The 23-strong IRC1 class this week included three TP52s when Benny Kelly’s “Panthera” was joined by Charles Dunstone’s “Red” and Paul Winkelman’s “Island Fling”. These three had a real tussle at the head of the fleet. The finish was close when “Red” took both line and class honours but mere yards separated “Island Fling” from “Panthera” after a race of 90 minutes. For the second race the easterly wind faded in the closing stages but “Panthera” maintained her overall lead to take the series title.

Tim Harrington’s X-35 “Vortex” proved the boat to beat in IRC2 and this week took a fourth win ensuring the series trophy, although the 40.7 “Parallel Blue” (Chris Jackson) put in a keen challenge. Going into the last race in IRC3 Jim McGregor in “Flair IV” has a one point lead over his old rival Peter Rutter in “Quokka” with Nick Jones in his new Raymarine-sponsored First 34.7 “Astarte” a further point behind. By the first windward mark, “Astarte” and “Quokka” were only yards apart with “Flair IV” seemingly dead and buried in sixth place. The last leg started as a spinnaker reach to a laid mark when swiftly, and contrary to the forecast, the wind died. “Quokka” managed to pass “Astarte” and take line honours but needed to give too much time to the smaller boat which won on handicap. As “Flair IV” took third place, this left the three boats tied on 9 points. With three wins, the count back gave the series title to Nick Jones and Suzi Lawicka - an excellent start to their 2007 campaign in a new boat.

IRC4 was nicely poised, with two X-332s and two Sigma 38s in contention for the title. The lighter conditions initially seemed to favour the lighter X-332s and by the second beat James Crockatt’s X-332 “Jump and Shout” looked to have a substantial lead over Ian Dawson’s “Glide-X”. However, it was all in vain and no boats managed to make the shortened finish within the time limit, leaving Ian Dawson, from the home club, the title ahead of Rob Denning and John Rainger’s Sigma 38 “Light”.

Another X design versus Sigma design dominated IRC5. Aindriu McCormack’s X-99 “2xs” had an outside chance of beating the Sigma 33 “Sixes and Sevens”. By East Bramble, the first windward mark, things were looking good. The X-99 had a small lead and was in clear air whilst the Sigma was struggling to find clear air and make headway against the tide as well as having crew up the mast to retrieve the spinnaker halyard. However, both boats later also fell victim to  the dying breeze and discarded this result which gave “Sixes and Sevens” the series win.

David and Kirsty Apthorp had already secured the J/105 title but had to give best to second placed Paul Griffiths helming “Fay-J” in this last race. In the bigger J/109 bowsprit class, Bruce Jubb on “Johnny Blue II” went into the last race holding a slender points lead over Will Leonard (“Just William”) and Mike Wallis (“Jahmali”). Jubb and Leonard slowly inched ahead of the rest of the fleet, but it was nip and tuck all the way. As the finish line approached, Jubb just got his bow in front by two seconds to take both the race and series class win.

The sportsboats classes were also combining the day’s races into their results for their Spring Championships and, whilst this did not affect the overall results, it did bring some new names to the winner’s board. Richard Barnes sailing “Cacciatore” in the Hunter 707 class had an outstanding day, taking all three races ahead of Russell Mead helming “The Ant Hill Mob” in Race 1 and Simon Law and Chris Eddy on board “Sword” in the last two races. It was this consistency that gave Law and Eddy the overall title, counting two thirds, five seconds and four wins for the series. The mixed sportsboat class has been dominated by the 1720s. David Greenhalgh’s “G&T” won the final day’s races but the early success of Huw Alban Davies with six wins from the first eight races gave “Go Ferret” the overall top spot. Paul and Marie-Claude Heys returned to form to take the J/80 class. With Marie-Claude on the helm, the team had been invincible for the first four weeks, but suffered a dip in Week 5. In the final set of races, they won the first two, secured the title and retired to the bar, leaving the remaining boats to fight it out in the dying breeze. The racing in this class has been extremely tight, with many positions only being decided in the final few yards up to the line.

The ever-growing popularity of the Laser SB3 fleet has been well documented and with over 60 new boats being delivered in the first six months of 2007, the trend is steeply upward. Last season the class had a reputation for poor starting discipline - general recalls and black flags being the order of the day - but this year, so far, there have been many clean starts in the 13 races completed. The class has a plethora of talent in its midst and so the  three boats that achieved such a high standard of consistency are to be commended. Daniel Geoghegan sailing “Champagne Blonde” counted a 10^th as his worst result but that still gave him third place overall. Ahead of him Geoff Carveth in “Palava” (ex “Small but Steamy”) won three races and scored an eighth to secure second place but Marshall King also won three races in “Blue Job” but scored nothing lower than a fifth to take the overall title by three points.

Provisional results: Raymarine Warsash Spring Series Week 6 - 22nd April 2007

Black Group:

IRC1

Race 1 Red - TP52 - Charles Dunstone
Race 2 Uxorious - Swan 42 - Colin Buffin
IRC 2 Vortex - X-35 - Tim Harrington            
IRC 3 Astarte - First 34.7 - Nick Jones/Suzi LawickaIRC 4  No finishers
IRC 5 Bullet - Howard Sellars
J/109 Johnny Blue II - Bruce Jubb
J/105 Fay-J - Paul Griffiths

White Group:

Hunter 707      

Races 1,2,3 - Cacciatore - Richard Barnes

J/80

Races 1,2 - Jenga Trois - Paul and Marie-Claude Heys   
Race 3 - Mosquito - Michelle Dance

Laser SB3       

Race 1 GBR3218 - Mark Rushall
Race 2 Champagne Blonde - Daniel Geoghegan
Race 3 Credo - Clare Molloy

Sportsboats     

Races 1,2,3 - G&T - David Greenhalgh

Flavia Bateson www.warsashsc.org.uk

Image: Astarte beats Quokka to the IRC3 title: © Eddie Mays

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 24 April 2007 )