(Warsash, England)- Competitors in the opening races of the Brooks
Macdonald Warsash Spring Series were undeterred by the heavy grey sky
and chilly wind in the Solent on Sunday 15 March 2015.12-18 knots of breeze, with just the occasional 20 knot gust, from the ENE throughout the day provided a good breeze for competitors. The wind tracking showed a 20 degree shift cycle coming off the Meon shore which took about an hour to go from left to right, and back to left again, thereby favouring the right hand side of the courses set for the day.
Black
Group race starts were mostly held just east of the Brambles in the
middle of the Solent, with White Group starts taking place off
Titchfield Haven near Wilson Covers buoy.Series Chairman Peter Bateson commented at the end of racing, “It was a good first day of the series all round. The racing did show some early season hiccups, particularly on the downwind legs, with one spinnaker becoming a luff tape joining two corners and a few failing to come down promptly at the leeward mark! But that’s all to be expected at the start of the season!”
Dominance
was the name of the game for the White Group’s J/80 class, with BETTY
(Jon Powell) taking first place in the J/80 class with three bullets.
Second was Mike Lewis’ JESTER and third was Ali Hall’s BOYSTEROUS.Meanwhile, JUST4PLAY (Simon Cavey) took two out of the three wins in the J/70 class to lead class by one point over Nigel Evans’ LITTLE LOUISE. Currently lying third is David Mitchell’s JUMANJI.
In
IRC 1, Cornel Riklin’s J/111 JITTERBUG to second. In IRC 2 a fleet of
J/88s are racing and top dog on the first weekend was Stewart Hawthorn’s
JIFI followed by Paul Ward’s EAT SLEEP J REPEAT in second an Ivan
Trotman’s new JOJO in third. Then, in IRC 3 class, Andy Howe’s J/97
BLACKJACK II took fourth in class and was top J/97.Looking ahead to next weekend Peter’s thoughts are: “Next Sunday we’ve got big tides to contend with so we’ll be looking for the same kind of breeze as we had today but a few degrees warmer would be nice!”
Post racing competitors came together at the WSC’s clubhouse and enjoyed a warming drink thanks to race partners Rolly Tasker Sails. Greg O’Brien of race partners Crewsaver presented the champagne prizes of the day for each of the eight classes. For more Brooks MacDonald Warsash Spring Series sailing information
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