(Hamble, England)- The third weekend of sailing took place last weekend
for the Hamble Winter Series, sponsored by The Bugle Hamble. The weather
was typical of the fall, with a light mist, wisps of fog, cool
temperatures and breezes in the 7-13 kts range.Nevertheless, in spite of the conditions, the hotly contested racing continued unabated with some boats beginning to consolidate their positions atop the leaderboard while others were still getting a handle on why they were seemingly signed up for the “Magical Mystery Tour” on some yellow bus that careened frenetically around the race track!
In
the Hamble Winter Series IRC 1 Class, Paul & Marie-Claude Heys’
J/112E GP DAVANTI TYRES continued to set the pace, adding a 3-1 to the
tally to be leading the fleet by one point. The next J/team is Simon
Bamford’s J/111 KESTREL sitting in 7th place. The HWS IRC 2 Class is full of J/109s, the top boat is Simon Perry’s JIRAFFE, posting three straight bullets since showing their faces on the racetrack on October 1st. While three 1sts does not create a lead, at the pace they are going, the discard races will start to kick in and they should fault towards the top of the standings; currently they sit in 3rd place. In 5th place is Tom Chatterton’s RED ARROW crew and in 6th is Roger Phillips DESIGNSTAR 2.
Currently
having a strangle-hold on the top two spots in HWS IRC 3 are Annie
& Andy Howe’s J/97 BLACKJACK II with just 9 pts in six races and in
2nd place is Robin Stevenson’s J/92S UPSTART with just 13 pts.Finally, in the HWS J/88 Class, Avia Willment’s crew on GBR 2688R are leading by an extraordinarily comfortable margin- 3 bullets and a 3rd give them 8 pts in six races. The next three teams are all very tight on points. Leading that pack is Gavin Howe’s TIGRIS with 15 pts, followed by Richard Cooper’s JONGLEUR with 16 pts, then David & Kirsty Apthorp’s J-DREAM with 18 pts. The eight-boat class is tough and they are having great sailing on the Solent! Hamble Winter Series follow on Facebook page Sailing photo credits- Hamo Thornycroft For more Spinlock Hamble Winter Series sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
|