Competition heats up at the Warsash Spring Series

by Louise Nicholls on 20 Apr 2016 Peter Bateson, Series Chairman “The competition in some of the Black Group classes has really heated up now with many boats which had been leading the series in their class finding themselves in second place this week. The points are really tight between the boats and so it’s all to play for as we head into the final races of the Spring Series next weekend”.

Tom Kneen’s Sunrise (JPK1080) is now leading IRC2, with Fast-Tack Puma (Reflex 38-Fast Tack Sailing Ltd) lying in second overall.

J’Ronimo (J92 - David Greenhalgh) has overtaken Malice (Hod35 – Mike Moxley) in IRC3 with Stiletto (Beneteau First 35 – John Barrett) in third place.

Stan the Boat (Sigma 33-Toby Gorman) now leads the IRC4 class, with Erik the Red (Mustang 30 MkII – Bernard Fyans) in second place and Betty in third.

In IRC1 Jitterbug (J111 – Cornel Riklin) has maintained her overall series lead, as has Just So in the J/109 class. Jitterbug sustained some damage in an incident with another competitor and was not able to race on the Sunday. Hopefully we shall see her out next Sunday.

The weather on the south coast provided a complete reversal of racing conditions in the Solent from last week leaving competitors searching for wind on day five (Sunday 17 April) of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series.

The forecast NNW wind of 5-10 knots shifted around 105 degrees extreme to extreme, causing the first race - and in the end the only race- of the day for White Group to be AP’d as the wind had shifted dramatically to the left.

Black Group’s start area was around the eastern end of the Ryde Middle Bank with windward / leeward courses laid by inflatable marks. IRC4, which normally starts with the White Group was moved into the Black Group start area due to the light winds.

Tim Rees on Betty (Hunter 707-IRC4) talked about the day’s racing: “We had a light beat followed by two long light runs - the second run against the tide from Deloittes to the 8t removable on the Ryde middle bank being particularly slow - those boats that went hard left to avoid tide seemed to also pick up slightly better breeze, the difficult judgement being when to gybe off for the Ryde middle bank - big gybing angles”.

The White Group course was moved inshore from a start at Hamblewinterseries.com buoy to a start from Royal Southern buoy and the racing was able to finally got underway. But with the wind dying steadily competitors found themselves struggling around the windward mark because of the strong tide. Nevertheless, the racing was tight, with the three J/80’s rounding the gate mark within three boat lengths of one another.

Betty (Jon Powell) continues to lead the J/80 class with a sizeable 16-point lead over Jumblesail (Rachel and Robert Hunt) in second place, and in the SB20 class Flutter (Aron Wellbend) also has a huge lead over George Barker’s Trouble and Strife. In the J/70 class Cosmic (Patrick Liardet) is holding on as series leader but Injunction (Steve Venables) is close on her heels.

The free draws for a Helly Hansen Salt Power jacket and a Crewsaver Crewfit Pro lifejacket were won respectively by Tigris (Gavin Howe) and Sunshine (Malcolm Roberts).
Champagne and prizes were presented by Annabel Shove from Rolly Tasker Sails who have provided the winner’s champagne throughout the Series.

The Warsash Spring Series is sponsored by Helly Hansen and supported by race partners Crewsaver and Rolly Tasker Sails.

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