Hamble River Wednesday Night Series - Early Bird Series Race 3
by Lis Robinson 16 Apr 2015 15:17 BST
15 April 2015
Although the wind was forecast to drop and veer, the breeze last night held at about 8 knot SSW with a flooding tide and a sunny evening. Race Officer Mike Dellar gave the fleet a circuit round Bald Head, Coronation and Stormforce Coaching followed by laps of Bald Head and Coronation. The race team was bolstered by latest recruit eight year old Tallulah Mackie who ably ran sound signals.
Like swallows, the first sighting of an XOD on the race course confirmed Spring is here. X13 Mischief (Wilson, Wilson & Neale) joined Class 3 under handicap. Cheeky Monkey sadly still awaits a new propeller so the Impala fleet was missing one but again fleet numbers for the Early Bird were considerably up.
Class 3 completed a clean race although Applejack (Craig Cossar & Natalie Gray) apparently suffered from a dirty bottom which put paid to the efforts of the ringer crew guesting. This put them behind Forethought of Gosport (Mike James) in 1st with Mischief in 2nd under Club handicap. Mischief took 1st under NHC but Applejack and Forethought of Gosport (Mike James) go into the last race of the early bird series in joint 1st.
Class 2 caused some excitement as Too Frank (Sam Flint & Olly Love) reached up the line to close out Dino Volante (Vigar,North & Munro) on the start with much shouting but no follow through when Dino Volante kept coming. Rumour in the Club afterwards suggested Too Frank had thought Mark to be the first buoy but their navigator was unavailable for comment and this may be a smear campaign by the opposition! Needlework (Patrick Pymm & Pater Smith) and short crewed Xtract (Dudley Stock) started down the pin end away from trouble and left the rest of the fleet scrapping.
In Class 1 La Nef (John Noe) surpassed the record set the previous week by Barney Smith and his Imptish crew for the most delayed start taking a leisurely route into the start line.
The leeward mark rounding was down tide and the committee boat perfectly positioned to watch the excitement. Various boats with no overlap sat poised to cut in if the vessel in front turned too late. Some frankly pushed their luck but La Nef showed the fleet the proper response when denied overlap by hails from Wee Bear smartly rounding on the outside whilst Needlework anticipated that Xtract short crewed might be a little slower on the drop and came from behind to tuck neatly inside on the rounding in the space available.
In Class 2 Needlework took 1st followed by Dino Volante and Polly (Meakins & Cudmore) whilst Polly took 1st in the Impala fleet and leads the series in the one design fleet. in NHC Dino Volante and Needlework swapped places for the evening. Although not the fastest boat the Impala Uproar appears to be going for best party boat on the water! In Class 1 Midnight Cowboy (Stephanie Merry) took 1st in both club handicap and NHC whist La Nef took 2nd and Wee Bear 3rd under Club Class and swapped under NHC.
The clubhouse again was packed this time for a good BBQ by Phillippa Pountain & Chris Exton. It was good to see a couple of new Club applicants in the Club and to meet some of the more recent members. Racing continues next week and is free for all members of Hamble River Sailing Club with annual membership costing less than many other series entry fees. New members are welcome to come and try out an evening race for free and details of the full activities, training courses and events of the Club are on the Hamble River SC website. Of particular note is an Open Meeting to anyone interested in the Club this Saturday 18th April at 19.00.