Hamble River SC Wednesday Night Series A - Day 6
by Lis Robinson 12 Jun 2014 14:54 BST
11 June 2014
Summer has clearly arrived and the lovely weather last night clearly tempted many folk out for racing after the black skies of last week. PRO Kathy Smalley took the committee boat out to a start line in the vicinity of Bald Head with a laid ODM. The tide was coming in all evening and a light but stable west to south westerly breeze led the PRO to get Hamble harbour Master permission for a kite run to the club finish line up the Hamble.
The original intention was for a windward start to Mark across Southampton Water. After picking up the shipping movements for the evening from with Southampton VTS it was decided to send the fleet on a reaching start down rather than across Southampton Water due to the concentration of shipping.
The reaching start was expected to, and indeed did,separate the men from the boys in a manner of speaking. The expected tidal advantage of starting at the ODM and running into the north shore out of the tide clearly paid although few boat took advantage of this instead jockeying for windward control. The XOD and Class 2 were the largest fleets and both starts were tight and highly competitive. X166, Swallow, (Simon Russell) held pole position in the XOD start but peaked a little too early resulting in an individual recall. Allons-y (Rich Thoroughgood) and her crew then thoroughly confused Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) coming in for his start in class 3 until Allons-y realised that they weren't class 3 and shifted out the way. In the Class 2 start Sunbow II (Andrew Quickie) made a cracking start in windward control and led the fleet into the start line but unfortunately about one metre too early for the start line and, with an individual recall, had to swing round the committee boat and go again.
It was an evening of unusual manoeuvres and Swallow led the fleet up the river to the finish with Satu (Andy Hamlett), the current series leader, in hot pursuit with the rest of the XOD fleet in a tight group at their heels. With the finish line in sight Satu sailed alongside the pontoons concentrating on keeping Swallow in their sights and hence failed to see the pipes on the pontoon which caught their main sheet and brought the boat to an abrupt halt. Whilst the ropes were quickly untangled this enabled a number of the fleet to sweep past Satu and with Swallow OCS, Sox (Mr & Mrs Simon Osgood) took 1st with La Mouette (Ken Williamson) in 2nd and Leading Wind (Hamish Calder) in 3rd. In Class 3 Cockleshell took pole position on the water and podium with Starfall (Adrian Hull) taking 2nd on handicap from Fat Hen(Steve Powell). In Class 2 Imptish (Barney Smith) got rolled by three Class 1 boats which he reckoned cost him both places in Class 2 and lost him the lead Impala position but Xtract (Dudley Stock) cruised in well ahead of the competition and Sunbow, despite their OCS return, just pipped into 3rd place by 13 seconds on handicap by Dino Volante (Vigar, North & Myden). Triarchy in Class 1 (Dr Colin Kennedy) took 1st place to hold equal second in the series with La Nef (John Noe) whose 3rd last night puts both boats only 2 places behind Wee Bear (Chudziak, Horner & Malas) who took 2nd last night. Despite the noble attempts by Satu manoeuvre of the evening for the committee went to Allons-y who approached the finish line last on the water, dropped their kite about 6 feet from the finish line and then bore off to return to their moorings, clearly unfamiliar with the position of the club finish line as set out in the SIs. Fortunately the incoming tide was just sufficient to nudge them up stream such that the transom of the boat just crossed the line backwards to get a finish.
With thirty one boats out and a club finish both Mrs Winn, (standing in for Rob Winn on the rib service), the bar staff and our caterers were flat out and the club house was packed. From the noise levels and laughter everyone had a great evening and the good news is that we get to do it all again next week. Wednesday night racing is free and only available to members but all new comers are invited to come and try an evening for free. Those looking to crew do contact the office and it has been great to see a number of new crew who recently have joined the Club. Full details on the Hamble River SC website so come and break up the week with a dose of sea air each Wednesday evening until the clocks change.
BIG WEDNESDAY is coming 25th June 2014. All new boats are invited to come out and try a race for free and to join the fleet back in the Clubhouse for supper afterwards and those members with boats who haven't made it out on the water yet - get your friends together for a fun race, spread the word and let's see if we can break our BIG WEDNESDAY record.