Merlins at the Hamble River Sailing Club Warming Pan

Hamble Warming Pans © Malcolm Donald

The entrants to the 49th Hamble Warming Pan and first Craftinsure Silver Tiller Merlin Rocket open meeting were greeted by a beautiful, blue-skied, sunny morning that looked ready to spoil any decent wind prospects the many competitors were geared up for. After a minor postponement a nice little force 2/3 South Westerly blew in and the first raced kicked off.

Andy ‘Taxi’ Davis and Tom Pygall took the lead, pursued closely by Tom Stewart and Steve Hall as well as Simon Blake crewed by Alex Jackson, this being the trend until they thought they had finished…but were kindly informed by Blake/Jackson that they had to do another lap. This resulted in Stewart and Taxi taking first/second place, chased hard by David Hayes and Johnny Ratcliffe in third as Blake was OCS at the start. It’s a shame that Tom Stewart couldn’t capitalise on this victory and was unable to achieve the consistency of results to place higher overall as he was a strong contender for the chocolates all weekend.

Race two was conducted in a slightly weakened breeze, with increased tide, which became the dominant feature of the race as the fleet worked their way up the Hamble side between trots of moored yachts, and ran down the Warsash side out of the channel. Flag knowledge was also at a premium with some choosing to do an extra lap despite having finished. Simon Blake had upped his game sufficiently to win, Dan Alsop and Jennie King (who clearly knows their flags) coming in second, having overtaken Taxi on the last run, who was third.

Sunday morning was not so bright, yet the wind was stronger and more consistent . Race three started with a recall where 40% of the competitors were lobbed from the race, this giving Dan Alsop a race win, followed by Richard Dee and Chris Gould in second, with David Hayes and Johnny Ratcliffe gaining a third. Unfortunately for Taxi, who lead all the way round the course again, he was one of the fleet who has had to revisit his starting discipline.

The fourth and final race was won by another thought-I’d-completed-the-race-now-need to-do-another-lap scenario. It began with Taxi and Blake leading the fleet to the windward mark on every lap, where a tussle for water ensued. They get round, hotly pursued by Richard Dee, Blake is then forced to tack right whilst Taxi and Dee tack to the left. After battling for two laps they speed down to the final leeward mark on a run, and following an excellent rounding Blake now cocks it up, imagining he has to sail an extra lap, rather than sailing for the finish, and he drops back to third place. Taxi and Dee take the advantage, but Taxi extends this further to win, with Dee second.

Overall Results:

Saturday Video from Malcolm Donald