Bear the winner

Ashley Curtis reports on the first IRM weekend in the Solent

May 8/9 saw ten of the solent’s fleet of IRM rated boats come together for the first weekend of the Royal Thames IRM Class Championships.

Four quick fire races were run on the Saturday in blustery conditions and a further four were held on the Sunday providing the closely matched racing-spec yachts with some action packed racing.

It was Wolf that set the pace early on with two races wins in the first two races, however, it was Kit Hobday’s Bear of Britain that put together the most consistent series overall to take overall victory.

After the day one Wolf held a healthy lead with two bullets and a two seconds. The Bear, no longer under the watchful eye of Mark Campbell-James’s tried and tested crew from last year rather a new team still finding their feet with the boat, had managed a couple of wins to climb into second leaving El Gringo in 3rd.

El Gringo, the leading Ker 11.3, scored a 2nd and a 3rd. Bob Fisher in his newly acquired Mumm 36 Zzing was the main casualty of the blustery conditions heading home before racing was underway with a torn main. Bear of Britain also suffered on the first run of the day with a spectacular broach coming out off a gybe. Their top spreaders hit the water before the boat could be brought under control.

Sunday dawned a much quieter day with only between 5-8 knots and flat seas. Even with the reduced wind the starts were equally competitive as the previous day, and this is where the class really excels, in the close-quarter boat handling.

Bear clearly benefited from the calmer conditions with no visible signs of the apparent crew errors from the previous day. The team bagged four bullets. Though on paper the Bear seemed to have it all it’s own way, the results tell a very different story. In race 5, Zzing, the Mumm36 had an extremely good race to finish in 2nd, coming over the line in front of two Ker 11.3’s. The rest of the day it was the turn of Wolf again to chase Bear round the course, keeping them both on their toes, with two races being decided by seconds.

For all concerned the weekend proved to be an ideal warm-up for what is already set to be an IRM dominated year. A further three weekends are booked into the calendar throughout the year with the fleet expected to grow throughout. The next weekend for this series is on the weekend of the 29/30th May.