Hamble River Sailing Club Wednesday Night Series B - Day 8
by Lis Robinson 4 Sep 2014 17:58 BST
3 September 2014
Out with a bang!
Well more of a whimper given the light and often non existent wind last night but, as the last race of both the series and the Wednesday night series for the year, podium positions were still undetermined in a number of classes.
As a result a high level of determination was evident. La Mouette in the XOD fleet were up at the crack of dawn to clean their bottom; both the race fleet and the committee boat crew got to their boats despite the unexpected absence of rib drivers and subsequently a number of boats fought tenaciously in the light breezes where perhaps earlier in the series they might have retired given the lure of the Clubhouse bar.
The light NE wind had not materialised as forecast and given the prevalent SE RO Jamie Wilkinson sent the fleets on a couple of loops from a start line mid way between Hamble Point and Bald Head down to Coronation for the XOD and Class 3 boats and loops up to Hamble Point and then Cats Head. Classes 1 & 2 were sent off to Cutter with loops to Catshead and back down to Coronation.
The tide was on stand and just beginning to ebb so most of the classes were fairly aggressive on the start line with individual recalls in class 2. The one exception was Class 1 who appeared to have a gentleman's agreement that no one was to be near the start at the gun!
The wind held long enough for the classes to make their windward marks and both class 3 and the XOD fleet made it round Hamble Point and back down to Bald Head with X144 La Mouette (Ken Williamson) in a commanding lead of the XOD fleet and Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) leading Class 3 but the breeze then started to die off. The RO made the sensible decision to shorten at Catshead and the leading Class 1 and Class 2 boats made it before the wind appeared to shut down.
Light (Rob Denning) led by a substantial amount over La Nef (John Noe) whilst Class 2 was an Impala double, Polly (Meakins & Cudmore) took 1st place with Imptish just taking 2nd on the water from Needlework (Peter Smith & Patrick Pymm) in 3rd place. The rest of both classes then fell foul of the time out clauses with Class 3 all abandoned and in particular Wee Bear in Class 1 missing a finishing result by a mere minute or so.
Forethought of Gosport (Mike James) took 3rd overall for the series with Fritha (Bob Allen) in 2nd and Cockleshell 1st overall in Class 3 whilst Anne Louise in Class 2 took the podium with a perfect set of first places with Needlework and Mist (Undraa & Ross Elliston) taking 2nd & 3rd respectively. Midnight Cowboy (Steph Merry) had Class 1 sewn up with out needing to race last night whilst Wee Bear had to settle for 3rd place behind La Nef.
The big excitement was in the XOD fleet. Having established such a lead La Mouette kept it all the way to the vicinity of the finish. The RO wisely decided that, as the committee boat had to stand by until time out for Classes 1 & 2, it would be cruel to deprive La Mouette of such an outstanding win when she could actually cross the line, a decision unsurprisingly praised by La Mouette back in the Clubhouse.
The refusal by both X166 Swallow (Simon Russell) and X21 Satu (Andy Hamlett) of a tow by retiring boats was equally unsurprising as the two battled it out to the end for the series win. In the end Swallow made it over the line with a minute or so to spare whilst Satu finished a minute or so the wrong side of the time out although fortunately neither boat needed to pop a torch on their numbers for the committee boat at the finish! That left Swallow as the overall winner of the "B" series with Satu in 2nd place and Calypso (John & Tim Harding) in 3rd.
Particular mention should be made of the Commodore Trevor Pountain and Robbie Robinson who turned out to solve the rib and rib crew shortage ably assisted after racing by crew off of Anne Louise along with the committee boat crew who stood by to give the XODs a memorable battle and escorted them safely home.
For those waiting before the start of the Garmin Winter Series, MDL Hamble Big Boat Series and Doyle One Design Series kick off in October then don't forget the "Threes a Crowd" on 13th September and of course Bart's Bash on 21st September - details of all these events on the web site www.hambleriversc.org.uk