Sad Old Blokes into the lead

First Spring Championship weekend for the SB3s

A smaller than expected fleet of 17 SB3s turned out for the first event of the season as part of the Warsash Spring Championships. Competition was as fierce as usual, and with regular front-enders such as Tim Peters, John Hanson, Stewart Hawthorn and Glenn Bourke absent, several new faces came to the fore.

Race one started in a light and variable SW 2, with tricky shifts, which set the pattern for the day. National Champion Jerry Hill in 3029, 3 Sad Old Blokes, started impressively with a win in Race 1, which he repeated in Race 3 and 6, whilst Dave Cheyne’s Whirl’n Dervish from Belfast, helmed by multiple class Irish Champion Peter Kennedy, took a 2nd and 1st in the first 2 races. Matthew Glasgow put in an impressive 3rd in Race 1 in 3052, but fell back thereafter. As the day progressed the breeze built, and by race 3 was 15-18 knots, providing exciting full on downwind planing, lots of knockdowns and entertaining mark roundings.

The rest of the results for the day were the standard SB3 pattern of a different line up in each race, with nothing separating the front from the back of the fleet, and boats picking up and dropping half the fleet on any one leg of the outer loop course.

The Shelley brothers in Baby Blue 3072 pulled through to third overall with two 2nd places on Sunday, Hill further increasing his lead with his usual consistency, 3rd, 2nd and another 1st, to lead at the halfway stage by 10 points from the Irish lads. Peter Harrison showed some of last seasons form taking race 4 in style, whilst new boy Bryan Southgate sailing 3078 JVC Growler posted some promising results for his first event.

The highlight of Sunday was a monster drag race down the last run in race 3, with a 25 degree right-hand shift turning the leg into a tight broad reach. As the wind suddenly built to 25 knots at the final windward mark approach, the wheels came off the cart as the boats horsed down the course at 18-20 knots, most having to drop early to get up to the leeward mark. Class chairman David Evans’pitman pulled a clever leeward drop on the penultimate leeward mark, allowing him to gybe and set immediately round the last mark. They then ploughed past several boats down the leg, before chucking his kite in the sea at the leeward mark and letting everyone through again. The 3 Sad Old Chaps led at the last windward mark, bore off, gybed, and were promptly overtaken by Stewart Hawthorn in 3014 who did something presumably similar(but unknown), to Evans, launched their kite at the mark rounding, and charged down the inside line to take line honours in the drag race. It was classic SB3 stuff, with the teams all grinning from ear to ear on the way in.

Next weekend sees the final 7 races of the event, and with no discards, there is all to play for. Jerry Hill and his crew will need to tread carefully to keep their lead from the Irish, the Shelleys and veteran Soling and J24 Champion Colin Simmonds currently in 4th.

	Boat	Number	Owner	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Total
1	3 Sad Old Blokes	GBR3029	Hill,Jeremy	1	2	1	22	3	2	1	32
2	Whirl'n Dervish	GBR3041	Cheyne, David	2	1	7	22	1	4	5	42
3	Baby Blue	GBR3072	Shelly, Ben/Jon	7	3	5	22	2	8	2	49
4	Doolali	GBR3017	Simonds, Colin	4	9	2	22	10	3	3	53
5	Stress Bunny	GBR3010	Harrison Peter	6	6	13	22	5	1	8	61
6	Distinctly Minty	GBR3011	Evans,David	9	5	4	22	8	5	9	62
7	Bandit	GBR3028	McAdoo/Head,Hugh/Martin	10	11	6	22	9	7	4	69
8	Jvc _ Growler	GBR3078	Southgate,Bryan	14	7	3	22	7	6	12	71
9	Smee Agen	GBR3027	White, John	8	4	9	22	12	11	6	72
10	Lets B Free	GBR3023	Nash,Ray	13	10	8	22	4	12	11	80
11	Va Va Voom	GBR3021	De La Haye,Paul & Isabel	11	8	10	22	6	9	14	80
12	Tba2	GBR3095	Hill/Stuart, Richard/Nick	12	12	11	22	11	13	7	88
13	Eau No!	GBR3084	Stokes/Brown, Mark/Simon	15	13	15	22	13	10	10	98
14	Bish Bash Bosh	GBR3055	Hexton,Roger	5	20	14	22	21	21		103
15	Hullabaloo	GBR3052	Glasgow,Matthew	3	20	12	22	21	21	21	120
16	Senbaram	SB3065	Edgar, Donald	16	22	22	22	14	14	13	123
17	Beauty Swollocks	GBR3038	Hanson, John	22	22	22	22	21	21	21	151
17	Mullet	GBR3090	Moody,Martin	22	22	22	22	21	21	21	151
17	Flaming Galah	GBR3081	Stanley, Rob	22	22	22	22	21	21	21	151