Garmin Hamble Winter Series - Week 6

A frosty start on week six of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series © Beken of Cowes

Race Day sponsor, The Clothing Room

This week sorted out the sadists from the masochists. The sadists woke up Sunday morning looked at the deep frost, wished everyone else good luck and went back to bed. The masochists went to their boats, cleared the ice off the decks and went racing, just. The Northerly breeze started at about 4 kts at 0800 and then slowly built over the next couple of hours to 8-9 kts before fading to 4 kts by 1100 and then further lightening to 2 kts by 1400. All this made for technically interesting if slow racing with huge gains available for those who sailed well and equally large losses for those crews / tacticians who got it wrong.

Black Fleet:

The Committee boat having moved a couple of times finally settled near Air Canada out of the way of the worst of the tide. After an hour's postponement, to allow sufficient depth of water throughout the race area, short courses were set that gave Deck as the windward mark. The last minute commentary by the Line Officer, now a standard feature of the starting routine, kept most boats on the right side of the line but those that did go too early found it difficult to get back and a few were recorded as OCS. By the top mark the frontrunners in IRC 2 had already caught up and passed many of the IRC 1 boats. Michael Ronson's HOD35 'Carpetbagger' was the first to round just ahead of Russell Hodgson helming his Dehler 36 'Veneziani Deliverance 4'. Jim McGregor, 'Flair IV', was just ahead of Peter Rutter's 'Quokka' but on the run back they had more problems keeping the spinnaker full and 'Quokka' sailing deeper arrived at 'Seascope' in 3rd place. By now the water was getting very crowded at the mark. Boats were almost rafting at times and those that did secure an inside berth and rounded in clear air made significant gains. For the ones on the outside it often took several minutes before they had enough clear air to fill their spinnakers for the leg to Air Canada and the start of the beat back to Deck.

On a personal note I admired the temerity of the young Royal Thames helm on the Mumm 30 who squeezed passed 'Quokka' on the inside at Seascope. I think I heard some advice offered from 'Quokka' to them but I suppose that if you have given a Class 1 boat a five minute start and are ahead of them after an hour's racing that is all that is necessary. 'Flair IV' fought back well over the final legs and snatched line honours by 6 secs from 'Carpetbagger' with 'Quokka' another handful of seconds behind in 3rd. On corrected time 'Carpetbagger' took her first win over the others. With the wind starting to fade Ian Dawson took his X-332 'Glide-X' much further to the East along the northern shore for the final run back to the bottom mark. When they gybed across the channel they found that all their competitors had underestimated the strength of the west going tide and they went from an uncomfortable 4th place to record a 19 minute win, their 4th in the series. This must have been particularly cruel for Robert Peters on 'Reckless Rat'. Up to that point he had enjoyed a good lead but he dropped back to finish 5th and now lies 3rd overall behind James Crockatt's 'Jump & Shout'. With the wind dying a number of courses were shortened and a few boats decided that the extra effort to reach the finish line was too much. With two Sundays left in the series discards will be allowed after one more race and this will have a dramatic effect on the overall standings in most classes.

White Fleet:

Being nearer the north shore off the Meon coast the Sportsboats started racing soon after the scheduled time at 10:00. Even so all the classes sailed shortened courses. First blood in the 1720s went to David Greenhalgh, 'G & T', ahead of Darren & Georgie Baker's 'Mad Cow'. The positions were reversed after lunch when the Bakers won from 'G & T'. From the same morning start Robert Napier & Helen Foster sailed their J-80 'Jura' to their 2nd win in 3rd races. Unfortunately they then blotted their copybook by being OCS in the afternoon start, one of two boats thus caught. Shane Hughes, sailing the Club version of the 1720, rolled on impressively in the general Sportsboat class. He won both of the day's races and now that a discard is allowed has a perfect record of 9 wins from 10 races.

The two largest classes, the 707s and SB3s, raced on separate, parallel courses and in the morning race the 707 fleet all had very different ideas on the best way round the course, particularly on the run when the need to keep clear air was a prime consideration. By the bottom mark James Hayward sailing 'Mad Dog' was in a close tussle with Mark Gillett, 'Pocket Battleship' with several others close behind. 'Mad Dog' forced 'PB' to tack off at the start of the beat but by the top mark it was in fact Patrick Miles on 'Darkness' who rounded first ahead of Simon Law & Chris Eddy's 'Sword' with the other two dropping places. Mark Gillett has been very hard to beat this series and he sailed the fastest 2nd half of the race to win by over three minutes from 'Darkness'. Life was equally as tough in the SB3s. The Sarahs (Ayton & Webb) were the only boat caught OCS. Craig Burlton, Roger Gilbert, Neil Hardie & Nikolai Metherell (Team 'Checkmate') have got round the course quickest took an 'on-the-water' penalty and added extra points to their score leaving 'Remain Nameless' as the lowest points scoring boat.

With less tide to contend with in the afternoon the tactics were slightly simpler. In the 707s Mark Gillett took a small lead around the bottom mark first time and successfully defended it to the finish, ahead of Simon Law & Chris Eddy's 'Sword'. Now that ten races have been sailed the boats are allowed to discard their worst score and whilst Mark Gillett has a good overall lead 'Sword' is clearly 2nd in the table. Most of the place changing happened further down the fleet in the SB3s afternoon race. 'Monex', 'WKD Vodka Red' and 'Checkmate' established the first three positions and, whilst the Charlie & Alex Russell in their new boat 'Argo II' did well to finish 4th, both 'Chav My Ride' (8th) & 'Small but Steamy (OCS) lost some ground in the overall stakes.

At the HRSC clubhouse after the day's prizegiving, where Gill Richards from the day sponsors 'The Clothing Room' presented the prizes, there was a Charity Auction under the gavel of Simon Gardner, which raised over £1,400 that will be divided between the John Merricks Trust, the Hamble Inshore Rescue and the Sail 4 Cancer charity. This money is in addition to the entries fees and donations received from competitors. For all the latest news, the full results and overall tables visit the website, www.hamblewinterseries.com

Provisional Results: