Hunter 707 Southern Areas at Royal London Yacht Club

The Sweeney, Hunter 707 Southern Area champions © Maggie Widdop

The Sweeney, Hunter 707 Southern Area champions © Maggie Widdop

Saturday 25 June brought out the Hunter 707 fleet for their Southern Area Championships, hosted by The Royal London Yacht Club in Cowes.

Race one heralded a clean start by the fleet in a 12 knot North easterly. The Sweeney led from the first mark to the finish, with Doh! making places downwind to take second from Miss Moneypenny in third.

With much lighter breeze and the tide sweeping the fleet over, the start of race two saw a general recall. On the restart Miss Moneypenny came off the port end and was 100 yards clear ahead within the first minute, a lead that they did not relinquish. Beaver Hunter came home second and Doh! worked their way from mid fleet to take third.

Race three, held in building wind and tide saw The Sweeney first around the windward mark from Beaver Hunter and Sword. Sword parked up on the mark and Baby Beluga and Doh! sailed around the ensuing melee to make big gains.

The Sweeney continued to lead up the last beat to the finish and Miss Moneypenny worked they way through the fleet to take second, with Beaver Hunter pipping Doh! for third.

Sunday morning brought sunshine and a very shifty North easterly. The Sweeney led Doh, Beaver Hunter and Emu Excursion round the first windward mark. These four stayed out front until the next beat where Cacciatore, with excellent pointing, climbed to second.

Cacciatore continued to close the gap on The Sweeney who were dealing with a minor spinnaker drama at the leeward mark, but The Sweeney recovered enough to cover Cacciatore to get their third win with Baby Beluga finishing third.

Coming into the final race of this no discard series, The Sweeney led by six points with Miss Moneypenny, Doh and Beaver Hunter all within a point of each other.

The last race of the series was round the cans and with the building tide it was third time lucky before the fleet got away.

At the windward mark it was The Sweeney, Sword, Beaver Hunter and Miss Moneypenny. By the leeward mark it was Miss Moneypenny, Sword, The Sweeney, Emu Excursion and Darkness. Upwind The Sweeney leapfrogged Sword and Miss Moneypenny, back to first. Then it was Miss Moneypenny’s turn with superior downwind speed to pass The Sweeney and Sword.

The Sweeney rounded the last windward mark ahead of Miss Moneypenny but a poor gybe saw Miss Moneypenny go through and then on to win the race. Meanwhile a container ship drove through the middle of the fleet scattering 707's to all corners of the Solent which allowed Censored to climb to third with Sword slipped back to fourth.

In the overall standings, The Sweeney had won from Miss Moneypenny in second, then Beaver Hunter. Doh finished fourth ahead of the first of the east coast boat, Cacciatore (who had beaten over Emu Excursion on countback).

Only two points separated fifth to ninth place and with 16 boats scoring a top ten finish this was as close as they come and illustrating that the 707 fleet, in its tenth year continues to provide close competitive racing.

Overall Results:

1 The Sweeney
2 Moneypenney
3 Beaver Hunter
4 Doh!
5 Cacciatore
6 Emu Excursion
7 Darkness
8 Baby Beluga
9 Double Trouble
10 Censored

Full report and results available on www.hunter707.org.uk