Sigma 33s at the Warsash Sailing Club Spring Series Overall

Counting 2 firsts and 2 seconds, Julian Spencer Smith's Jupa beat John Wright's Summation by a single point in a thrilling Warsash Spring Series for the Sigma 33 class.

In contrast to the generally gentle Hamble Winter Series that brought the 2001 season to a close, the Warsash Spring Series had plenty of puffy stuff, with the wind topping force 6 in half the races and two Sigmas assisting in rescues in other fleets. But for the withdrawal of one boat from the final race (a fair enough call given the forecast force 7), the number of entries in the series would have matched last season's seventeen.

In a taste of the close battle to follow, Jupa beat Summation by just over a minute in race 1, with the positions reversed in race 2. Martin Thompson's Bounceback took the first of two third places in the series in race 1, with Richard Butler's Boozeroo coming third in race 2. Despite mooring a lobster pot with the lazy guy hoisting the kite at the first mark and dropping to seventh, it was the turn of Tom Hayhoe and Natalie Jobling's Mithril be runner up to Jupa in race 3.

A light weather day for race 4 saw the BBC crew in Prospero lead Mithril round the first mark, only to see Boozeroo and Summation sail past when the wind filled in from behind. Boozeroo took first place, but Prospero recovered to take third from Summation. Normal order was restored in race 5 with Summation beating Jupa by a mere 44 seconds. Matthew Kelly had a purple patch in Meka II, snatching third from Mithril on the final beat.

The final race, in a character-building force 6, was Mithril's day despite her being squeezed out on the line and consequently starting behind the rest of the fleet. Boozeroo hung on to second, with John Godfrey taking third in Stickleback. Putting in their best result of the series, and showing the benefit of the previous day's class coaching session, David and Fiona Crawforth's Sigress came home fourth."

Overall Results: