Saturday racing at Hamble Big Boat Series

by Eddie Mays on 23 Oct 2005 With four boats all sharing the lead after the first weekend, two weeks ago, the Level 45 class was wide open with five races due to be sailed this weekend. In the 40 ft division Tony de Mulder sailing Victric 5 held a small lead over the others. The Ker 11.3 Highlife did not race but the fleet gained Marcus Vivian's Farr 40 Cacharaza, so the fleet was all Farr 40s.

Saturday started with the wind at about 260degs and 10 knots. With high tide due after lunch the water was a little shallow for the big boats off the Hill Head shore and the Race team laid a windward / leeward course using the ODM as the bottom mark for the first round. The 45s had a clean start and immediately split into two groups of four on the first part of the beat. By the top mark Fidessa Fastwave was just ahead of Werewolf. On the run down Werewolf showed slightly better speed and had the edge round the ODM. The fleet again split into two even groups on the 2nd beat but the order stayed the same with Werewolf home half a minute before Fidessa Fastwave. In the smaller division Victric established an early lead, Too Steamy having started slowly made up ground and gained a place at bottom mark to go into third place behind Creative Play. Interestingly the winner, Victric went round the course in only 10 seconds longer than the winner Werewolf in the 45'ft class.

By the start of the second race the wind was building slightly and moving to the left and with more depth of water available another mark was dropped as the leeward mark. At the 45 ft start two boats were caught OCS. Nemo failed to return and scored badly. At the top of the first beat Shockwave rounded 1st, closely followed by Werewolf. Shockwave went right and Werewolf went left on the run and both they and John Merricks and Rebel arrived at the bottom mark in line abreast, with Shockwave on the inside. This narrow advantage was kept to the finishing line to give Shockwave her best result so far. It was another one, two, three for Victric, Creative Play and Too Steamy in the Farr 40 race.

The windward mark was moved another 10 degs to the left before the final race of the day. The 45 footers got the measure of the new line and the whole fleet went off perfectly with inches to spare. Practise makes perfect! Fidessa Fastwave gained a small advantage on the first leg, which she maintained on the run. The whole fleet spread out to both wings on this leg as the tacticians tried to find the best line downwind. Shockwave having been second at the top mark had slipped slightly to fourth by now.

There were no real gains or losses on the second beat but with the tide changing the run offered less options and by the time the fleet had got to the bottom mark Werewolf was just in front of Fidessa Fastwave, who was flying a yellow flag accepting a penalty. The wind shifted back to the right on the final leg to the finish line at Hill Head buoy and this made the beat one-sided.

At the start of the Farr 40 race a boat was called OCS. Victric, as nearest boat to the Committee boat decided, erroneously, that it must have been her and returned to the line. It wasn't her but the time she lost by the manoeuvre put her well behind the others. After the first round Creative Play managed to round the bottom mark just ahead of Farrfarina with Victric up to third. These places were maintained until the finish.

Jerry Otter's consistent results today on Werewolf have given him a healthy eight point lead with two races due tomorrow. In the smaller boats things are much tighter with Tony de Mulder's Victric only one point ahead of Fenton Burgin on Creative Play. The forecast for Sunday is for light winds and conditions could be very tricky.