(Warsash, Southampton Water, England- April 9-10)- It was a busy
weekend for Warsash Sailing Club when Saturday racing for the Spring
Championship was added to the penultimate gathering of the Spring Series
on Sunday. On Saturday the Solent provided “champagne sailing” – a
sparkling day with a perfect sailing breeze. Sunday was a time for
patience. The weather forecast for the weekend proved very accurate,
promising quite different conditions for the two days. Saturday brought a
south-easterly 10-15 knots blowing in from the Nab Tower direction.
Overnight the high pressure built and Sunday morning saw the same blue
skies but with very little wind.The Spring Championship got off to an excellent start with testing but ideal conditions. Course setting was comparatively easy for the race officers in the steady breeze. The Black Group Spring Championship classes were divided into Big Boats 1 and 2 and J/109s. Race Officers David Greenway and Peter Bateson used laid marks to adjust the length of the beats and runs for the different classes and efficiently completed four races. Peter Knight was overseeing the sportsboat classes for J/80s with a race track set up in the entrance to Southampton Water. Again the full schedule finished just in time for everyone to be back in the clubhouse to watch the Grand National.
In Black Group the tightest competition came in BB2’s second race with Jammy Dodger (J/133 – Neil Martin) getting third by two seconds. In the J/109s Velvet Elvis and J/Dream could not be separated with identical score-lines of two wins and two second places.
In White Group, three boats opened up a small advantage in the J/80 class after their four races. Patrick Liardet (Aqua-J) led by one point from Dan Brown (Henri Lloyd Shockwave) with Tony Hanlon’s RAF team on Spitfire a further point away.
On
Sunday, the television reported that the temperature in Bournemouth was
higher than in Bermuda!! In the Solent the high pressure system
resulted in brilliant sunshine but virtually no wind. Competitors and
race officers had a long wait whilst some skippers carried out
housekeeping jobs aloft on the rig and others read the Sunday papers.
During long postponements like this it is customary for some crews to
enjoy a swim, but not usually during the Spring Series when the water
temperature is 10 degrees Celsius! It was an agonizing time for the race officers hoping for the breeze to be sustained above 5 knots and from a steady direction. The mark laying boats were constantly being sent off in readiness only to return when the fickle breeze spun round and back. Just after noon, Black Group PRO David Greenway and his team stationed near Universal Marina buoy took the brave decision to get racing underway in a very localized south-easterly gusting to 6 knots. Classes were combined into three starts with the time limit extended to two and a half hours. IRC1 were set a laid windward mark just north of the Ryde Middle Bank followed by a run to Fastnet, beat to North East Ryde Middle and three further laid marks finishing near the start.
The first start comprised IRC1 and both “Big Boat” classes. The ODM end of the line was favored by many. Two were caught out as OCS but only Neil Kipling’s J/122 JOOPSTER failed to return although she is contesting this. On the next start, for IRC2 and the J/109s, the committee boat end held the most attraction but with such a large number of boats, the fleet was spread evenly along the line by the gun. Finally, at 1250 it was the turn of IRC3 who got clean away. The breeze held whilst the boats were beating and, with a weather-going tide, everyone made the top mark in reasonable time. The bigger boats in the first race made good progress but as they started their second beat the wind was already fading and their course was shortened at the end of the next run which enabled everyone to record a valid finish.
For
the smaller boats in the second and third starts, life was more
difficult. The boats were slowing down by the windward mark and progress
was painfully slow on the run which sometimes turned into a shy
spinnaker reach to Hamble Yacht Services where the course was
shortened. Two factors were critical. Gaining clean air was vital with
so many boats sailing lower trying to gain an advantage only to find
that the wind shadows from the boats above them extended much further
than normal and the increased adverse tidal flow held them back. The
other element was to choose the correct time to gybe along the mainland
shore. Those that got it right made significant gains. For the J/109s, VELVET ELVIS winning scoreline was a 1-2-1-2-2 for 8 pts. Second was David and Kirsty Apthorp's team on J-DREAM starting to hit their stride and get a tally of a 2-1-2-1-5 for 11 pts to just lose out on the last race of the weekend. Lying third was Richard and Valerie Griffith's OUTRAJEOUS with a 3-3-5-4-3 record for 18 pts.
Amongst the Big Boats, the J/122 JINJA sailed by Ian Matthews managed to get a consistent 2-8-2-3-4 score for 19 points. Short of a regrettable "toss race" with their 8th, they sailed solidly enough to be a winner for the Spring Champs.
The fourteen boat J/80 class saw the Spring Series leader AQUA-J sailed by Patrick Liardet continue to show their winning form in the Spring Championship. With a 2-1-1-4 score for 8 pts they just nipped out Dan Brown's up and coming HENRI LLOYD SHOCKWAVE team that had a 1-3-2-3 score for 9 pts. Showing renewed vigor and aggressiveness, the Royal Air Force Team on SPITFIRE led by Tony Hanlon came out firing on all cylinders, getting a 4-2-3-1 to show strong improvement over the course of the weekend to get third with 10 pts. Fourth was fall Hamble Winter Series champion John Cooper on OI! with a 3-5-4-5 tally for 17 pts and fifth was Paul Heys and Stew Hawthorn on JUMPIN JENGA with a 6-7-5-2 score line for 20 pts. Sailing Photo Credits- Eddie Mays. For more Warsash Spring Series sailing results.
