J/88 Out-performs, J/97 Crushes, J-DREAM Tops 111, JUST SO Takes 109s(Hamble, England)- For the last and final round of races for the Garmin Hamble Winter Series, the standings saw little change from the weekend before. Some of the boats that had dominated throughout the series affirmed their overall leads and a few others that had their sights set on podium finishes actually managed to pull them off.
In IRC 0, David & Kirsty Apthorp’s J/111 J-DREAM continued their consistent series and maintained their solid record with a 5th this past weekend to hang on to their third overall in class as well as their gold position in the J/111 one-design class overall. Some of the spoilers to the party on the last weekend were the arrival of Cornell Riklin’s J/111 JITTERBUG and David Ballantyne’s J/122 JINGS!, each taking a 3rd and 4th respectively in the final race.
In
IRC 2, Paul Heys’s J/88 JUNGLE DRUM maintained their series position,
taking a 4th in the last race and holding onto 2nd overall— a great
performance for the J/88’s first series of races on the challenging
waters of the Solent. Louise Makin’s J/105 JOURNEYMAKER 5 sailed a very
nice, consistent series to move up the ladder to fourth overall— a
great finish for an older classic J design!Perhaps the most dominant boat in any IRC class had to be the stunning performance of Nick Munday’s J/97 INDULJENCE, fittingly closing out the series with a first to become the champion of IRC 3 Class, winning by a comfortable seven point margin. Not to be outdone by here stablemate, David Greenhalgh’s J/92s J-RONIMO, took a well-deserved second in the final heat to nail down second overall for the series! Great job by those lads! Racing up the ladder after dropping two DNC’s was Andy Howe’s J/92 BLACKJACK, snagging a fifth overall!
With
four bullets in the first six races, it was always going to be tough to
knock David McGough’s JUST SO off the top of the J/109 class podium.
They managed to close out the series with a fourth on the final day to
win by five points. Behind them it was a real battle for the balance of
the podium. Three boats ended up virtually tied after 12 races! In
the end, it was Paul Griffith’s JAGERBOMB taking a third in their last
race to win the tie-breaker on 15 pts over Owain Franks’ JYNNAN TONNYX—
much to the latter’s dismay. Winning the last race was David McLeman’s
OFFBEAT, but their late charge after a slow start to the series was not
enough to climb onto the podium, settling for fourth just one point
back! Taking fifth was Ivan Burden’s JACOBI.Finally, David & Kirsty Apthorp’s J-DREAM were leading the J/111 class after the halfway point and never looked back, taking top honors for the series. By virtue of winning the last race, Cornel Riklin’s JITTERBUG leapt into second overall while Andrew Christie’s ICARUS placed third overall in class. For sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth Pictures. For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information
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