J/122 Leading IRC0, J/97 Leads IRC3, JITTERBUG Tops 111s, JAGERBOMB Tops 109s(Hamble, England)- As fall sailing continues unabated in the south of England, cooler air is beginning to make its presence felt on the Solent. However, this past weekend saw the weather Gods provide another stunner for the sailing teams in the Garmin Hamble Winter Series and MDL Hamble Big Boat Series.
Big Boat Championship
Saturday saw the start of the final MDL Hamble Big Boat Championship weekend. The forecast was appalling, with a mirror calm greeting the race committee as they motored out to the race course, and no-one really expected to get any racing in. But competitors couldn’t believe their luck as 4-5 knots of southeasterly filled in after an hour’s postponement, allowing the race team to get four races in from a start-line near Wight Vodka.
On Sunday, a good NorthEasterly 10-15 knots was forecast, and, unlike Saturday, that was exactly what the weather gods served up. Racing started from the vicinity of Sunsail Racing buoy at low tide, with courses cascading down the East Solent in a sluicing flood tide. The MDL Hamble Big Boat Championships fleet raced alongside the main Garmin Hamble Winter Series fleet, with two races for all classes.
In the J/111 class on Saturday, David & Kirsty Apthorp's J-DREAM won the first race, but couldn’t hold off Cornel Riklin’s JITTERBUG, who took first in the remaining three races. Then on Sunday, JITTERBUG took two seconds on Sunday, but that was enough to keep them nine points clear at the top of the fleet – an impressive showing for their first regatta. With JITTERBUG winning the Big Boat Championships, J-DREAM managed to hang in for second place overall with a 3-3 showing. Third was Alfred Munkenbeck's MUNKENBECK with 21 pts. Finally, it was good to see Tony Mack's crew closing out the series after a slow start by winning the last two races.
IN IRC 0, Neil Kipling's J/122 JOOPSTER continued her winning ways and stayed at the top of the leader board, closing out the regatta with a 1-2 on Sunday for a total of just 21 pts. Her classmate JAMMY DODGER, the J/133 sailed by Neil Martin managed a 5th in the very competitive class.
Garmin Hamble Winter SeriesThe Garmin Hamble Winter Series ran as usual on Sunday, this time from the same start-line as the Big Boats in ideal conditions. The day sponsor was Southern Ropes, who provided prizes at the clubhouse after racing. All classes sailed two races, with the smaller boats finishing on the Hill Head plateau, and the bigger boats finishing near Browndown.
In IRC Class 0, Dr Ivan Trotman's crew on the J/122 JOLOU are now leading their division with a 1-2-1-3-2 record for 9 pts. They are currently on top of a rogue's gallery of IRC special purpose boats like the Grand Soleil 46, Mills 43 and Arcona 430.
The IRC Class 3 saw the J/97 INDULJENCE sailed by Nick & Adam Munday tied on points for the lead with a 3-1-3-2 record for 9 pts.
The J/111s, whose results also counted for the MDL Hamble Big Boat Championships, were led by Tony Mack’s McFly, who took two bullets ahead of JITTERBUG. Consequently, JITTERBUG is still leading with 9 pts followed by J-DREAM then McFLY in third.
Similarly, Paul Griffiths’ JAGERBOMB posted two firsts in the J/109 class and is currently leading their class with a comfortable lead due to an impressive scoreline of 1-3-1-1-1 for 6 pts. Second lies David McLeman's OFFBEAT with a 4-1-2-6 record for 13 pts. Just one point back is Owain Franks' JYNNAN TONNYX with a 3-4-4-3 tally for 14 pts. The balance of the top five has Paul Coward's JACOBI in 4th and Roger Phillips' DESIGNSTAR 2 in 5th.
So, looking ahead, there’s one more weekend of racing before the mid-series break. Next weekend is the final Lewmar Hamble One Design Championship weekend, as well as the fourth Garmin Hamble Winter Series race day, for which the day sponsor is Andark. Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth For more Garmin Hamble Winter Series sailing information
