Crews undeterred by damp conditions in race 1 of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series
Andrew Adams, Close Hauled Photography
Last year the first race of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series took place in unseasonably glorious sunshine, but this year entrants were faced with drizzle, mist and light winds. Not ideal conditions, however crews were undeterred and some good competitive racing was still enjoyed.
With light fair tide beats and foul tide runs, the latter were always going to a challenge, and both the White and Black Groups boats found that avoiding holes downwind was the main priority of the day.
A challenging day also for line and course setting for the committee boats, as the wind reported on Bramblenet was 7-10 knots South West but Dock Heads was reporting 7-10 knots North West – in the end North West predominated but 10 knots was rarely if ever seen.
On the White Group Race 2 had to be abandoned when the wind switched through 90 degrees or more and dropped below 3 knots – however another two races were completed and as Race Officer Peter Knight noted, the same boats were up at the front.
At the end of the days racing, the J/70 Soak Racing (Marshall King and Ian Wilson) was leading the J/70s and the combined White Group with the J/70 Jenga8 (Andrew Barraclough) in second place and Betty J/80 (Jon Powell) in third place and leading the J/80s.
In the SB20 fleet Bluejay (John Reekie) leads with Wavelength (John Cornish) in second place.
In IRC4 Erik the Red (Mustang 30 Mk2 – Bernard Fyans) consolidated on a good start to lead round the windward mark and held off the fleet to win around “a good varied course”, with the beautifully restored Silver Shamrock (Shamrock Prototype – Stuart Greenfield) in second. The IRC4 fleet was wisely shortened as the breeze slowly faded.
IRC1 was won by Jitterbug (J/111 – Cornel Riklin) with Night Owl2 (MAT 12 – Julie Fawcett) second and Kestrel (J/111 – Simon Banford) third.
In IRC2 Sailplane (Beneteau First 40 – Rob Bottomley) was first with J’Ouvert (J/1112e – Peter Symons) second and Stilletto (Beneteau First 35 – John Barrett) third. Talking to Stilletto’s foredeck in the club he said his impressions of the days racing was “poor visibility, big holes downwind and concentrating on not letting the kite collapse” – however he did pick up a bottle of champagne for his efforts in the club.
IRC3 was won by Scarlett Jester (SJ320 – Jamie Muir) with Quokka (Half Tonner – James Crew), another beautifully restored half tonner, in second place and Xcitable (X-362 Sport – Peter and Sarah Hodgkinson) in third.
The J/109s had an interesting tussle, with many place changes, but the final result was Jynnan Tonnyx (Owain Franks) first and Jago (Mike & Susie Yates)) second.
The J/88 fleet was won by Jongleur (Richard Cooper) with Eat,Sleep, J, Repeat (Paul Ward) second.
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