Royal Southern Yacht Club's June Regatta - A truly international feel

by Eddie Mays on 15 Jun 2010 Royal Southern Yacht Club’s June Regatta ran over the weekend of June the 12th & 13th. With the flags of several nations flying at the clubhouse the weekend had a truly international feel to it. As well as the normal weekend’s racing for the IRC and Sportsboat classes the J-109s held the first of their Saturday series, the Contessa 32s raced as part of their Summer series and on Saturday the IRC fleets included competitors racing in the IRC Solent series.

Tony Lovell on board ‘Bonnie’ had charge of the J-109s and the Sportsboat classes whilst Philip Gage with ‘Knight’s Challenge’ was further out in the Solent with the Keelboats. On Saturday the wind started at 15–18 knots out of the NNW but faded during the day and became quite erratic at times with 30 – 35o shifts, particularly near the mainland shore.

Overnight the breeze steadily veered from Easterly to West southwest by the time racing was due to start at 10:30 on Sunday morning. With a mid-day high tide this gave plenty of water in the Central Solent but as the wind built to 18–20 knots and the west going tide gathered pace the sea conditions were much rougher than the day before.

J-109 Class
Having held a very successful National Championships at the club the previous weekend it was not surprising that numbers were down slightly, but the fleet enjoyed close racing throughout the day.

The first race was a simple windward/leeward configuration using laid marks. ‘Jahmali’ (Mike Wallis) led ‘Instinct’ (Malcolm Glaister) and ‘Outrajeous’ (Richard Griffith) by a couple of boat’s lengths at the first turn.

Over the next couple of legs ‘Outrajeous’ managed to work her way passed ‘Instinct’ and close the gap on ’Jahmali’ so that she was just a boat’s length behind rounding the bottom mark for the last time but ‘Jahmali’ held on for the gun.

For the second race the fleet was given a more complicated course that included a good genniker reach from Hill Head to Royal London. After the beat and run the fleet arrived at Hill Head at the same time as the SB3s and the two classes were intermingled for the rest of the race.

Again it was a head to head between ‘Jahmali’ and ‘Outrajeous’ with the honours this time going to ‘Outrajeous’ with ‘High Tension’ again third. This set up the final race with the two boats level on points. Another change of course kept the navigators on their toes but after a close race it was ‘Jahmali’ who edged it and took the overall win.

Laser SB3 Class
Even though many of the Solent fleet had had a busy period with both the Eurocup and the Seaview Open in the past two weeks there was still a strong class entry for the weekend.

Race one saw a windward/leeward course set using Royal Southern buoy as the top mark. Starting after the J-109s a number of the SB3s elected to sail the same course as them and as a consequence badly over-stood the mark and had to reach in from a long way out. This gave Ben Saxton, sailing his Dad’s boat ‘Rola-Trac’, the opportunity to establish a good lead after the first leg and he extended his lead during the second lap with Mark Rushall (‘www.rushall.net’) and Charles Whelan (‘Here comes Bod’) taking the minor places.

Mark Gillett (‘Pambere’) made the best recovery of the over-standing boats to finish fifth. Ben Saxton again made the best start in Race two but having arrived at the Hill Head buoy in the lead he hardened up for a beat rather than gybing for the reach across to Royal London.

By the time he realised his mistake the first boats were away and gone. The new leader ‘Cre8tivity’ got half way along the reach, had an aberration and gybed away for the next mark. Luckily no one else followed him.

This left ‘Sponge Bob’ (Marshall King) in the lead and he made no mistakes to take the gun. In the day’s final race World Champion Geoff Carveth (‘Cre8tivity') showed the rest how it should be done but ominously Ben Saxton came second to lead the class overnight. Special mention should be given to Dudley Stock helming ‘Odontoblast’ who sailed with just one crew on a day when it was not a two-man day.

With a steadier wind on Sunday the fleet were given more orthodox courses and this suited the young team on ‘Rola-Trac’ very nicely. They reeled off three wins leaving some very good teams behind them to sort out the minor placings. ‘Cre8tivity’ scored a 3, 2, 2 on the day but having retired from Race two on Saturday and with no discard allowed he was pushed down to sixth leaving Mark Rushall (‘www.rushall.net’) and Mark Gillett (‘Pambere’) in second & third.

Asked for a comment on the weekend Geoff summed it up succinctly ‘Kids!’. Ben and his crew just grinned, from ear to ear.

IRC Classes

This weekend saw a very even split in numbers across the three main IRC classes. In IRC 1 Paul Turner’s Grand Soleil 43 ‘Artemis’ was joined by her sisterships ‘Quokka 8’ (Peter Rutter) and Dominic Hurnall’s ‘Jua Kali’, whilst Dirk and Diane van Beek’s Match 42 ‘Sabriel’ was another welcome newcomer.

Race one saw the familiar sight of Michael Bartholomew’s ‘Tokoloshe’ take the gun a minute ahead of ‘Jinja’ (Rupert Matthew’s J-122) and ‘Quokka 8’. ‘Jinja’ recouped her time difference on handicap to take the win. In the afternoon these three boats again broke away from the pack and as the wind died and the tide built the gap between the front and the back of the class widened.

Solent veteran Peter Rutter used his knowledge well to take both line and class honours ahead of ‘Jinja’ and ‘Tokoloshe’. When racing resumed on Sunday morning the new wind direction presented new challenges for the tacticians. The first six boats all finished close together but whilst ‘Tokoloshe’ took the gun it was Rupert Matthews on ‘Jinja’ that had his second win of the weekend.

Further back in the fleet Stuart Hemingway helming ‘Beam’ had a bad spinney drop at the final mark, tore the foot of his foresail as they hardened up for the final full and by leg to the finish line and then successfully managed to keep ahead of the higher rated Comet 415 ‘Biela’ (Richard Barnes).

In the final race things were even tighter. ‘Quokka 8’ established a narrow lead over ‘Tokoloshe’ on the water and that was enough to give him the gun, class win and second place overall, equal on points with ‘Jinja’ but losing out on the count-back.

The first race for IRC 2 had proved to be a benefit event for John Howell on his Dehler 36 ‘Alaris’. They opened up a very impressive seven minute lead by the finish and well deserved their win. However they couldn’t repeat the trick in the afternoon and, in particular, on the long broad reach across from the mainland to the Prince Consort buoy both ‘Stiletto’ (John Barratt and Paul Woodward) and ‘No Retreat!’ (David and Jackie Riley) managed to get away from the rest as the wind faded and the tide built.

Having got the hang of winning ‘Stiletto’ went on to win both of Sunday’s races and take the class overall. The final race proved to be a very tense affair with ‘JOS of Hamble’ (Roger Williams), ‘Xtra Djinn’ (Neville Hodkin) and Barbara Harmer’s A35 ‘Archibeau’ finishing within 15 secs of each other.

The IRC 3 class was predominantly a collection of various J boat designs but it was very good to see that David Glasgow brought out his beautiful 8 Metre ‘Athena’ to play. This was the only class where the winner, Mike Flood helming his J-97 ‘Induljence’, had a clean sweep of victories. Behind him the minor places went to another J-97, Bill Blain’s ‘Batfish IV’, and Lis Robinson’s ‘Hotrats’.

In IRC 4 three boats ended on 11 points but the class win went to Bernard Fyan’s Mustang 30 ‘Erik the Red’ who won on countback from the X95 ‘Crakajax’ (Richard Hollis and Ursula Bagnall) by virtue of his win in the last race that they both competed in.

Contessa 32 Class

The Contessa 32 Summer Regatta is a series of six weekends throughout the season for this classic class. The format for the racing is slightly different from the normal club regatta as they prefer to have a single longer race on Sunday.
Starting 10 minutes after all the other classes the fleet had good clear wind ahead of them. First blood went to ‘Blanco’ (Ray Rouse) just ahead of ‘Drumbeat’ (Eldridge Himsworth) and ‘Corafin’ (Robin Holland).

In the afternoon race ‘Drumbeat’ held a narrow lead at the first downwind mark but ‘Corafin’ rounding third, sailed a slightly higher line on the long leg across to the island shore. This gave her a good lead initially but as the current in the south channel bit she fell back and ‘Blanco’ eventually got the better of ‘Drumbeat’ for her second win with Simon Porter bringing ‘Equator’ home third.

Sunday’s longer race had the fleet sailing at angles across the other classes. ‘Blanco’ established a good lead early on but ‘Equator’ kept plugging away and towards the end of the race had narrowed the gap sufficiently to keep ‘Blanco’ on her toes.

Before the July regatta in three weeks time the club is hosting both the Swallow Class Nationals and then Oyster Week, the only Oyster Yachts regatta in the UK this season. No peace for the Racing Office.

Overall Results:

IRC 1 J-122 Jinja Rupert Matthews
IRC 2 First 35 Stiletto John Barratt & Paul Woodward
IRC 3 J-97 Induljence Mike Flood
IRC 4 Mustang 30 Erik the Red Bernard Fyans
Club Class Bavaria 35 Implacable Trevor & Philippa Pountain

Laser SB3 Rola-Trac 3065 Ben Saxton
J-80 Juicy 734 Allan Higgs
Sportsboats The Big Grin 8810R David Gary

J-109 Summer Saturday Series

1st Jahmali Michael Wallis
2nd Outrajeous Richard Griffith
3rd High Tension Andrew Given

Contessa 32 Summer Series

1st Blanco Ray Rouse
2nd Drumbeat Eldridge Himsworth
3rd Equator Simon Porter


For further information, please visit: www.royal-southern.co.uk