Multihulls at the spring series

Simon Forbes reports on round three of the Royal Southampton YC series

The third race of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club’s Spring series was held on Sunday 28 March and saw a south westerly breeze of around 8-10 knots which for many made a welcome change from the high winds experienced for the first two days of the series.

The Race Management Team of Roger Townsend, Peter Stuckey, Kay Abbott, Sue Lamb, Tina Scott and Anne Tuffnell set the Committee Boat near Netley. Seven of the eight multihulls entered for the series came out.

The first start was postponed with two minutes to go due to an inbound ship. The second start saw nearly all the fleet at the starboard pin end of the line on starboard. F27 Smokey Bear started at the Committee Boat. The half-mile beat to Hythe Ship Buoy 3 saw F25C Sheik Yerbouti, Firebird and Farrier 33 Carbon Tiger II establish themselves as the leading group, followed around the mark by Smokey Bear and Dragonfly 800s Scooby III and Blue Minnell with Strider Tigger not so at ease in the lighter winds.

The second leg was a close reach of a mile to Deans Lake buoy. All the fleet continued under main and jib with the exception of Carbon Tiger II and Smokey Bear who both deployed furling reachers to good effect. Smokey Bear was doing her first race with a smart carbon/aramid D4 genoa and a furling reacher by Doyle Sails. Towards the end of the leg Blue Minnell tried a spinnaker but lost ground to Scooby III.

The third leg was a 0.7 mile run to Hovercraft 1 buoy and saw John Fildes' Firebird established in the lead. John bought Reg White and Terry Smith’s original 1987 Firebird in the autumn and has given the boat an extensive refit and very smart, if stealth-like, grey paint job which is combined with a new fat-head carbon mainsail by White Sails of Warsash. Also added is a spinnaker chute launcher system on the bowsprit as seen on Tornados and a slippery new dynalite spinnaker.

Once in the lead the navigation pressure was on Firebird and time was lost finding the Hound buoy which gave another short 0.4 mile beat before a 0.75 mile tight reach to Hamblecliff which Firebird over shot due to not using an up to date course map. Sheik Yerbouti took the lead as the fleet reached back the 1.5 miles to the committee boat.

The second lap saw little place changing with Firebird regaining the lead and Blue Minnell overtaking Scooby. First to finish was Firebird, 4 minutes 22 seconds ahead of Sheik Yerbouti with Carbon Tiger II third, one and a half minutes behind.

The RSYC Spring Series continues on 4 April with the Spring Double on Saturday
17 April. For more details contact Sailing Secretary, RSYC, Tel: 023 80 223352 or
email racing@rsyc.org.uk

Provisional results - Spring Series Race 3

Corrected Time positions, Elapsed times
1 Smokey Bear, Corsair F27 –1:40:03 George Burn, Martin Leigh, Alan Scrase
2 Carbon Tiger II , Farrier F33 – 1:27:37 Brian Haynes, Rob Gutteridge, Keith Bliss,
3 Sheik Yerbouti, Farrier F25C – 1:26:08 Ian Loffhagen, Simon Burt, Spencer Harrison
4 Firebird, Firebird – 1:21:46 – John Fildes, Grant Piggott, +1
5 Blue Minnell, Dragonfly 800 – 1:43:47 Tim Wilson, Gonzo Haynes
6 Scooby III, Dragonfly 800 – 1:47:11 Simon Forbes, Alice Mavrogordato, Emma Little
7 Tigger, Strider 24 – 1:53:32 Ben Goodland, Mike Yates, Gary Smith

DNC Triptych 2, Corsair F28R – Steve Hewitt,