Hamble River Sailing Club Winter Series - Week 6 Report
by Eddie Mays 12 Nov 2000 19:58 GMT
Weather relents but over-keeness in IRC 1 eliminates joint leaders from today’s race
This week Kayospruce Ltd sponsored the racing. At 0700 hrs Lee-on-Solent coastguard reported WSW winds at Force 5 – 6 and the possibility for the sportsboat racing was marginal. However the forecast was for the weather to moderate slowly during the day and therefore it was decided to race all classes. This disappointed at least one sportsboat owner who had cancelled his crew arrangements on Saturday evening. In reality the wind was much lighter than predicted and when the sun came out after lunch it turned into the best sailing day of the series so far.
In general courses were set for the Black fleet classes to take them up wind to West Knoll and then across the top of the Brambles Bank on a two sail reach before setting a combination of beats and runs to finish at either North Ryde Middle or, for the smaller boats, at West Knoll. With the spring tide this gave plenty of opportunities for tactical sailing on the long down tide runs.
IRC 1 had a general recall at the first attempt. They went to the back of the starting sequence where the Sigma 33s joined them 40 minutes later. The 2nd start for IRC 1, under a black flag led to another general recall and the elimination of four boats. Critically these included the current joint leaders Tony Mack, “McFly”, and Douglas Flynn, “Kirrribilli”. This led the way for Nick Hewson, “Team Tonic” to record another win with Robert Barr’s IMX-40 “Maverick 2” 2nd and Richard Condon’s Swan 48 “Broadsword” 3rd. Swan yachts took the first two places in IRC 2. Harry Evans sailing his Swan 44 “Alvine XII” won with Graham Deegan’s Swan 441 “Menenes” 2nd. Justin Slawson in “The Big Cheese” still leads overall after coming 3rd. The RAF team on board “Red Arrow” recorded another win in the Sigma 38 class but only by 8 seconds from Roger Lee in “Fat Chance”. The winner could come from one of six boats when discards are taken into account.
IRC 3 continues to be a fight between Edouard Wylleman and Russell Hodgson in their X-332s. Behind these two Shaun Frohlich with “Exabyte”, Ian Dawson in “Xplorer” and Andrew Webster, SJ320 “Quencher” had a close race and are also doing well in the series. In the other classes there were wins for David Murrin (IRM 1), Steph Merry (IRM 2), Tim Rees (IRC 4) and John Dudley (IRC 5). The Sigma 33 fleet managed to start at the second attempt and John Bartle, “Sloop John B”, and Peter Diamond in “Sixes & Sevens” finished 10 secs apart and just over two mins ahead of the 3rd boat, David Christie’s “Wight Spirit”.
On the White Fleet course, the Mumm 30 class was joined by Nils Razmilovic sailing “Nautilus” and he made an impressive start by winning race 1. The afternoon race was won by Robin Fielder in “Warp Factor VI” but the best performance of the day was the two 3rd places of Jonathon Money in “GBR250”. The Cork 1720s are averaging 12 boats each start and although they had a general recall in their first race and consequently were the only class to have a shortened course Stewart Hawthorn in “yachtsandyachting.com” with a 1st & 2nd is slowly building a good lead in the series. John Baxter “Optimum Risk” and John Stamp in “Jacob” are offering the best chance of an upset. Two Melges 24s, Mike Budd (“Gul”) and Edward Leask (“Racketeer”) took the honours in the 1st race but in the afternoon the Beneteau 25s of David Wilkinson (“Holy Mackerel”) and Geoff Gibbons (“e1 business”) who finished just behind Mike Budd and were 1st & 2nd on handicap.
With 28 boats racing the Hunter 707 fleet is highly competitive. The fleet, which has been prone to general recalls, got away cleanly in the morning race Robbie & Liz Robinson (Bangers & Mash) had their first win ahead of Peter Sonksen & Dick Long (Impromptu Too). The afternoon race saw a new winner with Russell Mead sailing “The Ant Hill Mob” to victory. Behind him with 1 sec separating them were Peter Sonksen and Robbie Robinson.
Results:
IRC 1 Team Tonic Nick Hewson
IRC 2 Alvine XII Harry Evans
IRC 3 Carabistoulles II Edouard Wylleman
IRC 4 Menace Tim Rees
IRC 5 Purple Haze John Dudley
Sigma 38 Red Arrow R.A.F. S.A.
Sigma 33 Sloop John B John Bartle
IRM 1 Race 1 4 walls 4 sale Tony Rayer
Race 2 2XL David Murrin
IRM 2 Race 1 & 2 Bespoke Steph Merry
Mumm 30 Race 1 Nautilus Nils Razmilovic
Race 2 Warp Factor VI Robin Fielder
Cork 1720 Race 1 Oi! W. Smith
Race 2 Yachtsandyachting.com Stewart Hawthorn
Sportsboat Race 1 Gul Mike Budd
Race 2 Holy Mackerel David Wilkinson
Hunter 707 Race 1 Bangers & Mash S. Robinson
Race 2 Ant Hill Mob Russell Mead
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