Hamble River SC Wednesday Night A Series Race 2
Published 13:14 on 15 May 2014
Last night saw the opening race for Series A in the popular Hamble River SC Wednesday night series following cancellation due to bad weather last week. Kathy Smalley has returned as PRO for A Series and faced challenging conditions with a low Spring tide just before the start and a selection of widely varying forecasts. Having set up for the NW breeze the wind then rapidly veered to North. Sensibly deciding to set a selection of courses which would provide the ability to shorten if required, the PRO sent the fleets from a start line in the vicinity of Bald Head onto laps of Cathead and Hamble Point with an initial longer first leg to Afterbarn for the bigger boats.
With a fleet of twenty two boats the XODs were conspicuous by their low numbers although X13 Mischief (Wilson, Wilson and Neale) made a welcome return along with Cockleshell (Jonty Sherwill) in Class 3 and Sunbow II (Andrew Quicke) in Class 2.
With separate starts and the tide taking competitors over the line the earlier starts had their dramas. Both Satu (Andy Hamett) and Kathleen (Mos Fitzgerald) were OCS in the XOD fleet and had to return whilst in Class 2 Needlework (Peter and Ann Smith) were bore away to avoid OCS only to sit in dirt and stall behind the line on their start .
On the Class 3 start Fat Hen (Steve Powell) came perilously close to the line but managed to duck in the last crucial second or so whilst Class 1 made the whole exercise look extremely sedate in the light winds.
Positions in each class changed quite drastically with the wind shifting around. A band of wind materialised on the north side of Southampton Waters coming down from beyond the Esso terminal although it failed to extend as far as Afterbarn and apparently covered just the southern side of the Hamble Point spit. Imptish (Barney Smith) played the tide to his advantage initially on the first beat and then ran out of wind to watch others in the fleet slip past. Wee Bear in Class 1 (Chudziak, Horner and Malas) appeared to stand out too far into the main channel and miss the stronger wind inshore for quite a while and in Class 2 the
crew of Bambella (Jenny Shawcroft and Pete Halliday) considered their chances of staying out all night sufficiently good that they put up a hammock on their foredeck after rounding Afterbarn and opened a bottle of wine.
The already light wind dropped sufficiently for the PRO and her team to hurry to Hamble Point and prudently record the first rounding of Class 3 and the XOD fleet. Both fleets were tightly bunched together and proceedings were further enlivened as the boats rounded to starboard with Warsash dinghy fleet coming round the mark in the other direction. Some boats appeared to opt for the “might is right” option whilst others chatted through the options with their opposite dinghy numbers before splitting for their roundings. XOD Mischief became a casualty of a cluster of dinghies causing a poor spinnaker drop and retired whilst
the remaining XODS and Class 3 headed back up to Catshead.
The second downwind leg for Class 3, which was also the first leg for the Class 1 and 2 boats, paid those continuing to concentrate on watching the wind. As the PRO said afterwards to resounding laughter , “all good race officers try to incorporate a beat, a fetch and a run but the wind shifts managed to provide all three on that leg” and with the wind dying the PRO hoisted S flag and shortened the entire fleet to finish at Hamble Point. In Class 3 Fat Hen led the fleet round the windward mark but Svenja (Mike Stoner) then dropped off to leeward into the belt of wind and sailed through the lee of her class. Cockleshell, intend on following the wind line , may have forgotten to check the depth gauge and Jonty Sherwill was seen minus most of his clothing hopping over the side to push Cockleshell off.
The ven lighter winds at the further end of the course meant that the XODs and Class 3 led the fleets into the finish with Dux (Eliot Motherwell) taking the lead noticeably from Kathleen and Satu battling it out for 2nd place which went to Kathleen by 3 seconds on the finish line. Fat Hen took line honours in Class 3 with the next generation of the Moody family celebrating the fact in her cockpit but Svenja serenely powered down to the finish line in her lee to take the class on handicap with Cockleshell, despite the bottom scrub, pushing Fat Hen into 3rd overall.
In Class 2 Needlework took both the class win and the line with Polly (Meakins and Cudmore) in 2nd and Mist (Undraas and Ross Elliston) in 3rd. Midnight Cowboy (Steph Merry ) appeared to lead Class 1 round the course into 1st place with La Nef in hot pursuit whilst Light (Rob Denning et al) took 3rd. In Class 1 Wight Hare retired in search of cold refreshment whilst Bambella in Class 2 retired having run out of any refreshment on the downwind leg. All competitors returned to the Club for an excellent
supper and an enjoyable debrief from Kathy Smalley whose decision to shorten met with universal approval.
After last year’s introduction, the club is continuing the Three’s a Crowd this year. This double handed series consists in three Saturdays of racing and is open to XODs and keelboats. The first day will be on Saturday 24th May so members save the date! Entry to a Wednesday night racing is free and only available to members but all new boats are invited to come out and try a race for free and to join the fleet back in the Clubhouse for supper afterwards. Those looking to crew do contact the office. Full details on the Hamble River SC website so with the start of a new season come and break up the week with a dose of sea air each wednesday evening until the clocks change.
Watch this space for details- BIG WEDNESDAY is coming soon!
Report Lis Robinson.
Photos Bertrand Malas:
- A hot Start for the XODs
- Fleet heading downwind to the finish
- Cheeky Monkey leading Two Frank
- Slow finish for Imptish, Light and La Nef
Last updated 10:20 on 9 April 2025
