Raymarine Warsash Spring Series overall
by Eddie Mays 27 Apr 2004 22:45 BST
FINAL WEEKEND FOR THE RAYMARINE WARSASH SPRING SERIES AND SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS
After gales and rain, the final weekend's racing on 24th/ 25th April was crowned with sunshine and a gentle breeze, allowing the full programme of races to be completed. Viewed from the Blue Group committee boat, there were some excellent starts, competitors obviously taking to heart tough lessons learned last week. Those running books on general recalls lost out, although the removal of the committee boat guard mark could justify the awarding of a wooden spoon! The south-easterly breeze arrived around 10am on both days and whilst it never built to a true sea breeze, it peaked at about 10 knots and was sufficient to keep the boats sailing all the time.
On Saturday David Franks and Duncan Morris sailing the IC45 "Rebel" won three races in the IRM class, but it was noticeable that Glynn Williams on "Wolf" was becoming more competitive with each race. On Sunday he was first to North East Ryde Middle, the windward mark, and pulled steadily away from the rest of the combined IRC1/IRM fleet to take a win in both classes.
An even better performance was by Louis Browne on his Mumm 30 "Asterix". He managed to win six of the seven races although, having missed the first weekend, his championship result was low. The other three classes were very much closer.
Honours were fairly even in the 1720s on Saturday with Andrew and Jane McLelland's "Splash Test Dummies" outscoring the others. However, Sunday saw Darren and Georgie Brown in "Mad Cow" score two wins and a second to clinch the Spring Championship from "Twister". The Spring Series was won Ian Atkins and the crew of boats.com.
The SB3 class was new this year and tempted one competitor from as far afield as Belfast. They demonstrated clearly how helms can hit a hot vein of form. On Saturday Jeremy Hill's "3 Sad Old Blokes" continued to sail consistently well into three wins in a row. Peter Harrison in "Stress Bunny" then took over and won the last race and all three on Sunday. However, it was Jeremy who won the championship with David Cheyne in "Whirl'n Dervish" second.
In the Hunter 707s, Mark Gillett sailing "Pocket Battleship" was in a class of his own, winning nine
of the 14 races, 31 points ahead of the Royal Thames entry with John Greenland helming.
The strong east-going tide on Sunday made mark rounding difficult, with most boats overstanding to some degree. Of the few that spread out to the wings, Tony Bottomley on the Arcona 400"Arc de Mer" in IRC2 managed to make it pay. In IRC4 Giovanni Belgrano was in the enviable position of being able to discard his fifth win - a great achievement for "Whooper" a boat designed in 1939.
The Sigma classes had two races. Stephen Scholefield in the Sigma 38 "Mustigo II" found the conditions to his liking. He was another daily double which, added to his two earlier wins, gave another perfect score. In the Sigma 33 class it was a different matter. Going into the final day's racing, David and Fiona Crawforth in "Sigress" held a 1 point lead over John Wright in "Summation". John took the morning race with David and Fiona less than a minute behind in third. But they had their revenge in the afternoon, when they built up a 2 minute lead over the fleet, but John's second place gave him the class win by a single point.
At the final weekly prizegiving, Fiona Pankhurst, Raymarine's International Marketing Communications Manager, presented the prize. There was praise from the competitors for the race management team, who, it was felt, had done an excellent job in completing all the races schedule after losing the first two weeks to bad weather. The main prizegiving takes place at Warsash Sailing Club on Friday 21st May.
Provisional results for Raymarine Warsash Spring Series 25th April 2004:
IRM Wolf Glynn Williams
IRC 1 Wolf Glynn Williams
IRC 2 Tarka Beneteau 40.7 Nick Jones
IRC 3
Race 1 Great Scot II Mills 10 Eurof Philips & Barbara Mackay
Race 2 Jammin of Poole J-110 Mike Riley
IRC 4
Race 1 Whooper Giles 1939 Giovanni Belgrano
Race 2 Whooper Giles 1939 Giovanni Belgrano
Bowsprit Jeromino J-109 Jonathon & Lisa Goring
Sigma 38
Race 1 Mustigo II Steven Scholefield
Race 2 Mustigo II Steven Scholefield
Sigma 33
Race 1 Summation John Wright
Race 2 Sigress David & Fiona Crawforth
Mumm 30
Race 1 Asterix Louis Browne
Race 2 Asterix Louis Browne
Race 3 Asterix Louis Browne
Cork 1720
Race 1 Mad Cow Darren & Georgie Baker
Race 2 Boats.com Ian Atkins
Race 3 Mad Cow Darren & Georgie Baker
Laser SB3
Race 1 Stress Bunny Peter Harrison
Race 2 Wee Jamarama Stewart Hawthorn
Race 3 Musto Glenn Bourke
Hunter 707
Race 1 Pocket Battleship Mark Gillett
Race 2 Pocket Battleship Mark Gillett
Race 3 The Sweeney Charles Whelan & Phil Green
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