There was no lack of breeze at the 2012 NAs, surely one of the windiest if not THE windiest championship in Frosty history.  I was pretty impressed that everyone's boats held together, for the most part.  I broke a deck brace dowel and an outhaul purchase, Hans broke a mast, but I think that was it.  I was sure Eli's rigging would explode, but surprise it didn't.  Hans even had the stiffener dowel, but the metal must have already had some fatigue or stress hardening.  Moral of that story, check your mast and probably best to remove the stiffener in the off season and flush mast with fresh water so there's no trapped water and corrosion.

I had a bad start in the first race, watching Eli pretty much port tack the fleet on a heavily pin favored line and go on to win.  Then in #2 I was set up perfectly at the barge, a nice hole to leeward...at the gun I hit the aft rail to hike hard...I sat on aforementioned deck brace dowel which snapped, my butt went into the transom, the boat did a wheelie, and sunk quickly.  Flying Fish is not self rightable so a DNF in that one, and I was kinda convinced I was out the running for this years' event.

In a very competitive fleet like Frosty Fleet 9 has grown to become, you don't have to win every race to win the event, and you surely can't expect to.  But with consistency and top-quarter finishes you can end up doing just fine especially with a throwout.  So my goal for the rest of the Saturday was to be in the top five in each race and sure enough that worked.

Sunday's weather seemed even windier in the puffs, but lighter in the holes.  The pattern seemed to be to stay middle-right, be on Starboard when the breeze was on and when it shut down or got strange tack to port to await the next band to tack onto on starboard.  With current coming predominantly down the course both days, it was crucial to have power and speed off the line, and you could push the start a bit due to the sag.  Downwind happened quickly and the "up in lull, down in puff" worked well and even got the boat surfing in big puffs.  My goal Sunday was of course go fast but covering Eli part of the game as only two points separated us after Saturday.  Races 14 and 15 got really weird, huge holes in a fluky breeze, and I did not adjust well.  Shifting gears smoothly and quickly is essential in a Frosty, and Jim had that covered with two bullets in 14 and 15.

I actually learned a lot about Frosties in breeze, even after 20 years sailing the boat I've not had the opportunity to put theory into practice two days in a row.  Frosties can surely point, due to the high aspect daggerboard, but they can't point along with VMG without speed - the boat is too light and if you're not moving forward you're moving sideways fast.  And you can't have speed without power.  The exercise then is "hunting for power" - ie footing off and hiking hard in the puffs, keep boat flat, get speed, then point... and then get more power before slowing and stalling.  In the big puffs the boat has a natural tendency to head up hard into the wind.  A few things help keep the boat flat and going fast - pre-hiking hard just before the puff, easing quickly, and torquing the bow to leeward with shoulder movement while at the same time keeping it from nosediving.  Once the power is harnessed and speed is built, then trimming hard and pointing are possible.  This is certainly contrary to bigger boat mentality which says "feather" into the wind in big puffs to depower.  Do that in a Frosty and you'll surely go slow.  Trimming hard requires a good sheeting system, I like the traveller off the corners of the transom, and a tight traveller in breeze to be able to two-block the end of the boom all the way down to deck for leech tension.  A little ratchet block, mine is aft of the db trunk, helps control and hold the sheet steady.  Micro-sized boom blocks and non-ratcheting final turning blocks I think are useless - you need a smooth and powerful system.  A light and stiff boat makes a huge difference.  I cut two pounds out of both ends of the boat this winter and I can tell the difference.  She weighs in at 37, I'd be hard pressed to trim more as the boat is 20 years old and the essentials are holding her together!

The Frosty has a remarkably high power-to-overall weight ratio.  It is a light boat and the skipper has a lot of righting power.  It has a higher power-to-weight ratio than that even of a Laser.  Thus you're able to hike the boat flat and use the sailpower effectively even in big breeze without depowering.  Frank Bethwaite's "High Performance Sailing" has a good chapter on this.  At times over the weekend I was even able to plane upwind in the big puffs, lots of fun.

Great sailing to everyone that attended the NA's, and for those that missed the event you missed a good one.  Looking forward to some summer events!

-Ross Weene