marks there was a snow storm fast approaching. For a few minutes it was white-out conditions with heavy snow and 30mph wind blowing it horizontally. That cleared quite quickly and the sun came out but it left the airfield wet for some time. At times during the day the wind dropped enough to tempt a few people out but it was never safe to race. You were going so quickly that you needed the full width of the tarmac at some of the turns so didn't want anybody else occupying any of the space. At one 90 degree turn in particular, just after a very fast reach, you had to turn downwind alongside a fence. Not for the fainthearted. We got some sailing in on the mini-yachts and Mark's GPS clocked us at 34mph down the runway, which feels a bit on the edge on a yacht that size with solid concrete under you. Eventually racing for the day was abandoned. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24: Sunday dawned frosty and it was bitterly cold to start with but warmed up as the day went on, which melted the ice that had formed overnight on puddles of rainwater. We had at most 15mph of wind but that was enough for four races in each class. The course was a beat up the runway, a short reach then run through on to the concrete apron. That was followed by a reach into the top corner of the apron, where nearby trees created gaps in the wind. Next a run that could be done in one tack but that left you in the lee of the trees so it was much quicker to put a couple of gybes in to keep clear air, finishing with a reach back to the perimeter track and the finish line. Quite quick at times and quite light at others, with the final race being run in a dying breeze. The forecast rain arrived just in time for the prizegiving. Regards to all Chris Wright K500 ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW - THE D.O.P. WADES IN: Arrived Elvington airfield as D.O.P. for our Fed Championship event on Sat 23rd Feb in blizzard conditions at 08 45, it looked hopeless, however snow was all gone by midday, but as wind was 15m/s (30 to 35mph) for the rest of the day I abandoned racing for the day at 15 30. Called for an early start Sunday at 0930 when conditions were forecast to be better. They were. Had a total of 8 races, 4 in each class on a tactical course in moderate winds, but a severe wind chill factor. Things went very smoothly, no crashes, no protests, just good tactical racing. Think every one enjoyed it. As the last race ended wind dropped to next to nothing and down came the rain. Regards Len Warren REGATTA RESULTS: CLASS 5 1 Chris Wright 2 Dave Green 3 Si Holder CLASS 3 1 Steve Borrill 2 Jon Cookson 3 John Bottomley Regards to all Chris Wright K500 [  t o p  ]  MAP of ELVINGTON, YORK, AREA   [  b a c k   t o   th e   t o p   o f   t h e   p a g e  ] BACK TO THE LINCOLNSHIRE LYC OPENING PAGE and CONTENTS