Hamble Winter Series Reports

(Hamble, So’ton, England)- The 43rd running of the Hamble Winter Series started with two completely contrasting days of weather. Saturday, day one of the Hamble One-Design Championships, had glorious sunshine and a steady breeze. But, when the PRO Peter Bateson announced “We have passed the wind test” on Sunday morning everything was grey and dank. So grey was it on Sunday, that a couple of J/70 competitors said they had trouble spotting the black tetrahedron marks at the top of the course!!

A healthy fleet of twenty J/70s had entered for what was one of their “Grand Slam” series events and nineteen made it to the start line. Alex Smallwood in RTYC2 had the best of day one taking two first places and a ninth to lead with 11 points. David McLeman in OFFBEAT was second on 12 points, with John Cooper’s JOOPED in third with 14 points.

Paul Griffiths in the J/111 JAGERBOMB had a perfect three bullets on Saturday, leaving them in what looked like an almost unassailable position. Louise Makin and Chris Jones’s JOURNEYMAKER II was lying in second with JOLENE (Jolene Racing Syndicate) in third.

On Sunday, the weather, referred to by Peter Bateson as “occasional drizzle”, wasn’t the only distraction on the Solent. It was “crowded territory,” said Peter with “Royal Southampton Winter Series, Warsash SC Lasers, R Srn YC Cruiser Race, RYS Performance 40s, and RTYC Arrow trophy” as well as the Hamble Winter Series event. Ian Bullock encouraged his race team to “go out and get our towel down early.” So, by 10:00 am Rupert Wolloshin, in Marks 2, announced the CV Artemis was at N 50 49.224 W 001 16.895 (between Cutter and Fumesy to the rest of us) and Gordon McLean on Marks 1 confirmed 6 kts from 135 degrees.

Now, whether it was the change in weather or the crowded Solent, some of the nailed-on winners from day one faired less well on day two of the Hamble One Design Champs.

In the J/70s, Patrick Liardet’s COSMIC, who was languishing on 31 points after day one, scored a 1-2-1 on Sunday to end with a winning 16 points. Patrick was the happiest face at the One Sails prize-giving. RTYC2 slipped to third and Doug Struth’s DSP discarded a last race 11th to secure second.

In the J/111s JAGERBOMB’s serene progress was halted when JOURNEYMAKER II scored three bullets on Sunday. They were also not helped by a DNC in the first race, though, they were able to discard this. In the end, though both boats had an identical score and an identical number of 1st and 2nds! But, JOURNEYMAKER II had the last three 1st places to sneak home. Don’t you just love countbacks!! JOLENE was third.

The IRC fleet managed to squeeze in their start line at Royal Southern buoy and proceeded to race off the Hill Head and Lee on the Solent shoreline. Race one was a windward/leeward course with two rounds in each. The final race was around the cans, 10 miles for IRC 2 and 8.5 miles for IRC 3 respectively. There was a good mix of beats, runs, and reaches with frequent wind shifts and the tide on the turn giving plenty of tactical options. The last leg went downwind to finish at Darling Buoy.

Weekend 2
Race Week 2 of the Hamble Winter Series was comprised of two days of racing for the Hamble IRC Autumn Championship, sponsored by Key Yachting. Early weather forecasts showed that once again we may have a weekend of two halves. As it turned out it was a weekend of one half. Sunday’s weather had looked light from a couple of days out and series photographer, Paul Wyeth, got in touch on Friday to ask if we wanted pictures in the rain with wind on Saturday or pictures in sunshine with no wind on Sunday. Clearly, he would have preferred Sunday, but when Saturday was not too wet and the sun crept through the clouds, he went out and got some dramatic shots.

The Race Team gathered in HRSC at 0745 on Sunday morning and studied all of the available forecasts several times. There were little pockets of wind on the edges of the Solent but nothing in the middle. PRO Peter Bateson took the difficult decision to cancel racing for the day. His WhatsApp message read “The forecast has not improved and with a very light breeze matched with a 180-degree change in direction, there seems no point in going out in hope.” At 10.26 Paul Wyeth messaged from the island “Good call today, looks like a mirror glass-out!” Of course, not everyone was happy, especially those who had paid to go in the water at HYS.

On Saturday things went to plan with three races completed. The CV, WetWheels, set up near Royal Southern Buoy in 7-8 knots of breeze, with a course axis of 185, for Race 1 a windward /leeward with course lengths IRC 1, 5.0 miles: IRC 2, 4.6 miles, and IRC 3, 4.2 miles. The PRO Peter Bateson gave the fleet another 2-lap windward/leeward for Race 2 and around the cans special for Race 3.

J/70 One-design Championship
After 10 races, John Cooper’s JOOPED is leading with 22 pts net after two discard races. Second is Harry Edwards’s JOSKIN with 32 pts, and sitting on the bronze step of the podium is Isabelle Hung’s XV STRIPES.

J/111 One-design Championship
Leading the J/111 class was the Makin/ Jones duo on JOURNEYMAKER III with 9 pts net. Second is Griffiths’s JAGERBOMB with 13 pts net. And, rounding out the podium is JOENE with 22 pts.

HWS IRC 2 Division
Leading this large fourteen-boat fleet are two J/109s. Mike & Susie Yates’s JAGO has 3 pts, followed by Rob Cotterill’s MOJO RISIN with 4 pts. Chris Burleigh’s JYBE TALKIN is currently in fifth place with 12 pts.

Autumn Regatta IRC 2 Division
This sixteen-boat fleet has ten J/Teams participating. Currently in third is David Richards’s JUMPING JELLYFISH. Fourth is Kevin Taylor’s J/99 JUMP 2 IT.

Thanks for the contributions from Trevor Pountain

For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information
https://www.hamblewinterseries.com/