(Hamble, England)- The Garmin Hamble Winter Series entered its second
half of the series on Sunday with thick fog drifting down the Hamble River in the early morning. But competitors expecting wintry conditions
were surprised by bright sunshine and a fluctuating, light and shifty
breeze that offered big gains for those who kept in phase with the
shifts.A strong west-going tide at the start made time-on-distance calls important as the classes got clean away to beat their way from near Universal Marina buoy towards Hill Head and South Coast Sailing. As the tide turned, boats rounded their leeward marks and began a long beat against the tide and in a fickle breeze up the Hill Head shoreline towards the finish at Coronation. Gains were there for the taking for those with the confidence to stand on inshore and cheat the tide – and for those with well-calibrated depth sounders.
In
IRC 0, Dr Ivan Trotman’s J/122 JOLOU continues to lead the fleet
overall with an impressive scoreline of 1-2-1-3-2-1-1-2 for a total of 8
pts over a host of top British IRC boats like a Grand Soleil 46, Mills
43 and and Arcona 430.The IRC 2 class has two J/105s sailing against a thicket of IRC optimized beasts and at the end of the day, the J/105 guys are having fun, taking their good races with the difficult ones (e.g. all beating against tides). Currently, Chris Jones' JOURNEYMAKER 5 is sailing well and lies 5th.
The largest IRC class has traditionally been the toughest one to win. This fall's IRC 3 class sailing the Winter Series is no different. A J/97 and J/92 are racing against formidable competition. At this stage, Nick & Adam Munday's J/97 INDULJENCE has a steady record of 3-1-3-2-6-2-4, dropping out of the lead due to their last three races, but lying second with 11 pts just 4 pts back. The J/92 J-RONIMO sailed by David John Taylor has sailed consistently in the top five when they are actually out sailing on the race course. To date J-RONIMO lies 8th but is only 12 pts out of 5th with a long shot at even a 3rd place given their excellent sailing performance to date and taking into account some strategic drop races (like DNC's they don't want to count).
The
J/109s were topped this week by a newcomer to this year’s series,
Richard Hinde-Smith’s TIGH SOLIUS, which beat David McLeman's OFFBEAT in
2nd and Paul Griffith's JAGERBOMB in third. So far, JAGERBOMB
continues to lead their standings with a string of top five finishes,
counting a 1-3-1-1-4-6-3 for a total of only 9 pts. David's OFFBEAT and
Owain Franks' JYNNAN TONNYX are tied for second with 14 pts apiece.
Fourth is Todd Wells on JE VANTE with 18 pts and fifth is Roger Phillips
on DESIGNSTAR. David & Kirsty Apthorp's JDREAM won another race in the J/111 class to now lead her class by just four pts, with a 2-1-2-3-3-1-1-1 scoreline for 8 pts total. French J/111 owner Cornell Riklin has been sailing like a madman, his team onboard JITTERBUG are sailing very well and have amassed a steady 1-3-1-2-2-3-3-3 for 12 pts to be within striking distance of the lead. Tony Mack's team on McFLY have sailed to a 1-1-2-2-2 in their last five races to get within striking distance of the two leaders just one point back from the French team. What is abundantly clear is that the J/111 teams are pushing each other so hard that had they been IRC handicap racing, their elapsed time finish positions would put them at or near the top of the heap in their IRC class. As usual, one-design racing forces teams to sail better, smarter, faster and make fewer mistakes than others they race against-- the results speak for themselves.
The day's sponsor was Andark, who provided prizes to the assembled crews in the HRSC clubhouse after racing. Sailors will be keeping an eye on the long-range forecast for next week to see if the warm, dry weather will put in another appearance, although the consensus in the clubhouse concluded that a little more wind would be nice. Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth- PWPictures.com For more Garmin Hamble Winter Series sailing information
