Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series - Day 2
by Louise Nicholls 22 Mar 2016 07:40 GMT
20 March 2016
Black Group hots up on a cold day
By the end of racing on Sunday 20 March, each Black Group class in the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series had a different a class winner to the first day of racing last week, showing there is some hot competition in the classes even if the temperature was distinctly cold.
Bar the lack of sunshine conditions were much as they had been last week with a NE to ENE breeze mostly 8-15 knots and oscillating to the right and back around 20 degrees or more throughout the day. For the second week in a row, all classes got away cleanly at the start so the recall flag has yet to be used.
Apart from IRC4, the Black Group start was on the south edge of the East Knoll bank. Courses involved a first windward leg to a laid inflatable mark inshore of Hamble Yacht Services buoy and then a series of running, reaching and windward legs between there and Cowes, finishing at East Knoll buoy. Although the tide was less strong than the previous week, wind and tidal tactics were often at a premium.
Mike Moxley's Malice (Hod35) finished seven and a half minutes ahead of J'Ronimo (J/92 David Greenhalgh) in IRC3 but it wasn't enough on handicap to stop J'Ronimo from taking the class win. Stiletto (Beneteau First 35-John Barrett) was third in class.
In IRC4 Stan the Boat (Sigma 33-Toby Gorman) saw off Erik the Red (Mustang 30 MkII-Bernard Fyans) to take first place, with Imptish (Hunter Impala-Barnaby Smith) coming in with a third place.
IRC1's Jitterbug (J/111-Cornel Riklin) took first place, with Nifty (Mark Mills King 40-Frank Roger Bowden) in second and Juno (J/122 Christopher Daniel) in third. Jitterbug and Nifty are leading the class overall. Sunrise (JPK1080-Tom Kneen) took first place in IRC2 with Xinska (X-40-Bernard Olesinski) in second and the overall class leader Fast-Tack Puma (Reflex 38-Fast Tack Sailing Ltd) in third.
Jiraffe (Simon Perry) is leading the J/109 class overall, but lost out in yesterdays race to Just So (David McGough) who took first place, Jynnan Tonnyx (Owain Franks) came in third
Racing in the White Group was tight, with the top half of the pack finishing just seconds apart bar the leaders; Jester (J/80-Mike Lewis) in race four and six, and Jenga8 (J/70-Andrew Barraclough) in race five, who both managed to pull away from the pack.
The White Group start was once again at HambleWinterSeries buoy with a combined class start for all three races.
Patrick Liardet, (Cosmic- J/70), who is leading the Combined White Group and the J/70 class said at the prizegiving: "Despite the wind shifts the start line remained square and the windward leewarcd courses worked well. Although it was a really cold day we had some good racing, particularly against Jenga8 who kept us on our toes".
Jester (Mike Lewis) won two of the three races in the J/80 class with Betty (Jon Powell) only winning one. Betty remains at the top of the leader board for the J/80 class with a seven-point lead, followed by Jumblesail (Rachel & Robert Hunt) and Aqua-j (Terence O'Neil). Jenga8 won one out of three races and is lying second overall in the J/70 class. Flutter was the only SB20 racing.
There was a good crowd back in the clubhouse after racing to collect the winners' champagne prizes and warm up with some hot food! Frank Roger Bowden (Nifty) won the Crewsaver Pro Auto lifejacket and Peter Rouse (Voodoo) the Helly Hansen Salt Power Jacket in the prize draw. To be eligible for the prize draw you need to be at the clubhouse for the prize giving.
The Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series is sponsored by Helly Hansen and supported by race partner's Crewsaver and Rolly Tasker Sails.
For the full Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series results go to www.warsashspringseries.org.uk/2016.
The Warsash Sailing Club runs the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series. The White Group Combined results are using the Warsash Handicap System which has been developed from the 2015 Championship results.
Series Leaderboard:
- IRC 1 - Jitterbug
- IRC 2 - Fast-Tack Puma
- IRC 3 - J'Ronimo
- IRC 4 - Stan the Boat
- J/109 - Jiraffe
- White Group Combined - Cosmic (J/70-Patrick Liardet)
- J/80 - Betty (Jon Powell)
- J/70 - Cosmic (Patrick Liardet)
- SB20 - Flutter (Aron Wellbend)
www.warsashspringseries.org.uk