J/109s in the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 2
by J/109 UK Class 31 Mar 2008 14:52 BST
30 March 2008
Shiva was the early leader of the J-109 class on day two of the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series © Eddie Mays
J/109s enjoy Spring
The 14 J/109s which came to the start of the 2nd race of the 2008 Raymarine Warsash Spring Series were greeted by light winds and weak sunshine; a pleasant contrast to the first race! With the westerly wind dropping to 3 kts the race committee were forced to make a short postponement before setting the fleet off on what was intended to be a windward/leeward course zigzagging north from the Ryde Bank back up to the mainland shore.
The start saw Zelda (Michael Ewart-Smith) and Shiva (Matt Boyle) making good starts towards the pin end of the line, with Offbeat (David McLeman) winning the battle with J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp) for position at the committee boat end. On the first beat, a 30 degree shift south and increase to 8-9 kts lifted Shiva and Jahmali (Mike Wallis) up to the layline to round 1st and 2nd closely followed by Offbeat and Zelda who had both tacked away early hoping to find weaker tide on the north side of the main channel and been caught on the wrong side of the beat.
The change in direction reduced the rest of the race to a succession of tight spinnaker reaches and fetches with few place changes, and Shiva held a comfortable lead from Jahmali and looked set to win. At the penultimate mark, Hill Head, Zelda grabbed an overlap inside Offbeat to round 3rd and set off in pursuit of the leaders who were over 200m ahead on the leg to Fastnet Insurance.
With the leaders running to the shortened finish the breeze died and the race began again as the leaders were closed by the chasing pack of Beth (Guy Knight), Red Arrow (RAFSA), Just-So (David McGough), J-Dream and Johnny Blue II (Jeff Dakin). Zelda squeezed across the line in front of Jahmali, winning the second race of the series. Meanwhile, 3rd to 9th was split by less than a minute.
Race 2 Results:
1st Zelda, Michael Ewart-Smith
2nd Jahmali, Mike Wallis
3rd Offbeat, David McLeman