Poole Bay Winter Series - Day 7
by Parkstone YC Poole Bay Winter Series 28 Nov 2018 11:47 PST
25 November 2018
Amigos, Archambault A35, on day 7 of the Poole Bay Winter Series © David Harding /
www.sailingscenes.co.uk
Crews enjoyed yet another stiff north-easterly breeze for day 7 of the Poole Bay Winter Series and, once again, it was deceptively light for the start inside Poole Harbour. Once out in the bay, the crews saw up to 25 knots across the deck on the beats.
The PRO, David Pipe, laid a start line to the south east of Brownsea Island, in the South Deep channel, maximising the length of the first beat to Bell race mark.
First away were Class 1, with Amigos (Archambault A35, Wintle & Fullager) and MS Amlin Enigma (MG 346, Ian Braham) locked in their usual duel to be first at the windward mark. Amigos rounded first, but MS Amlin Enigma gained ground with a quicker spinnaker hoist. Both carried their kites through the harbour entrance, but with the wind heading and increasing, it soon became clear that spinnakers would have to be dropped. MS Amlin Enigma was first to drop and pulled level with Amigos as they cleared away. Once up to speed again, Amigos pulled away to be clear ahead by the next mark, which was Swash Channel No. 2. From there the yachts had a short spinnaker run to Chalys in Studland Bay before beating back to Bar Buoy and on to the finish near Vinyl Solutions. Amigos managed to pull two minutes ahead by the finish, but this was not enough to beat MS Amlin Enigma, which won by one minute on corrected time.
Class 2 had the same start and first beat to Bell. After a poor start, Elanor (Elan 31, Chris Hawkes) just managed to pass the much slower MS Amlin QT (Ecume de Mer, Keith Lovett) before Bell. The fleet then took the quicker exit into the bay via the East Looe Channel and continued upwind to Poole Head, off the Sandbanks shore. The next leg was a reach to East Hook, which was shy enough to make it a marginal call whether to use a spinnaker. Trican (Contessa 32, Giles Vigar) and MS Amlin QT went for kites and this paid for MS Amlin QT, which managed to stay with the faster Matchmaker (Contention 33, Mike Fox), being sailed double-handed this week. A fairly short beat to the finish followed. First across the line was Elanor, followed by Trican and MS Amlin QT. Corrected times reversed these positions, with MS Amlin QT elevated to first.
Full credit goes to the race officer, who managed to get both fleets to finish within a few minutes of each other despite their completely different courses. This allowed a quick turn-around for Race 2.
Class 1 boats started fairly evenly in Race 2, with the faster Amigos gradually pulling ahead. At the laid windward mark (thanks, RIB crew) Amigos was ahead by around 30 seconds. A slow spinnaker hoist on Amigos allowed MS Amlin Enigma to keep in contact. At the gybe mark, Amigos dropped their spinnaker and continued under plain sail on the reach to East Hook, while MS Amlin Enigma held their spinnaker after a neat reach-to-reach gybe. The next leg was a beat to the finish line and then on for a repeat of lap 1. Again MS Amlin Enigma managed to hold their spinnaker between Poole Head and East Hook, keeping in contact with Amigos. At the finish, Amigos was ahead by around 3 minutes, but this was not enough to beat MS Amlin Enigma on corrected time.
Class 2 had a similar course, using different marks for the first two legs. The beat from the start took them to Vinyl Solutions, then a reach to East Looe 1, another reach to East Hook and a short beat to the finish. As with Class 1, this was repeated for the second round. The two larger yachts gradually pulled ahead of the chasing pack, Elanor finishing first by one and a half minutes from Matchmaker. An unlikely match race developed between MS Amlin QT (Ecume de Mer, 26 feet long) and Trican (Contessa 32), with these two yachts repeatedly crossing tacks on the beats. At the end MS Amlin QT finished third on the water, 25 seconds ahead of Trican. On corrected times, MS Amlin QT won her second race of the morning, with Elanor second and Trican third.
Once again the Poole Bay fleet was treated to some excellent racing, thanks to some very well-thought-out courses by the PRO David Pipe and his team. Next Sunday sees the penultimate day of racing in the Poole Bay Winter Series, when a further two races are planned.