Rather to the surprise of some Sunday was not, so far as the rivers were concerned, iced up.

Indeed even the dykes at Horning were relatively free, and this, combined with a decent Force 2-3 north-easterly, promised a good day's sailing despite the temperature barely reaching freezing point.

It was therefore a pity that several of the Snowflakes assumed the worst and stayed at home, but at Frostbites seven Norfolks came to the line for two closely fought races.

The first saw Ray Johnson and Wendy Bush leading for the first two of the four laps, with David and Kate Mackley and Ian Tims and Martin Devlin fighting it out for second place and the best chance of catching Johnson.

That battle only lasted until the first mark when Mackley clipped Tims tacking rounding the mark and therefore did penitential rotation, which put him temporarily at the back of the fleet.

Meanwhile Tims pressed on and ultimately caught Johnson and then preserved a slender lead to take the honours by 17 seconds, while Mackley pressed on to recover to third, half a minute adrift of Johnson but 90 seconds clear of the fourth boat. The handicap race saw Tims leading from start to finish with Sam Woodcock and Claire Ellis the nearest challengers, albeit 50 seconds behind. But after the mathematics John Clabburn and Mike Tims, third across the line, saved their time to take first place from Woodcock, who remained second, while Ian Tims had to be content with third.