Superb climax to this classic spring series warm-up in England(The Solent, England- April 25-26)- There could not have been a better finale to the seventh Raymarine-
sponsored Warsash Spring Series - glorious sunshine and a decent south-easterly breeze that built gradually during the day. They were ideal conditions for close and challenging racing for the 220 boats entered. The weekend also saw the final two days' racing in the Spring Championship for "Big Boats", J/80s, J/105s and J/109s.The Black Group fleet were set long courses, using much of the central Solent, from a start line at Flying Fish buoy. John Patterson in the J/122 PANACEA had taken a healthy points lead into the day's racing and while he finished behind all the bigger boats, he was close enough to the leaders to recoup his time and take the IRC1 handicap honors. This gave him the IRC1 Series win by six points from Bill Blain's BATFISH III, a well-sailed J/133. The Big Boat class included J/133s, J/122s and other competitive IRC designs - Comet 41, Farr 52, TP52, Ker 39 and Corby 40 and new Santa Cruz 37.
The remaining Black Group one-design classes enjoyed a largely similar course. The J/109s had a general recall and were sent to the
back of the sequence but all other starts were clear. In the 19-strong J/109 class only Adam Wright's JOUSTER/ VELVET ELVIS won two races. The title went to David and Kirsty Apthorp in J-DREAM who counted no result lower than third.In the final J/105 race, Charles Rolls forsook his own J/109 BARBAROSSA to helm Andy Hill's ONLY JUST to victory by over two minutes. In the Series there was only one point between each of the top three boats: FAY-J (Paul Griffiths), VOADOR (Simon Curwen) and JAVA (Rob Dornton-Duff).
With the wind in the southeast, the White Group courses could be laid head to tail along the Meon shore. The J/80s had enjoyed some very tight racing during the Series but usually behind JOYSTICK (Vic Gregory and Rob Larke), who won 13 of the 17 races completed. Like many scorelines, this fact belies the closeness of the racing. Often victories were by a handful of seconds. The main opposition came from Charles Somerset's LOUDWATER and Ian Atkins' BOATS.COM. In the final reckoning they were a single point apart in Somerset's favour. For more news and scores see the Warsash Spring Series site.
