Royal Southern Yacht Club North Sails June Regatta
by Phil Riley 22 Jun 2015 12:10 BST
20-21 June 2015
The Scots have been making their presence felt south of the border recently, and so it was with the Royal Southern Yacht Club's North Sails June Regatta where Eala of Rhu took top spot in a hotly contested IRC1.
Normally based on the Clyde, Jamie McGarry and Colin Moore's co-owned Swan 45 sailed consistently through the two days of the regatta to narrowly take the win ahead of Adam Gosling's Corby 36 Yes!, a significant Solent scalp for the visitors.
'It made a great change not to be doing windward-leeward courses,' said a delighted Jamie, adding: 'It's out first regatta down here this year and it's been very good fun, really well organised and a testament to the yacht club.'
The well-honed crew on Eala had to adapt to the evolving conditions, which saw lighter 8-10 knot winds on Saturday pick-up to mid-teens during Sunday before topping out at over 20 knots at the conclusion of racing.
'Saturday suited is down to the ground as it was nice and light,' said Jamie.' It's when the boat excels and we can get powered up before anyone else because of our size. We struggled a little bit in the first race on Sunday when it was a bit windier, but we made a good call on headsail and trim in the second and we were able eke out just enough to steal the second place.'
Eala of Rhu's co-owner Colin Moore said: 'This regatta is a fantastic opener for us in the southern race circuit in the run-up to the Swan Worlds coming up in July in Cowes, so it has been perfect for us. It's been a pleasure to sail down here. Beautiful sailing and very warm and friendly in the club.'
Yes! fought back on the Sunday with two bullets, but Eala of Rhu's 2-1-3-2 scoreline saw her take IRC1, with Nick Rawbone's Beneteau 40.7 Playing Around in third.
Also visiting, though from rather closer to home and at the other end of the size spectrum, was Exposition, the winner of the Sonata Southern Area Championships, which was run as part of the regatta. With three wins in six races, Joe Cross took the title by a single point from another Poole-based Sonata, Presto.
'We had a bit of a dodgy day on Saturday,' said Joe. 'But when the breeze picked up on Sunday our performance picked up as well. We lost concentration before the last start and were at the wrong end of the line, but we managed to battle back to second and get the win.'
The 22-foot David Thomas design has proved enduringly popular, not least down the coast. Said Joe: 'It's very cheap, competitive racing, and the racing this weekend was incredibly close. There are plenty of them in Poole and they suit the harbour, but we'll definitely be back here again.'
There was close racing also in IRC2 where Roger Bowden's Dufour 40 Nifty Drifter posted two wins on the way to a narrow two point win over Robbie and Lis Robinson's First 35 Hot Rats. Julian Tickner's A35 Aztec was third.
In comparison, John Allen's X302 Antix blew the competition away, in IRC3, with four straight wins, though pursued all the way with four straight seconds, by Annie Kelly and Andy Howe's J97 Black Jack II, with David Greenhalgh's J92 J'ronimo in third.
'We've been together as a crew for 10 to 15 years, and it's great when everything comes together,' said John Allen, normally based in Whitby. 'The boat's a little hard to work in light airs, and when it's breezy we can struggle against the asymmetric boats, so we were quite lucky with the conditions which were in the middle and let us hold our handicap. A few more knots of wind and I think the J97 and J92s would have been away.'
IRC4 also saw a clean sweep, with Richard and Ursula Hollis' X95 Crakajax ahead of the Sigma 33 duo of Chaser (David Cheney) and Sibilation (Keith Greenfield).
There were straight wins too in the J80 and SB20 classes, with victory going, respectively, to John Powell's Betty and Tom Clay's Whyaduck. It wasn't quite that straightforward in the ever-competitive J70 class, but Alan Higgs' ESF Energy took an impressive five wins in six races to finish ahead of Niklas Zennstrom's Ran and Patrick Liardet's Cosmic.
The wins were shared around in the XOD fleet, with Andy Hamlett's Satu taking three and Peter Nicholson's Sunshine two. Diana Wilson's Mischief was third.
It was three wins apiece for the top two in the Six Metre British Open Championship, Andy Short's Nancy emerging the victor after Fenton Burgin's Sioma retired from the final race.
In the Cruiser Class, Graham Nixon's Magic emerged the victor ahead of Paul Waxman's Imperator and Serena Alexander's Watermark.
'The weekend was generous to us as we were expecting to struggle, being very shorthanded - three on board on Saturday and four on the Sunday - so we were conservative in the way we sailed and fortunately the wind didn't get so strong that it overpowered us' said Graham.
For full information visit www.royal-southern.co.uk