(Hamble, Great Britain)- A brisk and chilly 12-20 knot breeze greeted
competitors in the final race of the 2016 Hamble Winter Series,
providing some great conditions for a fitting end to a close fought
series in all classes, much to the delight of the regatta hosts- the
Hamble River Sailing Club!This year's series saw an increase in entrants over 2015, and for the first time in over 10 years, the Hamble Winter Series hasn't lost a single race to bad weather. HRSC PRO Stuart Childerley summed up the series, “We have set out to provide a real mix of course types for the broad range of boat types and given something for everyone at some stage of the event. All of the Hamble River SC race team volunteers did a great job supporting the series and the HRSC house team were magnificent is revitalizing sailors after racing. Well done everyone; it's been a great winter series!!”
In
IRC 1 class, Christopher Daniel's J/122 JUNO closed out their season
nicely by taking a third in the final race. Overall, they took 8th
place with Simon Bamford’s J/111 KESTREL winning the participation award
for J/sailors, participating in every single race of the 12 race series
from October 2nd to November 27th; they took 6th for the event. In IRC2, Simon Perry's J/109 JIRAFFE won the final race, bringing them to within 2 points of overall leaders, but it wasn't enough to knock them off the top spot. JIRAFFE was followed by Chris Burleigh’s J/109 GYBE TALKIN’ in 5th and Rob Cotterill’s J/109 MOJO RISIN’ in 6th position.
In IRC3, it was David Greenhalgh and crew on the J/92 J’RONIMO that scored a bullet in the final race of the series to secure 4th overall for the series. Meanwhile, Robin Stevenson's J/92S UPSTART took a fourth in the last race, just enough to hand them first overall! Behind these two were Annie & Andy Howe’s J/97 BLACKJACK II in fifth place.
In
the J/88 fleet, class leaders, Kirsty and David Apthorp on J-DREAM,
added another bullet to their score to win the race and take first
overall. Behind them, a closely fought race for second place went to
Gavin Howe and crew on TIGRIS, who finished 20 seconds ahead of Paul
Ward's EAT SLEEP J REPEAT. This wasn't quite enough for them to stay
ahead in the overall series rankings, with ESJR sitting second overall
by one point and TIGRIS in 3rd. Rounding out the top five were Tim
Tolcher’s RAGING BULL in 4th and Paul & Marie-Claude Heys’ JENGA in
5th place.Thanks to all sponsors, competitors and volunteer race teams and helpers for a great series! Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth/ pwpictures.com and Hamo Thornycroft For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information
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