Garmin Hamble Winter Series – Week 4
The Garmin Hamble Winter Series, run by Hamble River Sailing Club, remains on track after delivering another full programme and excellent day’s racing in the Solent on Sunday. MDL’s Port Hamble Marina was the day sponsor.
In contrast to last weekend’s drifting conditions in bright sunshine, Sunday delivered typical Winter Series conditions above forecast with a constant 20 to 25 knot south Westerly across both Black and White fleet courses.
Black Group PRO Jamie Wilkinson decided that conditions were not ideal for a two race schedule and courses for single races of up to 20 miles were set for the IRC classes.
Amongst the Black fleet one-designs ‘Journeymaker 5’ scored a win in the J/105 fleet. Within the J/109 fleet it was business as usual as ‘J-Dream’ scored a fourth race win with ‘Shiva’, making her first outing in the series, coming home second.
Over on the White fleet course all three races went off as programmed, despite gusts up to 28kts. A few competitors headed for home before but the start of the third race, but most seemed to relish the tough conditions. ‘Oi!!’ scored a consistent 2, 1, 2 in the J/80 fleet maintaining her overall series lead.
Out for the first time in a J/80 was Robin Fielder and his crew. Paul Fuller, who was part of Robin’s crew had this to say;
‘Well, what a weekend for a test sail ! We were slightly apprehensive about the challenges of three races on a breezy Sunday – a new crew and an owner who hasn’t sailed competitively for two years. However, with some expert tuition from Paul Heys, we quickly got up to speed and by the last race were thoroughly enjoying ourselves, finishing with a win. The J/80 was excellent fun to sail in a breeze and very stable downwind. We found it relatively easy to sail and as test sails go, to come away with a 3, 2, 1 was fantastic. It says much for the layout and the handling characteristics of this great little sportsboat that a new crew can jump onboard and race competitively.’
Next weekend sees the traditional weekend break and in the series and a very Big Day in Hamble for Rob Greenhalgh and Leslie Ryan! Racing resumes for all competitors on Sunday 8th November.
White Fleet Race Winners:
J/80
Race 1, ‘Boats.Com’ Mr. Ian Atkins
Race 2, ‘Oil!’ John Cooper
Race 3, ‘Elle Sappelle’ ‘Thor Askeland
Black Fleet Race Winners:
J/105, ‘Journeymaker 5’ Chris Jones
J/109, ‘J Dream’ David & Kirsty Athorp