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Hamble River SC Wednesday Night A Series Race 5

Published 22:00 on 4 Jun 2014

Many competitors last night were expecting normal racing to be cancelled given the forecasts of 25 gusting 35 knots and heavy rain. PRO Kathy Smalley was brave enough to take a look and cast off the committee boat in a heavy storm with particularly painful hail stones! Once that deluge was through, Southampton Waters, although breezy, gave enough shelter to moderate the wind and with no wind over tide the PRO decided to proceed with racing.

The XOD fleet put the bigger boats to shame turning out of the Hamble in the wettest and darkest part of the evening and in the end 23 boats ventured out to test their heavy weather skills. The PRO sent the fleet beating across from Bald Head to Mark with kite runs down Southampton Waters and sausages back up half way along the course before finishing at Hamble Point.

All classes got away clear although in Class 2 Xtract (Dudley Stock) was comprehensively closed out of the start line and tacked away onto port down the side of the committee boat only to find Mist (Undraa and Ross Elliston) incoming on starboard. As Xtract continued to bear away the crew of Mist collectively breathed in and shot through the gap with inches to spare. In Class 1 Midnight Cowboy (Stephen Merry) not only started on her own at the far end of the line but continued sufficiently long on port tack to have Hamble Comms checking their notes to ensure the right course had been given.

There was a very clear split at Mark between those whose kites went up straight away and those who got further downwind before hoisting. The entire XOD class showed the rest of the fleet how to do it as they reached down to Stormforce Coaching whilst Whiskers (Ian Southworth) and Xtract notably hoisted promptly and pulled away from the rest of Class 2.

The wind was freshest towards and beyond Calshott as it funnelled up the Solent which impacted particularly Class 1 with a sausage round Royal Southern and hamblewinterseries.com. Midnight Cowboy was under crewed and had insufficient weight on board for the conditions whilst La Nef (John Noe) found her reefing lines wanting so both boats retired leaving Triarchy (Dr Colin Kennedy) to take Class 1 with Wee Bear (Chudziak, Horner & Malas) as both last boat home in the fleet and 2nd in class.

In the XOD fleet Satu (Andy Hamlett) took the honours again with newcomer Sunshine (Peter Nicholson) in 2nd place and Sox (Mr and Mrs Osgood) in 3rd place. With only two in Class 3 Svenja (Mike Stoner) took 1st from Forethought of Gosport (Mike James). In Class 2 Whiskers and Xtract retained their lead on the rest of the class to take 1st and 2nd respectively. Mist and Needlework (Peter and Ann Smith) battled their way around the course with Mist finally taking 3rd. Special mention should be made of 5th place which was tied between Polly (Meakins and Cudmore) and a delighted Bambella (Jenny Shawcroft and Peter Halliday).

Entry to a Wednesday night racing is free and only available to members but now – you have all been waiting for it – BIG WEDNESDAY is coming 25th June! Hamble River Sailing Club will be throwing open its popular Wednesday night series to all comers on this night with an open invitation back to the Club house afterwards. Tell your friends and we look forward to beating last years record turnout of 35 boats.

Article: Lis Robinson

Pictures: Kathy Smalley