Perfect autumn weekend

Eddie Mays reports from the Royal Southern YC's September Regatta

The final monthly regatta of the season was held over the last weekend of the Southampton Boat Show. In a crowded racing calendar this was unavoidable but it did mean that a number of regular competitors were working and unable to take part in what was a very interesting weekend’s racing. For the first time in a good while the sun shone all weekend but there was no real heat in the day. The winds were light on Saturday, easterly drifting southeast at 5-10 knots, and a little stronger on Sunday from the same direction.

Peter Bateson was again on duty as P.R.O. for the keelboats racing in the Red fleet. The first start line was laid with Universal Marina as the ODM and this made that end of the line favourite. The J/109s were the largest fleet and they were slightly premature in their approach to the line with four boats being called OCS. Three returned and it was only Bill Blain helming Batfish II that failed to hear his number called on the radio. Newcomer to the series Adam Knight sailing Jouster made a flying start at the pin end and reached the windward mark just astern of Bruce Jubb’s Johnny Blue II. These positions were maintained for the rest of the race, but behind them Mike Wallis emerged from the pack to take third place. In the next race Knight recorded another second place while Mike took the gun and Jubb was third. This left the class beautifully poised for the final race with any one of the three able to take the day's victory. In fact it was David McLeman’s Offbeat that came home first but as has often been the case before Jubb was second and Wallis third. This gave the overall victory to Jubb with Wallis second and Knight third.

This was also the last day of the three event series that the Royal Southern has been running for the J/109 class and with all nine races completed three discards were allowed. Jubb has sailed very consistently throughout the series and he took the overall title by 8 points from club member Mike Wallis with another member Matthew Boyle in third place.

In Class 1 Jack Pringle raced his Farr 45 Fraxious and in the first race he built up a large enough lead on the water to also take the win on corrected time. Club member Robbie Boulter helming Thunder 2 beat John & Jill Paterson’s J/133 Panacea by 30 secs but this was close enough for the Patersons to take second on corrected time. With the Finishing Committee boat anchored the other side of Universal Marina from the start boat several boats made the mistake of overstanding the layline into the finish and unluckiest of these was Peter Jones' In X Celsis. He went through the wrong line and by the time he realised his mistake it was too late for him to return and finish correctly. Conditions undoubtedly became trickier in the afternoon and the distance between the front and the back of the fleet grew almost exponentially. Boulter gained enough of an advantage over the Patersons to keep his win both on the water and on handicap.

Sunday’s two races followed much the same pattern with this time the Patersons recording a first and second place and Boulter a second and third place. Peter Jackson & Gary Shaffer on their Assassin finished the weekend well by taking the final race in style. They finished over eight minutes ahead and they saved their time on the other boats.

Nick Hollamby took charge of the Green Fleet and had just three classes to look after but with three races on Saturday and two more on Sunday it was still a busy schedule to complete successfully. The J/80s were first away and Lorna Fallace helming Strumpet was the first round the top mark but Terry Palmer on Just Do It nibbled away at her lead and managed to get past before the finish.

The conditions off the Meon shore were definitely more fickle than further out in the main channel and places were won and lost very easily. In the second race Bob Hewson sailing JimBob redeemed his last place in the first race by taking an early lead and, more importantly, keeping Stephen Chiverton Just Chilling and Fallace behind him. Palmer returned to winning ways in the day’s final race and Neil Stevenson on board J Caramba took second from Hewson. Chiverton improved his overall placing by winning the first race on Sunday but then he undid all his good work by finishing well down the fleet in the fifth race. Fallace finished second ahead of Palmer and with all races counting it was down to the last race to see who would win the weekend. According to the old saying 'when the going gets tough the tough getting going'. The light conditions were hardly tough but Palmer his crew knuckled down and managed to take the win and with it the title.

With the Laser SB3 World Championships starting this weekend in Ireland only a handful of boats were available to race. However those that did enjoyed good, and at times very fierce, racing. This was exemplified at the first start when Royal Southern’s Ed Dyer on Striptease shut the door on Robert Dent sailing Wet Dream at the IDM and Wet Dream spent some time getting disentangled. By the time the fleet got to the top mark member Mark Stokes on Eau No! rounded just ahead of the pack. The conditions were such that there were few tactical decisions to make on the way back to the bottom mark. Stokes maintained his lead with Joe Burnie on Trunk Monkey and Chris Russell's The Rat Pack taking the other places. Burner then took control of the event by winning the next four races, the last two on Saturday and both of Sunday’s races. On Saturday Stokes was second and Russell third and on Sunday the roles were reversed. Burnie took the overall prize, Stokes gained second place by virtue of winning the first race and Russell was a worthy third place.

Overall Results:

Class Zero
1st Fraxious - Jack Pringle

Class One
1st Panacea - John & Jill Paterson
2nd Thunder 2 - Robbie Boulter
3rd Athena - Steve Bromley

Class Two
1st Extra Djinn - Neville Hodkin
2nd Hot Rats - Robbie & Lis Robinson
3rd Eric the Barbarian - Derek Blanke


Club NS Class
1st Wishful Thinking - Brian Mead

J-109 Class
1st Johnny Blue II - Bruce Jubb
2nd Jahmali - Mike Wallis
3rd Jouster - Adam Wright

Laser SB3
1st Trunk Monkey - Joe Burnie
2nd Eau No! - Mark Stokes
3rd The Rat Pack - Chris Russell

J-80 Class
1st Just Do it - Terry Palmer
2nd Just Chilling - Stephen Chiverton
3rd Jevan - Robert Fox

Sportsboats
1st ASBO - Emma Russell & James Butler