Spring Series at Royal Southampton YC

by Richard House on 2 Apr 2012 Spring Series third and fourth races were held at Royal Southampton Yacht Club on April Fool’s Day (Sunday 1st April). Whilst the weather was bright and sunny the wind did its best to make fools out of the racers. Nevertheless the Race Committee set up speedily for race three as the forecast was for the wind to die and the 16 racers were rewarded with a reasonably stable 5-7 knot North Easterly.

A course was set from Royal Southampton cascading down with the tide to Deans Lake with a reaching finish back to Royal Southampton but with the wind becoming very variable and light the decision was taken to shorten course at Deans Lake.

The first start for class 1 was closely fought and saw a general recall with five boats over. At the second start, the J32S Bojangles of Richard Sainsbury crossed at full speed on the gun and led around the course to finish first on the water and on RSYC handicap but was pressed hard at the end by second place J92 J arrow of Mike Garvey, the gap being 12 seconds. In third place was another J, Michael Livingstone’s J105 Jos of Hamble.

In class 2 the 2 Sonatas Frank and Argento made good starts but Wacky Racer put Jacob Mackenzie’s Evolution 22 Glass Onion about on the line to start last. However, the light conditions suited Glass Onion and she battled through to take the lead on the water, finishing only three seconds in front of Wacky Racer but with larger margins on handicap from Oliver Love’s Frank and the Laser 28 Wacky Racer of Ian, Graham Mike and Nick.

There were several false dawns when the wind picked up to 5 knots for race four and the Race Committee set up again at Royal Southampton but in the end the variable wind speed of 0.4 to 4.6 knots with corresponding wind holes and direction swings from East to North West led to race four being Royal Southampton Yacht Club website