IRC Solent Series day 5

by David Parr on 5 Oct 2012 The fifth race of the Solent IRC series was hosted by Portsmouth SC and the 14 boats that turned up were met with a challenging eight to ten knots breeze that slowly died away during the day but at least it was warm and sunny!

In the first race the start was all important as in all the classes the boats that got away first led around the course to the finish with very few changes of place within the fleet. Class 1 and 2 were led by Kurketrekker (First 35) finishing a clear 15 minutes ahead of Sunshine (Ker 9m), (Class1) with Aztec( Archambauld A35) and Morpheus (Dehler 36) astern. Class 3 had a much closer race with Black Diamond (Figaro) winning from Bojangles (J92) with Just Enough (J92) third. Class 4 was won by Crakajax (X95) closely followed by Crazy Horse (Mustang 30).

The second race was a more interesting affair. The course was using three marks along the Haslar wall in about six knots of wind starting at the middle mark and heading up towards Gillkicker Point where there appeared to be a little more breeze off shore which the first few boats headed for. Interestingly Sunshine headed inshore to show that the back eddy around the point had a bigger influence and the following boats followed her lead to overhaul the leaders as they desperately attempted to get back across to the shore, Kurketrekker and Aztec finished behind Sunshine. Black Diamond won, ahead of Tinker T (Elan 333) and Just Enough in Class 3. In Class 4, Crakajax took the gun from Crazy Horse and Magic (Impala 28). Being vigilant the race officer and his team finished the race early with the wind dying away completely just in time for all the boats to IRC Solent website