Week 3 of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series

by Eddie Mays on 25 Oct 2005 The forecast on Saturday night was for very light airs on Sunday morning and so it was good to find, as the boats left the Hamble, that in fact there was a SW'erly breeze at about 8 kts, which increased slightly at times during the racing period.

Black Fleets:
The IRC 1 start was clean and Exabyte 2 (Jerry Otter's other boat) choose a pin end start and went off to the left but Jump (Stewart Hawthorn) and most of the Prima 38s tacked on to port and went off towards Calshot. The three Mumm 30s that have entered the series have elected to race under their IRC ratings.

By the laid top mark it was one of these, Asterix (Louis Browne), who rounded just ahead of the Beneteau 44.7 Vespucci's Black Sheep (Leo Gifford). Vespucci's BS was finally overtaken by Stewart Hawthorn's J-133 Jump but Jerry Otter's IMX-40 Exabyte 2 finished close enough in 3rd to take the race on corrected time.

For the next start, IRC 2, last year's winner Quokka (Peter Rutter) also went left. Flair IV (Jim McGregor) was caught behind the line and took some time to work into clear air. By the top mark Flair IV had managed to climb through the fleet to round 4th but Quokka was well down. Martin Moody helming Quokka made steady progress for the rest of the race to finish 3rd and take 2nd place on handicap but Flair IV now has two wins to her credit.

Since the bowsprit boats were given their own class the numbers have steadily improved each year. In this series there are 27 entries so far, divided between J-105s and J-109s with Nick Douthwaite's Max Fun 35 Mad Max as the only exception. Michael Jones's J-109 Joyride was leading boat at the first mark and was never threatened and he led home the bigger boat by 90 secs. The margin of victory was even greater for Cerefe (Richard & Valerie Griffith) in the Sigma 33 class. They led from the start and built up a five minute plus lead by the finish.

White Fleet:
The Cork 1720s were the first class to start and Darren and Georgie Baker's Mad Cow pulled out a 90 sec lead on Running Guns (John Evans) to take the first race. Using a separate Committee boat for finishing enabled the race team to start their afternoon race whilst the other classes were still racing. And the roles were reversed. John Evans kept a small lead until the final tack of the last leg when he dropped the tiller and allowed the Bakers to snatch another victory. Heaven knows how many rounds of drinks he will have to buy the crew before he is forgiven!

Surprisingly, for a class that has such close racing, Mark Gillett, Pocket Battleship, managed to pull away from the rest of the 707 fleet in the first race and he was followed home by Sword (Simon Law and Chris Eddy) who had also got away from the pack behind. In the afternoon Sword went one better and took her first win of the series and the prize for best in class for the day.

In the other classes Paul and Marie-Claude Heys' entry Key Yachting won both Sportsboat races and although numbers were slightly thinner in the Laser SB3 class Geoff Carveth won in the morning from Messers Morland, White and Groves, who wish to Remain Nameless (How I hate in jokes). The Sarahs, Webb and Ayton were 3rd and then went on to win the 2nd race from WKD Red Vodka (Ben Duke).

As always the club would like to thank both the Title Sponsor, GARMIN (Europe) and the Day Sponsor, Peter Kay from the Quantum Sail Design Group, for their support with the racing. The full results from all the racing can be found on the dedicated website www.hamblewinterseries.com. Next weekend has racing on Sunday only and will mark the halfway stage of the series.

Provisional Results:
Keelboats
IRC 1 IMX-40 Exabyte 2 Jerry Otter
IRC 2 Elan 40 Flair VI Jim McGregor
IRC 3 J-33 Just Plane Sailing John Webb
IRC 4 Prime Cut Peter Parker

Bowsprit J-105 Joyride Michael Jones
X-332 Jump & Shout James Crockatt
Sigma 38 With Alacrity Chris Choules
Sigma 33 Cerefe Richard & Valerie Griffith

Sportsboats
1720 Race 1 Mad Cow Darren & Georgie Baker
1720 Race 2 Mad Cow Darren & Georgie Baker
Laser SB3 Race 1 Small but Steamy Geoff Carveth
Laser SB3 Race 2 Chaf My Ride Ayton / Webb / Rawlinson
J-80 Race 1 Jeuan Robert & Jonathon Fox
J-80 Race 2 Jazolino Robert Shaw
Sportsboats Race 1 1720 Key Yachting Paul & Marie-Claude Heys
Sportsboats Race 2 1720 Key Yachting Paul & Marie-Claude Heys
Hunter 707 Race 1 Pocket Battleship Mark Gillett
Hunter 707 Race 2 Sword Simon Law & Chris Eddy

Event website: http://www.hamblewinterseries.com