Thrilling Hamble Winter Series Finale

J/112E Trumps IRC 1, J/97 Takes IRC 3
(Hamble, England)- Competitors for the eighth weekend of the Hamble Winter Series enjoyed more good racing, with the Hamble River Sailing Club, supported by OneSails, being blessed with a decent 12-17 kt breeze and partly cloudy, but chilly weather.  Appropriately enough, the final races started at the “HambleWinterSeries.com” buoy!

The fleets started with a short windward leg and were then tested with a mixture of downwind, reaching and upwind sailing. A good challenge for any crew to test crew work, sail choice and tactics on a fresh and bracing winter series day.

Although this is the South coast's premier winter series, not all good sailors come from the south. There are a number of good northerners, those pond sailors in the NW of England. Lawrie Smith and Ian Southworth come immediately to mind. So, it was no major surprise when the “Yacht of the Series” turned out to be owned and sailed by a lad from Tyldesley. That's near Bolton for you southerners. Chaz Ivill brought his new J/112E DAVANTI TYRES home in first place on Sunday. This made it 6 first places, a second and a third for a very tidy 11 pts in the competitive 20 boat IRC Class 1.

In IRC Class 2, it really was a thrilling climax to the series, the ultimate outcome decided by just 15 seconds!  That was the margin Simon Perry’s J/109 JIRAFFE needed to take both the win on Sunday and to place second overall for the series!

First place in the nineteen boat IRC Class 3, also went to the wire, as they say. Although Robin Stevenson’s J/92S UPSTART had a first in the last two races, it was not enough to break into the overall series lead. Instead, Annie and Andy Howe’s J/97 BLACKJACK II had enough in the bank with great performances earlier in the series to take it by one point.

The J/88's raced in class for the second year running and this year Avia Willment in GBR 2688 cleaned up from Gavin Howe’s TIGRESS and Tim Tolcher’s RAGING BULL.

In the clubhouse Chaz Ivill thanked Stuart Childerley and the race management team for some great courses and finished with, “See you all next year!"

Next year's Hamble Winter Series, the 37th, will start on the 6th& 7th of October with the IRC Autumn Championship and two days of the HWS. The soon to be announced Performance 40 Class will be rounding off their season with a double points series of 5 races on the same weekend. You heard it here first.

In numbers, this year's Hamble Winter Series and its three sub events; the Spinlock IRC Autumn Championship, the Hamble One Design Championship and the Fast 40+ 5th and final event, led to the following: 143 Yachts entered, 16 classes contesting 108 races, 814 starters and 786 finishers.  Thanks for contribution from Trevor Pountain.   Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth   For more Hamble Winter Series sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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