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Hamble River SC Wednesday Night Early Bird 3

Published 22:00 on 16 Apr 2014

After the last year or two of heavy winds the Hamble River Sailing Club 2014 Early Bird evenings so far have been very civilised. Mike Dellar, Rear Commodore Sailing, was PRO in a light SE breeze of some 7 to 8 knots with the evening start at low water springs. Four XODS, rarely seen in the Early Bird series , came out to tune up whilst in Class 2 an Impala five strong contingent arrived with an overall fleet of 17 boats for the evening. The water depth limited the mark availability but the combined XOD Class 3 starters were sent from Bald Head up to hamblewinterseries.com with a reach and then down wind run, with Reach as potential gybe mark to finish off Hamble Point. Class 2 and 1 , whilst sent on separate starts, had a similar but slightly longer course. The breeze freshened at the windward end of the course to some 12 to 14 knots although remaining constant at the leeward end of the course

Class 3 and the XODs were bang on the line despite what appeared to be an earlier bump and go by Forethought (Mike James) the shore side of Bald Head. Class 2 in contract made a very leisurely approach to the start whilst Allons- y (Rich and Claire Thoroughgood) politely let all comers go first crossing the line some two and a half minutes late. In Class 1 Triarchy (Dr Colin Kennedy) nearly pushed Wee Bear (Chudziak, Horner and Malas) over but dipped the line to protect themselves from OCS leaving just enough room for Wee Bear to also duck. Bambella in Class 2 then also recalibrated their depth counter on the far side of Bald Head which apparently gave them time to open the wine.

Newcomers Ben McGrane and his crew in their new acquisition Shri XOD 22 have been tuning up and practising the last few weeks whilst racing has been going on and this clearly paid off as they bagged their first bullet at the finish line. Dux (Elliott Motherwell) often braves the Early Bird series and was clearly on form in 2nd closely followed by Sox (Osgood) in 3rd place whilst Kathleen (MOS Fitzerald) made up the quartet, possibly suffering from her first beat up in the deeper water whilst the rest of the fleet went for the north shore. Needlework (Peter and Ann Smith) in Class 3 appeared to be short handed which didn’t stop them taking 1st place by a respectable margin both on the water and on handicap from Forethought .

Class 1 came in fairly tightly with Triachy taking line honours from Midnight Cowboy (Steph Merry) but on handicap Wee Bear swapped places with Triarchy to take 1st whilst Midnight Cowboy held her 2nd. Class 2 this year is proving to be an interesting one to watch. An Impala quartet was led by Imptish (Barney Smith) across the line followed by Polly (Meakins and Cudmore) then Two Frank (Olly Love) and Cheeky Monkey (Aiden Barr) but pulling back on the NHC handicap Polly took 1st place from Imptish with Mist (Undraa and Ross Elliston ) in 3rd. The committee boat stood by after the sun dropped below the horizon along with the temperature but Bambella and Allons-y both paid the price for the time they lost at or around the start finishing out of time with Allons-y a heart-breaking 7 seconds beyond time out.

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.

Lis Robinson

Photos from Trevor Pountain:
Class 2 Start
Wee Bear during pre-start sequence
Forethought on her way to the finish line
Photos from Joanna Mycroft:
Imptish leading Class 2
Midnight Cowboy leading Wee Bear to the finish