Prima 38s at the Red Funnel Easter Regatta

by Tom Hayhoe 28 Mar 2005 22:02 BST 25-27 March 2005

Tight finish to first event of Prima inshore series

Racing within the RORC's Red Funnel Easter Regatta, the Solent Prima 38 fleet enjoyed close one design competition in the opening event of their inshore series, as well as taking 3rd and 4th places in IRC1.

In Race 1 Paul King's Serendip beat the Army Sailing Association's Longbow, by seven seconds, with Tom Hayhoe and Natalie Jobling's Mostly Harmless only seven seconds behind. Longbow won race two but there was plenty of place changing behind. Julian Bates' Born Slippy and David Riley's Closing Time were second and third on the last run before Mostly Harmless pulled ahead, leaving them stranded in massive raft up with the other IRC classes.

Day 2 saw Longbow on fine form, battling with Mostly Harmless before getting the better of the windshifts on the final beat of Race 3. But a 20% penalty for 1 minute rule infringement put her behind Mostly Harmless despite blistering upwind speed in Race 4.

Race 5 provided another comfortable win for the Army but the final race was a different story. Closing Time took the lead on the first run before losing out in a leeward mark raft-up for the second time in the weekend whilst on the second run Mostly Harmless and Serendip made the best of faltering breeze to finish first and second.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Name	Helm	Pts
1st	Longbow	Army Sailing Association	10
2nd	Mostly Harmless	Tom Hayhoe & Natalie Jobling	11
3rd	Serendip	Paul King	16
4th	Closing Time	David Riley	24
5th	Born Slippy	Julian Bates	29