Bright and light for Day 4 of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series

by Louise Nicholls on 5 Apr 2017 Race Officer Peter Knight summed up day four (Sunday 02 April) of the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series as “a testing day for competitors and committee boats alike!'.

It was set to be a challenging day on the Solent; a sunny spring day but with a forecast of five to 10 knots of breeze dropping towards lunchtime and tides at about 85% of full springs.

White Group classes and IRC4 started near Royal Southern with a light Northerly breeze averaging around 350 degrees, but periodically flicking left and fading before going back to around 350 and strengthening slightly. The first two White Group races were set on an axis of about 350, but for the third race, the course had to be adjusted as the breeze trended left towards Southampton Water.

In the combined White Group Betty (J/80 -Jon Powell) has taken the lead this week with a sixth second and first on Sunday, from Jester (J/80 Mike Lewis) with a second fourth and fifth, in third place overall is Cosmic (J/70 - Patrick Liardet) who had a good day with a first, first and third. Trouble and Strife (SB20 - Radley College) is in sixth place overall and dominating the SB20 class with six straight firsts.

In IRC4 Sunday’s race was won by Silver Shamrock (Shamrock Prototype - Stuart Greenfield) with Spectrum (mod Impala - Joe Simmons) sailing a good race to come second, and Erik the Red (Mustang 30 Mk2 - Bernard Fyans) in third.

After racing Erik the Red commented “it was another day where patience was required, and care needed to avoid wind holes particularly on the downwind legs…it was an interesting course, and the decision to shorten the course at E. Bramble was a good call. Hooligan (Half Tonner - Charles Hindson) was in fact first on the water, but is awaiting an IRC rating.

Black Group classes started near East Knoll, with the wind initially about 10 knots NNE and dropping to 5 or 6 knots by midday. Courses set were a beat to Coronation, followed by round the cans courses shortened at East Bramble as the wind faded. IRC1 and IRC2 did about 12 miles on their shortened course, IRC4 about 9 miles and the remaining classes around 9.3 miles.

As the breeze dropped, cross tide runs and spinnaker reaches taxed tacticians as the puffs and lulls made calculating lay lines difficult, and noticeably at East Knoll some boats had a slog to get back to the mark against the flood tide, after getting too far east.

The course for the IRC1 and IRC2 classes was put at risk when a laid inflatable Spring Series mark was removed by 'a third party'. As Peter Bateson, Series Chairman explains” Fortunately the race committee discovered this in the nick of time and substituted a rib with an 'M' flag. The five leading boats had to sail a few extra yards, but it appears that the order of results was fortunately unaffected”.

In IRC1 Kestrel (J/111 - Simon Banford) had her first win of the series, after a string of thirds, with Jagerbomb (J/111 - Paul Griffiths) second and Night Owl 2 (MAT 12 - Julie Fawcett) third. Night Owl 2 continues her lead of the class but Kestral is biting at her heels in a close second.

In IRC2 Dusty P (Beneteau First 40 - Richard Patrick) had her first win too, pushing Sailplane (Beneteau First 40 -Rob Bottomley) into an unfamiliar second place, with Lancelot II (Beneteau First 40 - Sailing Logic) in third. Sailplane continues to lead the class overall, but Dusty P is closing the gap.

The J/88s had an individual recall, but all boats restarted correctly and the finishing order was J-Dream (David and Kirsty Apthorp) first, with Sabriel Jr (Dirk and Dianne van Beek) in second place, and Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat (Paul Ward) in third.

IRC3 also saw an individual recall; Quokka was one of the OCS boats who returned and restarted correctly which put her about three minutes late, however she managed to fight her way back to a good second place, and only missed the bullet by nine seconds on corrected time. J'Ronimo (David Greenhaigh) was first with Jumblesail 2 (Rachel and Robert Hunt) third. It was not such a great race for Scarlet Jester who came in fourth but she lies only one point away from Quokka overall.

The J/109s had some drama with the series leader Jynnan Tonnyx (Owain Franks) touching the ground near Calshot spit and sticking hard enough that she had to watch the fleet sail off and away. This left Jaygo (Mike and Susie Yates) and Jiraffe (Simon Perry) fighting it out at the front of the fleet. In the end Jiraffe took Jaygo on the final beat to win with Mojo Risin' (Rob Cotteril) in third.
Jynnan Tonnyx now lies third overall, with Jago leading the class followed by Jiraffe but with only one point between the three of them!

Nothing is set in stone in most of the classes as we head into the last two Sundays of the Spring Series, and see the start of the Crewsaver Warsash Spring Championship on Saturday eighth and Sunday 9th April continuing after Easter on 22nd and 23rd April.

The Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series is sponsored by Helly Hansen @HellyHansen #feelalive and organised and run by the Warsash Sailing Club. Photos of the racing are available from Close Hauled Photography.

Leading the Series by class:
IRC1 Night Owl 2 – Julie Fawcett
IRC2 Sailplane - Rob Bottomley
IRC3 Quokka – James Crew and Peter Rutter
IRC4 Silver Shamrock – Stuart Greenfield
J/109 Jago – Mike and Susie Yates
J/88 J-Dream – David and Kirsty Apthorp
Combined White Group - Betty -Jon Powell
J/70 Offbeat – David Mcleman
J/80 Betty - Jon Powell
SB20 Trouble and Strife – Radley College