Hamble River SC Wednesday Night Series A - Day 7
by Lis Robinson 23 Jun 2014 21:25 BST
18 June 2014
A game of two halves...?
RO Kathy Smalley faced a difficult decision with wind forecasts split between SE and NW winds. With light winds forecast the decision was made to put in a number of loops on courses designed to hopefully work regardless of which breeze settled in and a start line was set just off Hamble Point. The XOD class and Class 3 had separate starts although the same course whilst Class 2 had the same course with more loops and Class 1 had their own courses. With the tide beginning to run out a number of boats came to grief on the start line. XOD13, Mischief, (Wilson, Wilson & Neale) was unfortunately returning to the start but with insufficient time to get behind the line before the gun and in Class 2 Sunbow II (Andrew Quickie) continued their new positive start line tactics but just managed to leave part of their vessel over the start line before the gun so hopefully next week will be third time lucky for them. In Class 3 Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) must have missed his regular crew as Gordon Bonney (aka Flash) hoisted the kite efficiently on the start and then threw the jib overboard!
At the first mark rounding some boats really stood out from the opposition with X166 Swallow (Simon Russell) way in the lead at Sposa having gone down to Hook and similarly Needlework (Peter & Ann Smith) had not only led her class but taken all of Class 3. Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) led Class 3 into the mark but struggled to get round as various Class 2 boats came up and took what little wind there was. Unfortunately both forecasts turned out to be correct with the SE holding further out towards the Solent and the NW holding at the start and North shore. Inevitably this led to a conflict between the two breezes and a dead zone which turned most of the classes upside down. Notable those who responded fastest to the wind changes gained whilst some unfortunates had no choice and in particular both Impalas got stuck in a dead zone with neither breeze reaching the boats until some time later.
The fleet,having run off down wind from the start then came back to the finish which was in the same areas as the start n kites following the wind shifts. The big surprises came in the XOD fleet where La Mouette X144 (Ken Williamson) took a commanding 1st place with X108 Leading Wind (Hamish Calder) in 2nd and X22Shri (Ben McGrane) in 3rd. Cockleshell led by some distance and corrected time on Forethought of Gosport (Mike James) despite Flash's continuing impression that jibs over the bow are faster. Needlework retained her lead on the water and on handicap leaving Xtract (Dudley Stock) in 2nd place and Sunbow II making an excellent comeback after their OCS in 3rd. Unfortunate the Impalas never really got back into the race and both were forced to retire only with a number of other boats from all classes. Wee Bear (Chudziak, Horner & Malas) really did fly round the course taking 1st whilst Triarchy (Dr Colin Kennedy) just grabbed 2nd place moments before time out.Those retiring were kind enough to tow a number of the XODS up river and a couple of boats virtually went skiing once Obsession picked up a few!
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.