Day of Deliverance

Eddie Mays reports on the fifth round of the Tyco Healthcare Hamble Winter Series

The fifth round of Tyco Healthcare Hamble Winter Series saw an almost a perfect winter day of racing: Frost on the decks at dawn, clear blue skies and bright sunshine brought out most of the 254 boats that have entered the series to date. Only the weak and vacillating NW to N wind spoiled the day.

On the Black Group course there was a 30 minute postponement to allow the wind to build to five knots. A strong and increasing weather-going tide called for good starting techniques. These were aided by the use of regular radio warnings, the use of flag Zulu (20% place penalty) and a running commentary by the Line Officer on the position of the fleet during the last minute. In the event only the combined start for Sigma 33s and IRC 3 fell foul of a general recall.

The first leg was a beat up towards Clipper and it did appear that although the obvious choice was to go left from the startline and get the stronger tide this was not always the best option. It worked for Jerry Otter's Exabyte 2 in IRC 1. He went furthest out and did well but then stayed out in the tide on the run back, whereas Russell Hodgson, Deliverance II, led the main group inshore.

By Clipper for the second time Hodgson was clearly ahead of the rest by some distance but then at the bottom of the run everyone closed up and Hodgson fell back into the pack. The final beat was decisive Otter managed to take line honours from Hodgson but by only 15 seconds and this gave Hodgson the win with Otter in third place behind the Army's Prima 38 Longbow.

There is now only one boat with an unblemished record. Tony Dodd has won all five races in IRC 4. This week it was the turn of Peter Rutter to drop a point in IRC 2. Mark Franklin sailing his Ker 32 Kimanchee Eve established an early lead that he kept all the way. Rutter pulled up from a relatively poor first leg to finish 2nd both on the water and on handicap.

On the White Group area the wind was steadier from the start. The first set of races got away on time. The 1720 class has been slowly increasing in numbers. This week 16 of the 17 boats entered raced. In the morning Charlie Frize in his 1720 Big L built up a 3 minute lead but the afternoon race was a much closer run affair. Andy Smith in Twister broke from the middle of the line and led the race until the final beat. The tide had now turned and was running down Southampton Water. With the finish line set at the Bald Head buoy near the entrance to the Hamble the decision on how far out to go into the tide was critical. Mike Budd helming Gul managed to catch Smith port and starboard and force him out into deeper water. Inside of this pair David Greenhalgh & Paul Lovejoy's G & T, found a slightly better tidal eddy and overtook them both to win by 15 seconds.

Matt Greenfield sailing one of the RYA's new J/80s won both races in the Sportsboat class and narrowed the gap on their sister boat which leads the class. Iain May on Charlie Fish had the best of the day in the Hunter 707 class. He won the morning race and was fourth in the afternoon. Patrick Miles sailing Darkness has been steadily improving throughout the series. He established an early in the second race and held on valiantly to finish 11 seconds ahead of past class winners Tom Davidson & Andrew Aldwinkle in Doh!.

With five weekends completed next week's races will see discards being applied and the overall positions in most classes will change dramatically as bad results are relegated to the Recycle Bin. As always our thanks to Ian Dawson of Kayospruce fro being this week's Race Day sponsor.

Class winners:

IRM - Race 1	Alice	Mumm 36	Simon Henning
IRM - Race 2
Equal 1st on Redress	Cadhire Farrfarina
& Too Steamy	Both      Farr 40s	Rob Goddard          Nick & Anne Haigh
IRC 0	Exabyte 3	IMX - 45	Shaun Frohlich
IRC 1	Deliverance II	Dehler 3950	Russell Hodgson
IRC 2	Kimanchee Eve	Ker 32	Mark Franklin
IRC 3	Hobby Horse	Mustang 30	Michael Fawcett
IRC 4	Purple Haze	¼ Tonner	Tony Dodd
X 332	Ilex of Upnor		Royal Engineers
Bowsprit	Jalapeno	J-109	Nigel Brookes
Sigma 38	festina lente		The Meakins family
Sigma 33	Cerefe		Richard & Valerie Griffith
Mumm 30 – Race 1	Offbeat		Ian Gill
Mumm 30 – Race 2	Moonshine		Jack Kelly
Cork 1720 – Race 1	Big L		Charlie Frize
Cork 1720 – Race 2	G & T		David Greenhalgh & Paul Lovejoy
Laser SB3 – Race 1	Curlies		Christina Summerhayes
Laser SB3 – Race 2	Blonde Ambition		Daniel Geoghegan
Hunter 707 – Race 1	Charlie Fish		Iain May
Hunter 707 – Race 2	Darkness		Patrick Miles
Sportsboat Rules - Race 1	RYA 1	J-80	Matt Greenfield
Sportsboat Rules – Race 2	RYA 1	J-80	Matt Greenfield