Harken Spring Series at Royal Southampton Yacht Club - Overall
by Cathy Crawley 10 May 2014 20:27 BST
After so many races had to be cancelled because of the weather in the Frostbite Series it was good to get all 10 races completed in the RSYC Harken Spring Series albeit often in extremely challenging conditions.
In Races 5 & 6 the competitors had to contend with sudden 30 knot gusts accompanied by 20 degree shifts which caught out those brave enough to fly spinnakers but the majority elected to sail the runs white sail only and it paid off.
Races 7 & 8 in contrast were sailed in light winds and sunshine but that was the exception as some of the other days were wet and drizzly or cloudy with shifty, strong winds.
In spite of all this there was some terrific racing with starts that were a credit to any fleet. Because of the conditions at times and the need to get the second race away smartly at the end of the first the Class starts were sometimes combined and course lengths set to give close finish times for both classes. Flexibility was the name of the game.
Magec, the X 362 Sport of Mike Garvey got the series off to flying start with six straight wins in a row in the RSYC Class1 which was enough to see him take the series from Clemency Williams in the J 92s Jos of Hamble. Jammin, the J 92 0f Ian Townend and John Cooper took third place.
The results for the races and the Series are IRC/RSYC dual scored so in IRC Class 3 Magec took first place with a clean sheet of wins! Domaine, the J 32 of Chris Burbridge took second place followed by Jos of Hamble in third.
In RSYC Class 2 the Series result went to the wire with Philip Procter in Storm Crow, the Hunter 707, taking the Series by one point from Magic, the Hunter Impala 28 OOD of George Beevor. They were followed in third place by Richard House in his Laser 28, Wacky Racer III.
Under IRC Class 4 scoring the results were the same as the RSYC Class 2.
So all in all a great Series with some cracking racing and conditions that tested the crews to their limit at times.
Our Sponsors, Harken, provided a generous supply of prizes for the first three placed boats in each class for every race of the series which were presented back in the RSYC Clubhouse after each day's racing and then some excellent overall Series prizes. They were most appreciated by the Competitors. Harken's sponsorship is most appreciated by RSYC and we hope that in the light of this Series that they will continue to support racing at RSYC.