J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH Wins IRC1
(Hamble, So'ton, England)- The sunshine continued for the second week of Warsash Sailing Club's Spring Series on 21st March but in stark contrast to week one, the breeze was often elusive and tricky. The weather forecasts varied, with wind speeds ranging from 4 to 15 knots, but in the main agreed a north-westerly was due to back to the south-west or south.The latest period of light airs had persuaded the Race Committee to shorten IRC1 at South East Ryde Middle and IRC2 at Browndown at the end of a run. There were only two finishers in IRC1 and this week's champagne went to the J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH. The courses for IRC3, J/105 and J/92s were also shortened. Bill Blain's new J/97 Batfish was the first of the IRC3 boats to escape the doldrums at the bottom mark and had established a four minute lead by the time they reached the finish.
In IRC1 the J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH put the pedal to the medal, sailed well, proving that you don't need a brand new McClaren $250,000 GBP F1 carbon sedan to dust-off your mates on the M-1 or M-25 roadways. JOLLY JELLYFISH is just one point off the overall lead over the redoubtable Niklas Zenstrom on RAN and just behind Paul Turner's purely professional team on ARTEMIS.
In IRC3, the J/97 JIKA-JIKA raced up the standings to be lying third overall just one point out of second and four points from first place. J/97 BATFISH showed everyone home by a country furlong in the one race they could complete.
For J/105s, there's an unprecedented three-way tie for first place! Roger Williams JOS OF HAMBLE, Chris Jones JOURNEYMAKER 5 and Rob Dornton-Duff's JAVA are wrapped up in a scrum for next weekend's racing!
The J/109s are all in a virtual tie for the lead with only two points separating four boats. Surprise leader this early in the series is Matt Boyle's SHIVA, just one point ahead of perennial class champ Kirsty and David Apthorp's J-DREAM. Breathing down their necks in this four-way scrum are David Mcleman's OFFBEAT and Jim Arnell's JEEZ LOUISE tied at six points apiece. Next weekend will surely move these positions around a bit?
The J/92s are having an equally good run for the money for win-place-show amongst the top competitors. The trio of Andrew, Matt and Peter Campbell sailing JAMMIN are tied for first with Dominic Horner's JEKYLL. Rory and Cathy Staunton on JAYA and Bill Howard's team racing WIZARD are just off the pace only four points back.
The J/80s as usual are having a helluva donnybrook. Scrum? Not really. Just for second place. The leader by a wide margin is Terri Palmer on JUST DO IT with twelve points after six races, a second average!! The fly-boys on TEAM SPITFIRE are tied for second with Mark Baskerville and Steve Sault racing HOOLINGKAZAN. TEAM SPITFIRE was HOT, tallying double-bullets in races 5 and 6 for the weekend-- a harbinger of things to come in this tight, competitive fleet? Time will tell. Full results Warsash Spring Sailing Series.
