Thursday, December 15, 2016

Cold sailing Hamble Winter Series Finale

J/88 sailing Hamble winter series(Hamble, Great Britain)- A brisk and chilly 12-20 knot breeze greeted competitors in the final race of the 2016 Hamble Winter Series, providing some great conditions for a fitting end to a close fought series in all classes, much to the delight of the regatta hosts- the Hamble River Sailing Club!

This year's series saw an increase in entrants over 2015, and for the first time in over 10 years, the Hamble Winter Series hasn't lost a single race to bad weather. HRSC PRO Stuart Childerley summed up the series, “We have set out to provide a real mix of course types for the broad range of boat types and given something for everyone at some stage of the event. All of the Hamble River SC race team volunteers did a great job supporting the series and the HRSC house team were magnificent is revitalizing sailors after racing. Well done everyone; it's been a great winter series!!”

J/88 sailing Southampton WaterIn IRC 1 class, Christopher Daniel's J/122 JUNO closed out their season nicely by taking a third in the final race.  Overall, they took 8th place with Simon Bamford’s J/111 KESTREL winning the participation award for J/sailors, participating in every single race of the 12 race series from October 2nd to November 27th; they took 6th for the event.

In IRC2, Simon Perry's J/109 JIRAFFE won the final race, bringing them to within 2 points of overall leaders, but it wasn't enough to knock them off the top spot. JIRAFFE was followed by Chris Burleigh’s J/109 GYBE TALKIN’ in 5th and Rob Cotterill’s J/109 MOJO RISIN’ in 6th position.

In IRC3, it was David Greenhalgh and crew on the J/92 J’RONIMO that scored a bullet in the final race of the series to secure 4th overall for the series.  Meanwhile, Robin Stevenson's J/92S UPSTART took a fourth in the last race, just enough to hand them first overall!  Behind these two were Annie & Andy Howe’s J/97 BLACKJACK II in fifth place.

J/88 sailing upwind on SolentIn the J/88 fleet, class leaders, Kirsty and David Apthorp on J-DREAM, added another bullet to their score to win the race and take first overall. Behind them, a closely fought race for second place went to Gavin Howe and crew on TIGRIS, who finished 20 seconds ahead of Paul Ward's EAT SLEEP J REPEAT. This wasn't quite enough for them to stay ahead in the overall series rankings, with ESJR sitting second overall by one point and TIGRIS in 3rd.  Rounding out the top five were Tim Tolcher’s RAGING BULL in 4th and Paul & Marie-Claude Heys’ JENGA in 5th place.

Thanks to all sponsors, competitors and volunteer race teams and helpers for a great series!  Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth/ pwpictures.com and Hamo Thornycroft   For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information