Hamble Winter Series- Week 5 Report

(Hamble, England)- The fifth week of HYS Hamble Winter Series coincided with Remembrance Sunday and the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day for World War 1. The first warning was put back until after the 11:00am two minutes silence, and Jonathan Blanchard, played the Last Post, live from the deck of his boat.

The Committee Boat set up station at 4S (Royal Southern) in 20 knots of breeze from 240 degrees and with "Yankee" flying once again. With the breeze forecast to increase, Race Officer Steve Parry decided on a two-course strategy for the day. The bigger boats in Class 1 and 2 would disappear off round the cans, whilst Class 3 and 4 would be kept close on a 1.6 mile Windward/ Leeward so that they could be shortened if the worst of the forecast came to pass.

As it turned out the smaller boats managed the three rounds of the course though with varying degrees of skill and technique, especially downwind. Windward/Leewards with their associated gybes downwind are not everybody's cup of tea in these conditions, though not many would manage tea anyway.

Up in Classes 1 & 2, there was plenty of action. The beat took the fleet to 3S (Royal Thames) where there was an interesting split. The asymmetric boats mostly gybe set, but others made ground by using the last of the East going tide with a bear away set and then gybing when meeting the West going tide on the North shore.

The second downwind leg hoists at West Ryde Middle were dramatic as they coincided with a 30–33 knot squall! The J/88's appeared to come off worst with spectacular broaches and, indeed, Tim Tolcher’s RAGING BULL suffered a MOB. Some quick thinking aboard Malice, who stood by the incident, meant that the MOB was recovered.

Further down the leg the, Mike & Susie Yates’ J/109 JAGO and Simon Perry’s J/109 JIRAFFE, were battling for 1st place and could not afford to go down to white sails only. Meanwhile, JOLLY JACK TAR, RNSA, and HOT RATS all decided to consolidate their 3rd and 4th positions and white-sailed home past a number of Class 1 & 2 kiting casualties!

In Class 1, Chaz Ivill & Paul Heyes’ J/112E DAVANTI TYRES finally lost a race, taking 2nd on corrected time.

In Class 2, loaded down with numerous J/109s, JIRAFFE held on (e.g. survived) to beat JAGO by 2 minutes and 19 seconds with JOLLY JACK TAR in 3rd.

For Class 3, David Greenhalgh’s J/92 J’RONIMO was sailed by his daughter- Libby (one of the British Sailing Team’s top women helm).  This meant that, again, David was allowed to enjoy some golfing on the Algarve last week. Though, sportingly, he made it to the bar to celebrate her success whilst mumbling on about a torn spinnaker! Hard to please Dad, isn’t it, even though she finished 2nd!

There was much praise for the Race team for both suffering the conditions and putting on a great race for everyone. Back in the clubhouse, Athena Rossi, of Force 4, presented the day prizes. No doubt, there will be some brisk business at Force 4 this week replacing broken and strained parts.  Thanks for contribution from Trevor Pountain.   Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth   For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.