Island Double at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club
by Cathy Crawley 9 May 2012 17:43 BST
5 May 2012
Roaring Forty during the RSYC Island Double Race © Hamo Thornycroft /
www.yacht-photos.co.uk
Despite the forecast for winds touching Force 8 early in the morning and the overcast cold conditions for the British “Spring”, 82 of the 102 double handed yachts entered decided to brave it out on race day. They were rewarded with a NE wind of F5-6 reducing to F4-5 in brightening conditions as the day progressed.
The course was East about round Isle of Wight and with the 07.05 to 07.45 starts the boats had to contend with initial choppy conditions in the Solent although tide was flowing with them through the forts. The RLYC line was used and because of the fast tide across the line, most were line shy apart from Class 2 which saw 3 boats return.
The early starters had a fast reach to Bembridge where they met some of the biggest seas of the day. Some chose to stay offshore, others to gybe into Sandown Bay but neither route seemed to give a significant advantage. Some tried kites as they ran down to Dunnose in the foul tide and 20 knots of true but many opted for the more cautions option of poling out the headsail. Once round Dunnose, boats slowly hardened up for the Needles in relatively smooth seas with the tide now under them.
At the Needles Channel and Hurst the NE wind and initial foul tides were challenging with boats trying to tack in the shallows out of the tide. Inevitably a few pushed their luck a bit too far with 4 grounding on the falling tide, being left high and dry but still managing to get off some hours later. Once out of the Needles Channel, the shallower waters of the Mainland side were favoured by most for a hard beat up the western Solent to the Beaulieu before a final welcome fetch to the finish line and a welcome rest.
Richard Cashmore of Class 1 boat ‘Slingshot’ said “After a rather labourious recovery of a spinnaker wrap following an ill timed Gybe, we had an absolute blast surfing under whites at up to 14.5kts off St Kats! Thank you for organising what turned out to be a very enjoyable race!”
This was echoed by fellow competitors in Class 1, Paul & Mark Griffiths in ‘Jagerbomb’ who added “Thanks for a great race, we really enjoyed ourselves. I can hardly move today!”
Carl Wilcock of Class 4 boat ‘Aloni’ summed it up “Thanks to all for another cracking race!!”
The first boat home was the Class 3 scratch boat Michael Kleinjans and David Thomson’s “Roaring Forty 2” taking 7hrs 27min, followed by Rod Walker and Caroline Robertson’s F27 multihull “Tinkerbell” 1.5 minutes back and the Grand Soleil 43 “Jua Kali” of Dominic Hurndall a further 11 minutes down.
On handicap, in class 1 the First 35 “No Chance” of Chris Neve and Phil Lawrence obviously made the best of the chances that came her way to finish 3 minutes ahead of David Franks and Graham Sunderland’s JPK 1010 “Strait Dealer”. In third spot was Paul and Mark Griffith’s J109 “Jagerbomb”.
In class 2 the small boats came through on the tide with Paul Dunstan and Barry Byam’s Folkboat “Mandarin” first from the Ecume de Mer “QT”of Giles Redpath and Donald Wilks and the Sonata “Hobo” of Gary and Andrew Heward.
The line honours boat Roaring Forty 2 was demoted on handicap in class 3 with the handicap win being taken by the Westerly Typhoon “Squander” of Bruce Ramsay from Andy and Sarah Horwood’s Maxi 1100 “Asante” and Andy Parker and Andy White’s Bavaria 36 “ Larissa”.
In class 4 the Contessa 32 “Drumbeat” of Mark Himsworth and Roger Shapland was the clear winner from another Contessa but this time a 26; Justin Houlton and John Corlett’s “Elinor” and Cuan Marsh and Cliff Skinner’s Limbo 21 “Ex Tip”.
The multihull class handicap winner was the 2nd line honours boat “Tinkerbell” from the Dragonfly 35 “Cold Fusion Reloaded” of Tim Wilson and Richard Haynes.