HYS Hamble Winter Series - Week 5
by Trevor Pountain 13 Nov 07:16 PST
10 November 2019
Once again after a mixed week of weather, the sun shone for Week 5 of the HYS Hamble Winter Series. The Solent's prevailing winds, however, did not prevail and the Race Team and Competitors were met by a North Westerly air stream as they headed out to the start.
The CV set up shop at QXI International (4N), and waited. The course on Sunday was a classic triangle, a couple of sausages, and then a beat to the finish. With a wind shift just before the start the original windward mark of Hamble Yacht Services (4V) was replaced by a laid buoy at Q8. A shy spinnaker reach to East Knoll (4H) was followed by a reach to reach gybe with the bigger boats going to Prince Consort (33), and the smaller ones Deloite Sailing Club (4F). Then, another beat to John Fisher (4Q) and a couple of sausages finishing at hamblewinterseries.com (4J).
A number of the teams had been involved in the previous night's prize-giving at our neighbour club "The Southern". They were glad that the conditions were as pleasant as they were, it being the morning after the night before. One such competitor was Lis Robinson who declared, "It was a brilliant day, until I broke a nail just before the off!" No nailed on start for Hot Rats in Class 2 then.
Simon Perry, also at the previous night's soiree, managed to put Jiraffe OCS in the same Class 2 start. This gave Mike & Susie Yates in Jago the opportunity to get away. However, following a quick turn around the pin, Jiraffe set off to haul Jago in. By the end Jiraffe won by 7 minutes and 52 seconds in this J109 duel, or as Simon said, "By a long neck!" Another 109, Mojo Risin, Rob Cotterill, was third.
In Class 4, there was some disquiet at the apparent ease with which Protis (Catrina Southworth) disappears over the horizon each week. There was even the suggestion that it was a heavily disguised quick J92. That aside, Barney Smith, Imptish, reported that, "In real IRC 4 land we all had a jolly fun day out. The breeze held up, there were plenty of shifts and tidal puzzles to solve and the course was just the right length." Good work by RO Tanya Robinson and her team. Stan the Boat, Toby Gorman, came second to Protis this week with Gr8 Banter, Ian Handley & Tim James third.
Having spent much of week out of the water having the paint stuck back on her keel, J'ronimo, David Greenhalgh, won Class 3 by 1 minute 42 seconds. Quokka 9, Peter Rutter & James Crew, kept their impressive series going with a second place. With Alacrity, Chris & Venessa Choules, came in third a further 22 seconds back. Allegedly, a bit of a spinnaker trawl and the wrong corner at the top did not help their cause.
Chaz Ivill, Devanti Tyres, declared, "Really great racing," in Class 1. This week they managed to beat Icy, Ian Atkins; "But there has only been seconds in it every week," said Chaz. Rupert Wolloshin brought Thunderbird home in third place, creeping just one point ahead of Pegasus DekMarx, Malcolm Wootton, in the overall standings. A new spinnaker technique at Q8 by Pegasus may have slowed down their progress. An unnamed source said that this involved, "throwing said kite overboard." It appears that it was eventually hoisted in a conventional manner.
Back at HRSC, Peter Kay of One Sails gave away some pretty impressive prizes. Champagne, dry bags and t-shirts were all well received by the successful teams. Peter expressed his thanks to the volunteers who ran the racing every week, allowing sailors to sail and sailmakers to make sails!
Next week the day sponsor for the HYS Hamble Winter Series will be NJO Sails, the Shamrock Quay-based loft. Nicky Octon is busy making the bags as you read this.
More of Paul Wyeth's pictures: www.pwpictures.com
Full Results: www.hamblewinterseries.com/page/results-by-hals