Hamble River Wednesday Night Series - Series A race 4
by Kathy Smalley 7 Jun 2016 12:33 BST
1 June 2016
Cheeky Monkey in the Hamble River Wednesday Night Series - Series A race 4 © Kathy Smalley
With the wind forecast of northerly 14 - 25 knots it felt more like October than the first day of summer for the fourth race in the A Series at Hamble River Sailing Club. But Hamble sailors are made of hardy stuff, and 16 boats set off to the start area.
With the gusty wind forecast, the race committee sent the competitors on a long reach to gain some separation, then a good beat with a nice safe port rounding, followed by a run, another beat and then a fetch home.
The chat on the dockside was that it was far too gusty for X boats, but four of them turned up anyway and had close racing. All finished within a minute but No 2 was first, making the third winner in the class so far this Series.
In class 2 M'Enfin and Imptish had a close tussle all round the race course, and as happens in these cases it allowed Polly to overtake them both and win the class on handicap. Other regular competitors Cheeky Monkey, Vlad the Impala and Mist picked up valuable series points.
Midnight Cowboy from Class 1 turned up at the start, looked at the weather and wisely decided that 27 knots was just too much and promptly returned to the bar leaving La Nef and Light to fight it out with La Nef getting the victory. And Fritha continued their winning form in class 3.
Let's all hope for summer next week.