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Hamble River Sailing Club Winter Series - Week 1 Report
Author: Eddie Mays
Series Sponsor - Marina Developments Ltd
Race Day sponsor - X-Yachts U.K.
With over 200 boats already entered the Series is proving as popular as ever. Day sponsors, X-Yachts U.K., brought good weather with them for the first race in this year's series and the day was only marred by an accident to Lucy Briggs crewing on "Waylander" at the start of the IRC 2 Class that necessitated the attendance of the emergency services and a stay in Southampton General hospital with a broken foot for the patient.
The two major innovations on this year's series are the introduction of racing for the IRM boats and all the Sportsboat classes, including both IRM divisions, having two races each Sunday. The large IRM boats start their first race ahead of the main handicap classes and sail a 60 minute windward / leeward type course. Honours were split fairly equally between the Farr 40's "Game On", John Bainbridge & J. Oswald, and "2XL", David Murrin. With the trend towards bigger boats the handicap bands for the five IRC classes showed some marked changes from the last series. IRC 1 was for boats having a rating above 1.070. This is a 20 points increase on the rating split from 1999. Even so there is an entry list of 25 boats. Fastest on the water this week was "Wings of the Wind", the J 120 of Stephen Thorpe and Andrew McIrvine, but their high handicap placed them 5th on corrected time. The winner was Robert Barr's new IMX 40 "Maverick " with the Mills 37 "Thunder II", Robert Boulter 2nd.
IRC 2 were already destined for a General Recall when the accident occurred on "Waylander". This caused a 10 minute delay to the start sequence in order for the Race Committee to ensure that the Coastguard were contacted and meant that the class went to the back of the Start schedule. The class has four Reflex 38s racing and one of them, Paul Blowers sailing "T & G", was the first boat home. John Shorrock, sailing his X-99 "Last Orders", managed to keep close enough to win the class on handicap. The revival of the Sigma 38 class continues and the class has the potential to be very close this year. First blood went to Don Kennedy aboard "Arbitrator" but the first three boats finished inside one minute.
Over half the IRC 3 class comprises of X-332s and sailing on virtually level ratings these will produce many exciting finishes throughout the series. This week, however, it was the boat with the lowest handicap that won. Peter Parker on the Oyster 37 "Prime Cut" finished 5th on the water to win by under 30 secs on corrected time. The Sigma 33 fleet is still a force to be reckoned with. In a tight battle David Christie "Wight Spirit" managed to keep ahead of Alan Wallman's "Powder Monkey" with John Nelson's "Shadowfax" 3rd. Sturat Danby, sailing the Mustang 30 "Respect" established a good lead over the other IRC 4 boats to win both on the water and on handicap.
As has become established practice the first class to start from the Sportsboat Committee boat is the small IRC 5 class. This year they are having a single round the cans race each week. John Dudley, "Purple Haze", had a big enough lead over the other boats to be to correct an improper finish and still win by 12 secs on corrected time.The Mumm 30s racing as part of IRM 2 proved, this week, to be a benefit for John Nesbit & Jonathon Penny sailing "GBR250". They won both races. However, Darren Baker, "Mad Cow Hyde", has an appeal in for redress. In Race 2 he sailed towards the leeward mark from Race 1. The Jury will decide next week. The largest fleet is the Hunter 707 clas with 33 entries. Nick Roberts, "3 little pigs", has started well. After coming 2nd in Race 1 behind John Bottomley in "Feeling Touchy" he won the 2nd race by 90 secs from "Doh!", Andrew Aldwinkle & Tom Davidson. This year the Melges 24s are racing as part of the Sportsboat Rules class and this week the predominantly lighter wins did not suit them. The Beneteau 25 "Holy Mackerel", David Wilkinson & Peter Edwards won the first race and came 2nd in the 2nd race behind another Beneteau 25, "e1 business" sailed by Geoff Gibbons. As a result of increased entries the Cork 1720s have been given their own start. Stewart Hawthorn sailing "yachtsandyachting.com" recorded a 1st & 2nd with minor placings shared between John Stamp, "Jacob", Breet Lewis, "Sailpower" and James Baxter in "Optimum Risk".
More Information:
- Hamble River Sailing Club
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