Royal Southern Yacht Club – September Regatta

by Eddie Mays on 15 Sep 2010 Royal Southern Yacht Club’s final monthly regatta of the season is always a difficult one. The Southampton Boat Show is on, with many of our members either working or visiting the show to see what they might like to sail or race next year.

In the Sportsboat classes, particularly the Laser SB3s who have had a frenetic season and with many of the club’s boats only just recovering from the Nationals at Brighton the previous week and the Hamble Winter Series starting in a couple of weeks time, the numbers were down.

On the up side the J-109s had 13 entries with 11 boats racing on their final Saturday’s racing and both the IRC 2 & IRC 3 classes were well supported. Those that did race enjoyed a weekend of very close racing, very different weather conditions on the two days and, in at least one case, a very welcome return to winning ways.

The weather on Saturday morning was dire. Overcast and raining but with a good Southwesterly breeze that started at about 20 – 25 knots and very slowly moderated as the conditions improved.

Tony Lovell on ‘Bonnie’ was in charge of the Green line with the J-109s, Laser SB3s, J-80s and General Sportsboat classes. Setting mainly windward / leeward courses using a combination of laid marks and racing marks, to the consternation of some SB3 helms (Laid marks only please Guv!) the J-109s and other classes were separated into parallel channels, which proved to be a very satisfactory solution.

David and Kirsty Apthorp on J-Dream have struggled this season to replicate their winning 2009 form but having gone back to basics, using their 2009 sails, they were unstoppable and won all three races.

Behind them there was nothing to chose between the next four boats; ‘Jahmali’ (Mike Wallis), ‘Me’ Julie’ (Dom Monkhouse), ‘Outrajeous’ (Richard Griffith) and ‘Aria’ (Luca Rubinelli) who finished with a single point separating each one. It was triple happiness also in both the J-80s and the Laser SB3s where Robin Fielder (‘Warp Factor IV’) and Scott Graham (‘Chill Pill’) both won all their races respectively. The minor honours were split amongst a number of other boats in each class.

Further out in the Central Solent area Philip Gage on board ‘Kuutar’ was in charge of the keelboat classes. IRC1 and IRC2 started together and this added more interest to the start line manoeuvres. Michael Bartholomew’s King 40’Tokoloshe’ has been very well sailed all season and has dominated the class in the club’s monthly regattas.

On Saturday ‘Blue Vortex’, David Carratt’s X-46, tried to keep up but without real success and ‘Tokoloshe’ took both line and handicap honours in both races. In IRC2 honours were split. In the first race Barbara Harmer’s ‘Archibeau’ took the honours from Neville Hodkin helming his X-362 ‘Extra Djinn’ but in the afternoon, in a close finish Neville took the gun by a couple of boat lengths, after an hour’s intensive racing.

The same situation occurred in IRC 3 where the points were shared between Mike Flood’s ‘Indulgence’ in the morning and Mike Holmes’ ‘Jika Jika’ in the afternoon. Mark Lloyd helming the J-92s ‘Jungle Fever’ was third in both races. In Club class it was good to see two new competitors and they both recorded a win each.

By Sunday morning as forecast the wind had lightened and swung to the Northwest and was blowing down Southampton Water, the sun was out and life was far more pleasant, if not as exciting.

With just the Laser SB3s and J-80s to look after Tony Lovell was able to bring more variation into his course setting and in particular the last race included a fine three-sail reach that tested the crews’ ability to fly a shy kite.

In the J-80s Patrick Liardet won the first two races in very tight races but the last race of the weekend was probably the closest. Cressida Robson & Allan Higgs sailing ‘Juicy’ established a small lead going into the leeward mark for the last time. ‘Warp Factor IV’, ‘Aqua-J’ and ‘Swallow’ were in line abreast as they started their turn.

A bang, some swearing and penalty turns sorted out the problem. Unfortunately ‘Warp Factor IV’ was left with too much to do in the remainder of the race and could only finish fourth but with no discards allowed her previous run of three wins was enough to give her the class win.

Scott Graham continued his winning ways in the SB3s and it was only in the last race, again after a very close tussle when Ian Armstrong (‘Trouble and Strife’) managed to prevent him achieving a clean sweep. But an aggregate score of seven points was an emphatic victory ahead of ‘Giraffe’ (Simon Perry) and ‘Team Novae’ (Toby Gorman).

‘Tokoloshe’ won both her two IRC 1 races but it was interesting in the afternoon to see that Ian Dewhirst’s J-133 ‘Jump’ held her on the first beat but on the dead run back to East Bramble ‘Tokoloshe’ sailed on the rhumb line to the mark and gained significantly whilst the J-133 with its asymmetrical gennaker sailed the leg on two reaches and, in the lighter winds, could not make up the difference.

The same happened in IRC 2 when ‘Archibeau’ with their spinnaker was able to gain a winning lead over David Aisher’s J-109 ‘Yeoman of Wight’ on the same leg for the same reason. In IRC 3 Mike Holmes gained the edge in the morning when ‘Jika Jika’ won but then they retired from the last race and this gave Mike Flood the overall win for the second regatta running.

Although the major regattas are now completed the club members still have the very popular Hamble Scramble, the Ladies Race and the Ancient Mariners Race to look forward to before gathering strength for the penultimate season before the Club's 175th Anniversary in 2012.

Results
IRC 1 - King 40 – Tokoloshe - Michael Bartholomew
IRC 2 - Archmabault 35 – Archibeau - Barbara Harmer
IRC 3 - J-97 – Indulgence - Mike Flood
Club Class - Safeena Saree - Gib’Sea 414 - Adrian Rivett
Laser SB3 - Chill Pill - Scott Graham
J-80 - Warp Factor IV - Robin Fielder
Sportsboats - The Big Grin - Gary Shaffer

J-109 Summer Saturday Series
1st - J – Dream - David and Kirsty Apthorp
2nd - Jahmali - Michael Wallis
3rd - Me’ Julie - Dom Monkhouse

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