TYCO Healthcare Hamble Winter Series 2004 - Day 3

Simon Law & Chris Eddy's 707 'Sword' Racing in the Hamble Winter Series © Eddie Mays

Peter Rutter's Elan 37 'Quokka' has won all three races so far in the Hamble Winter Series © Eddie Mays

Sponsored by Lewmar (Hardware for the deck)

I believe I learnt two things this weekend. Firstly, weather forecasting is a lot more accurate than it used to be. As predicted the gales moderated overnight. There were sunny patches and a good sailing breeze during the day and as I got home at 1700 it rained heavily and blew old boots all evening. (Well done! Aberdeen!).

Secondly I believe that it is time for the various bodies world wide to get the new ‘Grand Prix’ rule sorted out. The few people who are sailing IRM boats regularly are doing it for the love of it. The 2nd IRM race yesterday is a good example. After 63 minutes racing Nick & Anne Haigh’s Farr 40 ‘Too Steamy’ beat Nick Hartshorn & Hannah Harwood’s Ker 11.3 ‘El Gringo’ by ten seconds and because they have the same rating that was the winning margin as well. However the class has five Farr 40s & three Ker 11.3s from an entry list of ten boats. There is currently no incentive for new designs to take the group onward & upwards. I think the last new design was way back at the beginning. It would appear that the stagnation of the Grand Prix concept has led to various one-designs using IRM to compete against each other.

That is enough of putting the world to rights. With the Black Group startline in the vicinity of Fastnet Insurance the first windward mark for most classes was Air Canada. It was the competitive edge in IRC 1 that caused their General Recall rather than the West going tide. They went to the back of the sequence, had another General Recall, under an ‘I’ flag, and only got away, under a black flag, on a shortened course after the IRM class had started their second race. Adding insult to injury the crew on ‘Euphorix’ broke their kicker just before the valid start and they ost valuable time and speed before they could rig a working substitute. Russell Hodgson, Deliverance II’, has produced three 2nd places so far. This week Jerry Otter, ‘Exabyte 2’ had the edge but only by 13 secs on corrected time and he leads the class by one point.

Having won the first two races in IRC 2 Peter Rutter gave the other a head start this week. He and Derek Blanke, Bavaria 35 Match ‘Eric the Barbarian’, were too early for the start. Peter returned and restarted near the committee boat. He then took ‘Quokka’ off to the right hand side, away from the rest of the fleet, and reached the first mark in 4th place. They gained further ground on the leaders on the long reach across to North Ryde Middle and took line honours and their third victory by the line. Of the IRC 2 and X-332 classes only one boat in each tried to fly their spinnaker at the start of this leg and they struggled. In comparison most of the Sigma 38s, the next class to start, managed successfully to three sail this reach.

Over on the White Group course there were the usual scattering of General Recalls. In the morning only the 1720s got away on time. The Laser SB3 suffered three OCS calls and there was talk afterwards that going up the first beat there was a coming together of mast tops on different tacks but I haven’t been able to identify who was concerned. The R.A.F. team, ‘Synchro’ built up a minute lead over Christina Summerhayes, ‘Curlies’ with Daniel Geoghegan, ‘Blonde Ambition’ only five seconds adrift in 3rd. Geoghegan featured prominently in the afternoon race. He held a five boat length around the spreader mark on the last lap. A poor spinnaker hoist gave Nigel Olive-Smith & Matt Johnston on board ‘Spank’ a chance to make up the gap and by getting an inside berth at the bottom mark they went on to record a 20 sec. win. The Sportsboat Rules class has included two of the new RYA J-80s. This week RYA 2 was sailed to victory in the morning by Matt Greenfield. After lunch Nick Cherry took the helm and won by an even bigger margin. There was a shock for the Club’s Commodore, who was acting as finishing Race Officer for the Group on board his own boat. Having put fenders all down the port side, nearest the ODM, he didn’t expect to be ‘nudged’ by the 707 ‘Sword’ on the starboard side as they attempted to lower their spinnaker after finishing.

Week 3 winners:

www.hamblewinterseries.com