| Club Members amongst the Winners |
| Royal Southern Y.C. May Regatta 17th & 18th May 2008 Report by Eddie Mays |
There was a good entry for the first of the season's monthly regattas from both within the club and from visiting yachts.
The weekend was also the Southern Area Championships for the J-80 class ahead of next weekend's J-Cup, which the club is hosting. |
| Saturday's light and variable breezes made setting courses for the different classes very difficult but both Principle Race Officers, David Arnold for the Keelboats and Tony Lovell for the Sportsboats, managed to complete two races for each class. By the middle of the afternoon conditions were becoming so erratic that to try and run the final race was impossible and everyone was sent home. |
| Eamonn O'Nolan's Freddie Freeloader, who won both races, dominated Class Zero with Shaun Frohlich (RSrnYC) and Agne Nilsson each picking up a 2nd place. In Class One Rob Napier (RSrnYC) sailing Iskareen won his first race but was unable to finish the 2nd race and slipped down the leader board. This left Andrew Webster (RSrnYC) tied with Tim & Sophie Harrington at the top of the class. Matthew Boyle (RSrnYC) helming Shiva made the best of the conditions to win both Class Two races. The aptly named Runaway Bus, Paul Kelsey's Quarter tonner, ran away with both Class Four races while Harry the Horse (Richard Willets) trotted in for 2nd place. |
Further inshore on the Sportsboat course Tony Lovell had even less breeze to work with but that didn't seem to deter the competitors. The large SB3 class with 28 entries was as keen as ever but their starting technique was good and there were no premature starters or General recalls throughout the weekend. Ian Southworth helming Chilli Chaser was too good for the rest of the fleet and won both races with RSrnYC's Charles Whelan, Here comes Bod, 2nd in Race 1 and another RSYC team, Mark & Libby Greenhalgh runners up in Race 2.
The J-80 class also had a double winner with Terry Palmer on board Just Do It. The Sportsboat class, although small, had a real diversity of entries from the ultra fast Ultra 30 Zombie to the 707 One Eyed Willie. Their first race was a disaster with two boats disqualified and another failing to finish. However they got their act together for the second race, which was won by Zombie. |
| The fastest performance of the day was reserved for the monkeyoffice.co.uk team who were first ashore back at the club and sprinted up the pontoon to claim a bottle of bubbly as the first customers at the new Wet Bar, courtesy of euroboats.com. |
Sunday morning brought much better conditions, plenty of sunshine and more wind, but still in the Northeast.
The Sportsboats' starts were delayed slightly whilst another regatta sailed across in front of the start line. Club member Liz Savage had a good day in her J-80 Savage Team Racing scoring two 2nd places but Terry Palmer won the morning race and came 4th in the afternoon to consolidate his overall victory. Ian Wilson's Ultra 30 powered their way round the course in the morning to take both line and handicap honours but in the afternoon Keiren Williamson sailing his 707 One Eyed Willy saved his time and ended the weekend with a good win, almost reminiscent of the tale of the Hare & the Tortoise. |
| As always the Laser SB3s provided plenty of excitement. With a strong tide running at the top of the course many boats overstood the mark but it was at the other end of the course that things became heated. Ian Southworth had gained a clear lead but behind him boats were rounding in bunches and there was more than one instance where a reluctant genniker pole became entangled in a backstay. Definitely not the place for faint hearts! The afternoon race was a more orderly affair. Ian Southworth's winning streak was broken by Craig Burlton but he had done enough to win the class. |
| Further out in the middle of the Solent PRO David Arnold had set the keelboats a simple windward / leeward course between Fastnet Insurance and West Knoll but with the wind shifting periodically some of the beats became one-sided during the morning race. In Class Zero Freddie Freeloader was again unstoppable but behind him the other big boats enjoyed some very close racing. Stewart Hawthorn (RSrnYC) helming his J-133 Jump took both line and race honours in the morning but the Harringtons recovered well after lunch and scored their 2nd win of the weekend to win the class from RSYC members Andrew Webster & Rob Napier, 2nd & 3rd. Michael Brough, helming the highest rated boat in Class Two Steady Barker, made the best of the variable conditions to score two wins but his 9th place in Saturday's 2nd race meant that he had to concede overall victory to RSrnYC's Matthew Boyle. No such hiccup for Paul Kelsey in Class 4, who finished with four wins from four races. Well done! |
| Next week the club is host to the J-Cup. There are already over 70 J-boats of various designs entered and the regatta promises to be a very good advertisement for the expertise of the club's race team. |
| Overall Results |
Class Zero
1st Freddie Freeloader Eamonn O'Nolan
2nd Fortis Excel Agne Nilsson
3rd Exabyte 4 Shaun Frohlich Royal Southern |
Laser SB3
1st Chilli Chaser Ian Southworth & Nigel Smith
2nd Doolalli Colin Simmonds Royal Southern
3rd monkeyoffice.co.uk Craig Burlton |
Class One
1st Vortex Tim & Sophie Harrington
2nd Circus Andrew Webster Royal Southern
3rd Iskareen Rob Napier Royal Southern |
Sportsboats
1st Zombie Ian Wilson
2nd One eyed Willie Kieren Williamson
3rd Mad Max Oliver Franks |
Class Two
1st Shiva Matthew Boyle Royal Southern
2nd Steady Barker Michael Brough
3rd Tigh Sollius II Ken Grant |
J-80 Southern Area Championships
1st Just Do It Terry Palmer
2nd Savage Sailing Team Liz Savage Royal Southern
3rd Just Chilling Stephen Chiverton |
Class Three
1st Runaway Bus Paul Kelsey
2nd Harry the Horse Richard Willets |
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Winning J-80 Just Do It helmed by Terry Palmer
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Ultra 30 Zombie at speed
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R Srn YC Matthew Boyle Shiva won Class 2
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R Srn YC Jack Pringle Farr 45 Fraxious
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Ian Southworth won the SB3 class
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Classes 2 & 3 start
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 The images on this page are just a few of those taken by Eddie Mays.
It is possible to purchase high resolution images and prints from Eddie's Website. |