Hamble River Sailing Club Wednesday Night Series B - Day 2
by Lis Robinson 17 Jul 2014 16:16 BST
16 July 2014
Hamble Sailing Club Wednesday night series saw a classic south-westerly last night at about 10 to 15 knots despite forecasts of a dropping breeze. There was a limited range of marks with low water at 20.34 but nearly 30 boats came out to play. RO Jamie Wilkinson set up shop at Bald Head and sent the classes across to Mark, onto Coronation with loops of Cutter and Stormforce for the XODs and class 3 whilst classes 2 and 1 were sent onto Meon and then hamblewinterseries.com for class 2 and Calshot Pillar for class 1.
The committee boat volunteers lacked the expertise of Rupert Smalley in assisting the RO in anchor deployment so the start line ended up with a bit of port bias which surprisingly few boats utilised. X90 was one of the few and took a classic port hand flyer to lead the highly competitive XOD fleet across the start. These classics attract older and younger crews alike in the fleet although we understand it was one of the younger crews whose eye sight failed them in the pre start manoeuvres resulting in a close encounter with Bald Head and a few choice words!
Class 3 saw the return of beautiful Connie (Ian Stowe) whilst Ariel and Paramour (John Budges) were spotted on their first outings of the year joining the usual suspects in classes 1 and 2 respectively. The XODs saw Onward (Frits Janssen) and X10 John Butt for their first Wednesday night races. The conditions were more benign than the previous week but the gusts still led to grief for Firebird last spotted heading upwind flying a spinnaker flag after the first windward mark. Sunbow was another possible casualty when she was sighted slipping off home by Hamble Point.
The committee boat crew were kept busy with both a malfunctioning anchor and sound box which manifested themselves at the same time as the extremely busy XOD finish so apologies to those surprised by the lack or lateness of hooters! Sox (Simon & Gemma Osgood) held off Swallow (Simon Russell) to 2nd and La Mouette (Ken Williamson) in 3rd with literally seconds between each boat. Connie in Class 3 barely held off Forethought of Gosport (Mike James) on the water but did on corrected with Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) singlehanded taking third. Anne Louise (Peter Slimming) continued her winning form in Class 2 with Paramour sailing straight into 2nd and Mist (Undras & Ross Elliston) taking 3rd. Last but by no means least Class 1 saw Midnight Cowboy (Stephen Merry), recovered from her boom injury at the weekend, hit form to finish some 3 minutes on the water in front of Wee Bear who took 2nd in front of newcomer Ariel.
Next week continues the "B" Series which is broken up by the Cowes Week pursuit race. 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. All new boats are invited 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.