Hamble Winter Series 2nd weekend

by Jonty Sherwill

The Garmin Hamble Winter Series remains on track after two more days of good sailing conditions in the Solent. With bright sunshine and a 10-15 knot westerly breeze on Saturday, four opening races were run in the Autumn Championships for J109, J80 and Laser SB3s. By contrast, racing on Sunday for all classes was held under cloudy skies but with more breeze, building to over 20 knots by midday.

Once a bonanza event for the Laser SB3 class, this year's Autumn Championships attracted just 22 boats, along with ten J109's and seven J80's. This modest fleet did however enjoy the best of the weekend weather, and the J's added an afternoon debrief session at the HRSC clubhouse.  

Black Group PRO Jamie Wilkinson decided that conditions on Sunday were not ideal for a two race schedule and courses for single races of up to 18 miles were set for the IRC classes. In IRC Zero 'Tangent Minus 1' and the Swan 65 'Desperado' made their first appearances of the series scoring 1st and 3rd respectively, while in IRC1 'Premier Flair' returned to more usual form with a two minute win over the consistent Reflex 38 'Puma Logic'. IRC 2 is currently led by three of the larger boats, with the Bateson's 'Starspray' picking up her second race win.

The one-design action is tight; in the J105s 'Jeopardy' beat 'Fay-J' by 23 seconds and in the Sigma 38's 'With Alacrity' pipped 'Rapscallion' by just ten seconds, (and also won IRC3). Meanwhile in the J109s 'J-Dream' is beginning to look unassailable with three wins in the main series, plus a comfortable overall victory in the Autumn Championship. 

Sunday's White Group classes, run by PRO Rob Lamb, saw around 5 knots less breeze in their location nearer the shore. All three races went off as programmed, at times assisted by the Black Flag, and this also completed the full seven race Autumn Championship series for the J80s and SB3s. Thor Askeland's 'Elle Sappelle' managed three wins to take the J80 class from Ian Atkins 'Boats.Com', while in a typically high scoring SB3 series Mark Richards 'Por Vela' won the class with 29 points including just one race win.      

Next weekend (17/18th Oct.) sees the the conclusion of the Hamble Big Boat Series, with more Winter Series racing on Sunday.

Full details of the 2009 Garmin Hamble Winter Series is available at www.garminhamblewinterseries.co.uk

Garmin Hamble Winter Series – Day 2 Results:

White Fleet Race Winners:

Laser SB3
Races 1 & 3, In Your Pocket' Andrew and David Oddie
Race 2, ‘Chill Pill’ Nick Elder & Scott Graham 

J/80
Race 1, 'Oil!’ John Cooper
Race 2 & 3, 'Elle Sappelle' 'Thor Askeland

SBR Sportsboats
Races 1 and 2, 'Coriace 2' 3D Nexus Ltd
Race 3, ‘X-Static' Tom Grigsby

Black Fleet Race Winners:

IRC 0
'Tangent Minus 1'  Mr. & Mrs. P. Aisher
IRC 1
'Premier Flair'  Jim Macgregor
IRC 2
‘Starspray’ Bateson Family
IRC 3
'With Alacrity’ Chris & Vanessa Charles
IRC 4
'Alexa' Mark Allerton
J/105
'Jeopardy' Richard Watney
J/109
'J Dream' David & Kirsty Athorp