Warsash Spring Series - Day 4
by Peter Knight 5 Apr 03:44 PDT
2 April 2023
There was a feeling of déjà vu. The wind in the N (NNE actually) and a forecast 10 knots. A bit like the previous week, but with a little more wind. It was much as forecast, but with ~15 knots for much of the time. So back to Hill Head buoy with the options of Royal Southern, Darling Buoy or a laid mark as the windward mark.
Race 1 was a windward/leeward using Royal South and Hill Head. The combined IRC 1 & 2 fleets had a good, close start and got away cleanly.
At the end the Cape 31s had a close finish, Tony Dinkin's, Jubilee leading the way from Jiraffe, Simon Perry with Ben Prichard just 15 seconds behind in third. In IRC 2 Triarchy, Ollie Reynolds and Faith Burns, led the way, but were beaten by 40 seconds on corrected time by Rosie Berry's Jenie.
In IRC 3 the battle between Warsash's Quokka, James Crew and Peter Rutter, and Jon Powell's Betty continued with Betty winning by 16 seconds on corrected time from Quokka with J'ronimo, David Greehaugh, in third.
As the last boats were finishing the wind took a 20 degree swing to the right and seemed to have stabilised, so a mark was laid to give a good beat for the race 2. The course being a triangle/sausage with East Knowle as the leeward mark.
However, as can be expected with the wind in the north it didn't stay for long before swinging back. Royal Southern became the revised first mark.
IRC 1 & 2 were line shy and were all two lengths back at the gun. IRC 3 were a lot closer, but got away cleanly as well. At the end, in the Cape 31s, Jiraffe took the race from Jubilee, with all 3 boats finishing within a minute. In IRC 2, Jago, Mike Yates, moved up from third in the first race to win, with Triarchy making it two seconds on the day.
In IRC 3 Betty again took the win, but this time beat Quokka into second by nearly 2 minutes with Justify, Ross Bowdler in third.
Having completed 8 races, the first discard has appeared and the series battles are becoming clearer. In IRC 1, Jiraffe leads The Bodfather by two points. In IRC 2 Triarchy leads Jybe Talkin', Chris Burliegh, by 2 points with Mojo Risin' just a point behind in third place.
In IRC3 thing cannot be tighter with Betty and Quokka both counting the same number of firsts and seconds, and the tie only being broken in Quokka's favour by a better discard. J'ronimo is third overall with mainly thirds.
We now take a break for Easter, returning with the Spring Championships on the weekends of 15/16 and 22/23 April for IRC and Cape 31s in Black Group and the J/70 & SB20 Sportsboats on White Group. The remaining four Black Group Series races will take place on the Sundays. Boats can still enter to join the fun.
Event website: www.warsashsc.org.uk/spring-series