'Rain, cold, miserable' was how race officer Paul Tegerdine described Sunday's Frostbite sailing – and few, if any, would disagree.

The only bright spot was the light north-easterly which, briefly, built up to Force 2 and which provided a reasonable element of beating, despite the trees.

Ian Tims and Martin Devlin, making their first appearance, quickly established a lead after overhauling David and Kate Mackley and, although challenged, retained their advantage, while the Mackleys fell victim to one of the many moribund stretches and were passed by Ray Johnson and Andy Askew.

The handicap race saw Paul and Elise Carrington break clear to take an early lead, the best possible position, while five of the remaining six got themselves entangled in the dead patch under the Whitlingham trees. The remaining boat, sailed by Kate and David Mackley, probably did better by not recovering from a slow start until they were poised to sail through the opposition into the leading group.

Thereafter they steadily eroded Carrington's advantage and briefly passed him rounding the last mark, only to succumb to Carrington's dirty wind and slip back into second, while John and Caroline Ellis took third gun by four seconds from Johnson and Askew.

On Friday night Frostbites enjoyed their annual black tie dinner. Harmony on the river was enhanced by guest speaker David Bolton. chairman of Norwich Rowing Club, who gave an entertaining and informative review of activity on the Yare.

It was no better at Snowflakes, who suffered from the wind shadow by the clubhouse, although, once past the top of Swan reach, there was some reasonable wind which briefly hit Force 2.

On a day lacking dramatic interest, other than the fact that all five competing Yeomans gained at least one gun each, Ian Hanson and Q Stewart won the first and third Yeoman races, the first by just six seconds from Gary Ross and Stephen Dixon, who doggedly pursued them all the way round, comfortably ahead of third-placed Bernie Westgate and Andrew Fryer.

Hanson took third gun in the second race, won by Patrick Richardson and Julia Bennett, with Steve Cliffe and Chris Hanson second.

Richie Dugdale and James Dugdale each won in their Lasers in the dinghy races.