Royal Southampton Yacht Club Winter Series Race 3

Weather Window Allows Short Race before storm hits South Coast

Race Officials were somewhat in a quandary the evening before as strong winds were forecast, but it seemed possible they would not arrive until Sunday afternoon. Early on Sunday morning, Race Officer Geoff Lynch obtained the latest inshore forecast, a prediction from the Met Office of force 6 to 7, even force 5 in sheltered waters such as Southampton Water. The decision was made to take the committee boat out and try to run a race lasting between an hour and hour and a half.

In the event conditions were superb, with bright sunshine and squally (and rainy!) gusts (some as high as 35 knots) but mean wind speeds of around 25 knots gave exciting racing for those brave enough to turn out.

All classes got away on time, with the multihulls first on a twelve mile course (mainly reaching given the south-westerly) that sent them down to Cathead before returning up to Dockhead and then back down Southampton Water for a Finish at Netley buoy. With the winds gusting and the reaches tight, three suffered damage, Scooby III blowing the head out of her spinnaker, Kokomo tearing her main taking out a reef, and Trivia splitting her main from luff to leech and retiring as a result. Finishing an hour and just over ten minute after starting, James Stewart in Kokomo beat Carbon Tiger (Brian Haynes) into second place by two minutes, with Simon Forbes (Scooby III) third 8 minutes later.

Class 1 were given a 10 mile course, with two beats and the rest of the course reaches of one sort or another. However only one yacht managed to set a spinnaker - Starspray, and despite a number of spinnaker collapses this obviously helped as she won the race by just over a minute from Peter Bainbridge in 'Sky Hunter'. Ed Holton in Shades of Blue II (with brand new mainsail) managed third another minute and a quarter later.

Classes 2 (IRC), 3 and 4 (Club) were given shorter courses, with the club classes having only one true beat. In class 2 the Hunter 707 'Tiger Feet' would be overtaken by the Sigma 33 'Hooligan' on the beats, but then on the reaches would surge ahead, ending with her winning the race by a minute and a half. 'Mexon' came third.

The Mini-transats bravely turned out, and like last week were given a Southampton Water course. In retrospect the course set were somewhat on the long side given they are only 6.5 metres long, and in such conditions were slow on the beats. However after nearly two hours of racing Paul Peggs on 'Blue One' won the race ahead of Peter Burch on 'Berlingo', with Simon Curwen on QDS Sampaquita retiring when one of his spreaders came away from the mast.

In class 3 conditions suited the larger and more stable yachts, with Two of Diamonds (Tony Henthorne and John Woolgar) winning by just under four minutes. Iskareen (Sigma 33) sailed by Michael Perrin came second with Peter Armitage in Cosmic Dancer V third.

Class 4 saw Roger Winkworth in his traditionally designed Vindo 29 Arabella win with a margin of four minutes. However the diminutive and narrow H-boat 'Badger' sailed by Ben James, David Gebbett and George Evans managed a very creditable second, with Martin Atchley on Empathy third.

Racing in the Winter series continues Sunday November 5th, and entrants are welcome from IRC and club based yachts and well as Multihulls and Mini-transats. Contact Cathy Crawley on 023 80 22 33 52 or email her on racing@rsyc.org.uk for more information.

Results:

Class 1
1. Starspray         Peter & Flavia Bateson
2. Sky Hunter        Peter Bainbridge
3. Shades of Blue II Ed Holton

Class 2
1. Tiger Feet        John Cooper & Ian Townend
2. Hooligan          Steve Sault
3. Mexon             Alan Baker

Class 3
1. Two of Diamonds   Jon Woolgar & Tony Henthorne
2. Iskareen          Michael Perrin
3. Cosmic Dancer V   Peter Armitage

Class 4
1. Arabella          Roger & Edward Winkworth
2. Badger            Ben, David, George and Richard
3. Empathy           Martin Atchley

Mini-Transats
1. Blue One          Paul Peggs
2. Berlingo          Peter Burch

Multihulls
1. Kokomo            James Stewart
2. Carbon Tiger      Brian Haynes
3. Scooby III        Simon Forbes