General Marine

The day two report from the Garmin Hamble Winter Series

14 October, 2008

Weekend 2 of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series on the 11-12 October included the first scheduled racing for the SB3 class in the Hamble Autumn Championships.  The Autumn Championships is a 14 race two weekend event that continues with a second weekend on October 25-26, when the SB3s will be joined by the Sigma 38, Sigma 33, J109, J105, J80, Beneteau 31.7, Hunter 707, and Quarter Tonner classes. 

The high quality, 31 strong, SB3 fleet includes current world champion Geoff Carveth who triumphed over a fleet of 130 boats in Dublin last month.  However it was the aptly named ‘Go hard or go home’ who currently leads the Autumn Championships with a 9, 3, 3 scoreline followed by ‘PamBere’ (Mark Gillett and Nick Jones) and ‘Trunk Monkey’ (Joe Burnie), both just a single point behind.  Autumn Championship racing took place on Sunday only after competitors and race officials waited in vain for the wind to arrive on Saturday.

In the main Garmin Hamble Winter Series on Sunday competitors arrived on the racetrack to find a light, but consistent, easterly breeze, a great contrast to the disappointment of last week when all racing was abandoned due to strong winds. The wind increased through the day to around 12 knots thus allowing a full complement of races (2 for the Black fleet and 3 for the White fleet) to be sailed in bright sunshine. 

On the Black fleet race course, fog led to a short 15 minute postponement but once competitors could see from one end of the start line to the other, Winter Series Race Director Jamie Wilkinson was able to set a set of short windward-leewards on the Hillhead plateau.  Close racing was seen throughout the various fleets with only ‘Batfish III’ (Bill Blain) in IRC0 and ‘Fay-J’ (Paul Griffiths) in the J105 class managing to stay in the groove all day to take victory in both their races.

Over on the White fleet course area, closer in towards the mouth of Southampton water, all classes completed their scheduled three races.  ‘Joystick’ (Vic Gregory and Rob Larke) won two of the three races in the 14 strong J80 class, with ‘Betty’ (Jon Powell) recording a similar scoreline in the Hunter 707 class.

Next weekend, the 18-19 October, will see the return of the larger yachts who complete the Hamble Big Boat series by racing on both days, with the main Garmin Hamble Winter Series continuing on the Sunday. 

Full details of the 2008 Garmin Hamble Winter Series, Hamble Big Boat Series and Autumn Championships are available at www.garminhamblewinterseries.co.uk.