Tight racing in the Spring Series at the Royal Temple Yacht Club

Spinnaker start to the final race of the Spring Series at RTYC Ramsgate © Jane Mann

With the final race in the 2017 Spring Series now completed at the Royal Temple Yacht Club, Ramsgate, racing is now more competitive than it has been for many years.

With a growing fleet consisting of a 15 strong closely matched IRC Class of mainly 34 footers, and an 8 strong Cruiser class, there is the real prospect of a vintage year of racing. The weather for this series, held in the ideal racing water off Ramsgate, has been kindly for the time of year with glorious spring sunshine at times and a good range of breezes.

In IRC Classes 1 & 2, Cobra, a Beneteau 34.7 owned by Matt Green, Paul Thomas & Will Stevens, came out on top, with Slingback, a Seaquest 320 owned by Jon Barrett coming second and Kylla, a Corby 36 owned by Kym & Heather Leatt coming third.

In the IRC class there is little to choose between the top five boats in terms of performance and we have seen some real nip and tuck racing throughout the race series with seconds often determining the final results, and very little separating the leading boats at the finish. Race bullets have been shared between four boats for the seven race series and it has been the consistency of good results that has determined the overall placings.

In the Cruiser class, Daylight Robbery, a Robber Mk2 OB owned by Andy Ketteringham came out on top with Pippy, a Sun Odyssey 37 owned by John & Michelle Stoneley in second place and Maverick, an Elan 333 owned by Frank Barrett & Co in third. Once again the race bullets were shared between four of the boats, providing a real insight to the closeness of the racing. However, in the light to medium wind conditions that pre-dominated in the series it has been Daylight Robbery that has shown a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet on corrected time, and have now set themselves up as the boat to beat.

The closeness of the racing in both classes has made everyone up their game in terms of crew work. A bad sail change or wrong call tactically and several places have been lost.

The club's Offshore Series kicks off this weekend with a race from Ramsgate to Ostende, which is combined with the Royal North Sea YC of Ostende's traditional Ascension Day and Euro Regatta series to Ramsgate. Following this is the club's Summer and Evening Series, which will then be interspersed with a series of offshore races before the annual Ramsgate Week series commences on the 24th July.