Hot Garmin Hamble Winter/ Big Boat Series

(Hamble, England- October 16-17)-  The second weekend of the 2010 Garmin Hamble Winter Series produced two more days of excellent racing in a shifting north to north-easterly breeze.  While Saturday produced tough racing for the J/109, J/80 in 10-20 knots of cool breeze, Sunday was a softer day, with sunshine and blue skies, but still with big wind shifts. The Black Group start was set up on the Ryde Bank with a long first beat across the ebbing tide to windward marks near the mainland shore. With two races scheduled and the prospect of a softening breeze, the second start sequence was underway by midday on the same start line. Although the classes starting later struggled in the now east-going tide all boats were finished by 1430.  For Sunday, the J/80 fleet was closer to the shore there was around eight knots of breeze for their first race, falling to six knots for the second. Soon afterwards the breeze fell away completely, and with two good races in the bag to conclude the Autumn Championships for these classes, White Group PRO Rob Lamb decided to call it a day and send the fleet in. 

Fourteen J/109s made it to the start this past weekend for the J/109 Winter series.  After getting their boat back in the water and tuned, it was again the J-DREAM team (David & Kirsty Apthorp) that re-asserted their ability to dig out after tough starts or windward legs, having accumulated finishes of 1-3-1-2 for 7 points to lead the Griffith's by ten.  Sailing consistently for second overall at this stage is OUTRAJEOUS (Richard & Valerie Griffith) with scores of 5-5-3-4 for 17 points.  In hot pursuit of them is OFFBEAT (David McLeman) with a 9-2-4-3 tally, showing great improvement after the first race.  Keep your eyes on the Velvet Elvis Sailing Team sailing VELVET ELVIS!  While not sailing the first weekend, their 2-1 this past weekend shows they mean business and with a few toss races later in the series, could easily be contenders for the top three.

In the Big Boat Series IRC 0 Class, the J/122s and J/133s are sailing a demanding, challenging regatta fighting the usual large current shears and wind shifts so typical of the Solent.  Ian Matthews' J/122 JINJA is sailing a strong series, lying in second place.  Jackie and Robert Dobson's J/133 JERONIMO sailed a very strong second weekend, getting three seconds to pull them up to fifth place!  Neil Martin's J/133 JAMMY DODGER is having a tough go of it, managing to get a 2-3 in the series, but are just a bit off the pace, sitting in seventh for now.

In IRC 3 Class, the J/97s continue to sail well and lead the standings.  Mike and Jamie Holmes J/97 JIKA-JIKA has now surged into the lead with a 4-1-1-3 record for 9 points.  Mike Flood's J/97 INDULJENCE lies third just one point back from second with a 2-5-4-4 score for 15 points.  Ed Holton's J/110 SHADES OF BLUE has dropped off the pace and is now in 5th with a 3-2-7-9 for 21 points.  Watch out for Bill Blain's J/97 BATFISH IV to climb the standings quickly, starting off with an 8-5 and also Richard Watney's J/97 JENGA VI getting a 5-2 last weekend.

Amongst the J/80s it's John Cooper on OI! still dominating the Winter Series with a 1-1-1-3-2 for 8 points!  Ten points behind him is Patrick Liardet on AQUA-J  with a 2-4-3-5-4 for 18 points.  Tied for third is Ian Atkins' BOATS.COM and Terry Palmer's JUST DO IT.  Ian's 3-dnf-dns-1-3 still give him 21 points to Terry's 4-2-2-6-7 for the same total.  Showing up for this past weekend was the powerhouse Team Spitfire team racing SPITFIRE to a 2-1!  At that pace, they'll be a force to reckon with in the coming weekends.   Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth Pictures    For more Garmin Hamble Winter Series results and sailing information.