Poole Bay Winter Series - Day 1
by Poole Bay Winter Series 9 Oct 16:23 BST
7 October 2018
Ruthless under spinnaker as the Poole Bay Winter Series kicks off in bright sunshine © Poole Bay Winter Series
The Poole Bay Winter Series kicked off on Sunday 7th October, in bright sunshine and an excellent 14 knot northerly breeze. The series is run by Parkstone Yacht Club, from their committee boat "Ron Cox", with Graham Davies as this week's excellent PRO.
The series format has been perfected over the previous few seasons and consists of two fairly short races each Sunday morning. The first committee boat start is held just inside the harbour entrance, allowing yachts a quick exit out into the iconic Poole Bay. The committee boat then motors out into the bay, finishes the first race and starts the second race. The format means that yachts do not need to motor out into the bay for the first start and with numerous marks available, excellent courses can be set, with true windward legs.
In Class 1, the Archambault A35 Amigos (Nick Fullagar & Peter Wintle) led off of the start line, with MS Amlin Enigma (MG 346, Ian Braham) in close pursuit. The yachts enjoyed a spinnaker run down the Swash channel, followed by a fetch, a long beat into the Sandbanks shore, a spinnaker reach, gybe, a tight spinnaker reach and then a beat to the finish. Amigos gradually extended her lead to finish 2 minutes clear. This was not enough once the ratings were applied and she slipped to second, with MS Amlin Enigma in first, Ruthless (Dehler 33, Sophie Pearson) in third and the J/109, Space 8 (Harry Brewer) in fourth.
Class 2, which has grown significantly in numbers over the last 2 years, were given the quicker exit into the Bay via the East Looe Channel and also enjoyed superb conditions along the Sandbanks shore. MS Amlin QT (Ecume de Mer, Keith Lovett) won the first race by just 7 seconds, from Rum Juggernaut (MGC27, Owain Peters), with Elanor (Elan 31, Chris Hawkes) in third and Pied Piper (Parker 27, Peter Taylor) in fourth.
For race 2, the order in Class 1 was reversed, with Amigos taking first, Ruthless second and MS Amlin Enigma third. In Class 2, MS Amlin QT won again, this time by a more convincing margin of one and a half minutes, with Elanor in second and Matchmaker (Contention 33, Mike Fox) in third.
The Poole Bay Winter Series runs every Sunday until 9th December.