Raymarine Warsash Spring Series 2006

Raymarine Warsash Spring Series 2006

As many of you know a dog with a cold wet nose is a sign of its good health and the same could be applied to yacht racing in the Solent this Spring. March 12th sees the start of the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series, with a fleet in excess of 200 boats there will be quite a few cold and wet hooters out on the water. The passion for yachting in the UK is really brought out by the thousand or so sailors that will be getting up at “stupid o’clock” on a frosty Sunday morning to compete.

Warsash Sailing Club will be hosting the largest and arguably the most competitive season opener in the UK for a huge variety of boats, here are some comments on just a few of the classes that will be competing;



J80

The J80 class enjoyed a great season last year, culminating in the Silva J80 Worlds at Falmouth won by Ruairidh Scott in a fleet of fifty boats. Last year the Spring Series was won by Peter Henney on Nemo. He sails with his son James, who has recovered from Leukaemia and it is therefore very apt that the Solent J-80 fleet has adopted Sail4Cancer as their official charity for the 2006 season. Peter and his crew are looking forward to defending their title, as he explained to Louay Habib;

“The Spring Series is a great warm up event, and sailing every weekend gets your boat up to speed for the season ahead. By the end of the Series you are really on the pace, especially with coaching events that are organised for the non-racing Saturdays.

My crew is very important sailing a boat like the J-80; you need a good team to win. Last year we had the talented French sailor William Leschaeve as trimmer, and this year we are looking for a new trimmer for the Spring Series and the 2006 season. Shane Hughes from North Sails had a big input into our boat speed for the last Spring Series, and he will be helping again with the new Kevlar jib recently approved for the Class.”



Laser SB3

A staggering 38 SB3s contested the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series and this year that number looks like being eclipsed, these pocket rockets are capable of in excess of 20 knots. Class Chairman, David Cheyne will be defending his series win last year, he believes that the Solent fleet will be using the series to keep ahead of the growing competition elsewhere and had this to say,

“2006 sees the further strong growth in the Laser SB3 Fleet. This year expect to see fleets regularly in excess of 50 boats, with several high profile names from other fleets joining in. Geoff Carveth, David Bedford, Craig Burlton, Charlie Whelan and Mike Budd all joined the fleet late in 2005, and will be keen to get up to speed before the Grand Prix season kicks off with the Pwllheli Grand Prix on the last weekend of April.

For many, the Spring Series will provide most of the competitive racing hours prior to the Europeans, and with North Wales suddenly sprouting a ten boat fleet at the end of 2005, the Solent brigade will need to work hard to keep ahead. The Abersoch contingent will no doubt be up to speed in no time, with their calendar already well marked out for the summer. The culmination of the series is of course the Spring Championships in April, which for several years now has been the inaugural year’s event for the Class in the UK, and most of the Northern boats will travel to this to see what they have gleaned from their pre-season training. We expect about 50 boats for these weekends, as the growing fleet at Lymington, where 10+ boats are now based, will travel to the Hamble for the split weekend competition. It should be an awesome kick off for the season.”

Steve White was part of the crew winning the SB3 European Championships in Garda last year, with a new crew of Keith Groves and Andrew Morland on cheekily named “Remain nameless”, they are seeking a sponsor to bolster their impressive start last season. Steve White explains how he views the Spring Series;

“We’ll be using the Spring Series as a workup to the major SB3 events of the year. Refining crew work, rig settings and tactical awareness between the three of us.
You could sum that up as getting used to being on the water after the winter lay off, but you don’t forget how to race, it’s a matter of moving forward and learning more each time you go out. Having won the Europeans with Glenn Bourke last year, the bar is set very high for me personally; this fleet just gets better and better, so it’s going to be incredibly difficult to repeat.

The SB3 fleet really grew last year, that’s only going to continue. The degree of talent in the class will certainly increase and I expect consistency will win most regattas. I’m really looking forward to racing the SB3 again, particularly the first time it blows!”

The SB3 Fleet in the Spring Series will be extremely competitive, besides the already mentioned look out for Ben Dukes WKD Vodka Red which may well be sporting the talents of Ian Southworth and 3 Sad Blokes helmed by Jerry Hill should also be in the running.



J105 & J109

J105 Class Captain and co-owner of J Dream, Kirsty Apthorp gave Yachts and Yachting magazine the low down on the personalities that abound in the J105 class;

‘If you look up “party” in the dictionary you will find a picture of the Diablo-J crew with owners Gary Fry and Nick Martin leading from the front. Social life with these guys is a war of attrition with no prisoners taken. Nonetheless they are a highly competitive group with notable wins including the 2004 RORC Cherbourg race.

Simon and Jane Curwen with a largely family crew have been leading lights in the fleet for some years. Winners of both the 2004 and 2005 nationals they have proven hard to beat despite having one of the older boats in the fleet. Similarly Malcolm Jaques in J-Spot (formerly J-Go) has enjoyed long term success, so proof positive that in this class you cannot buy success. Shaun “Spud” Murphy has shown outstanding performance with Slingshot on last years offshore circuit winning the RORC 2-Handed division outright with several race firsts.

Newer entrants to the class include Rob Knowles in Juliette, Paul Griffiths with Fay-J, David & Kirsty Apthorp in J-Dream and James and John Owen with Jet.

The J105 will be racing in their own class for the first, last year they were racing with the J109s, the combined class massed a fleet of 23 boats last year and was won by a J109 Zelda, owned by Michael Ewart-Smith and Ben Richards, Michael explained why the Spring series is an important part of their racing season;


“The Spring series is a must, quite simply because there is nothing like being part of the buzz on the Hamble as it comes out of hibernation. In the middle of January with only seven weeks to go to the start, it seems like a crazy thing to want to do but come mid-March we all know why we do it. It is fantastic racing and to win the bowsprit class, the most important thing is to get the basics right; make a good start, keep your nose clean and then focus on whatever is important at the time be that pressure, tide, shifts, boat speed or clear air.”



Cork 1720

The 1720 class has matured in recent years meaning that although not growing as rapidly as in previous years there is quality racing in the fleet. Sixteen boats competed in the last Spring series and roughly the same number is expected for the 200 edition. The current Spring series champion is Simon Blake’s unusually named “Sworded Fish”. Simon and his crew have a background in dinghies such as Merlin Rockets and D14s.

Simon Blake commented;

“We are new to the 1720 Class and we are a young crew all around 25 years old, we decided to buy a 1720 because we wanted to race against some of the well known and highly talented sailors in the class. I had heard that the racing was very good and that is the main reason I wanted to get involved with it and last year’s racing did not disappoint at all. We plan to use the Spring series as a build up to other 1720 events culminating in the European Championships in France this Summer without preparing the crew and the boat in events such as the Spring series we will not be able to achieve our best performance in the big events in the Summer but also the Spring series is a fun event to do and we will be enjoying the social side of things especially meeting up with the rest of the crews again.”



IRC

Handicap racing under the IRC rule has now been adopted all over the world, it may not be perfectly fair and that argument will probably go on and on but if the success of a rule can be measured by the number of people participating under it then it is definitely popular for the five classes that will be racing under IRC in the Raymarine Warsash Spring Series in March and April.

Whilst the smaller armada of keel boats racing in the lower divisions rarely get a mention their contribution to the racing scene in the UK should never be questioned.

Often the owners are seasoned sailors who invite new people into the sport or new owners trying out for the first time, many young sailors having a first taste of keel boat racing. This sort of schooling may not be as well planned and intensive as the brilliant RYA keel boat programme but it allows new people into the sport on a casual basis, hopefully getting more people hooked on sailing. However don’t for a moment believe that these classes are any less competitive, plenty of scores will be settled in the Series. Personally I started sailing in this way and there are some great battles in IRC4 and IRC5.

In IRC3 there should be quite a ding-dong between to old adversaries; ‘Lucky’ Jim MacGregor and his Elan 40 Flair IV and Ex-RORC Commodore Peter Rutter and his one off design Quokka. Quokka pipped Flair IV last Spring but that was reversed in the recent Garmin Hamble Winter Series. These two are not the only two yachts that will be competing for top spot, in with a good chance of taking the title is the Dehler 36sq works boat Deliverance Veneziani helmed by Russell Hodgson, Matt Holmes of Dehler UK has said there will probably be three other Dehler 36 models competing.

In IRC2 there is a fusion of yachts around 40 feet in length with an entry list boasting a wide range of racer cruisers ; Benetau 40.7s, IMX 40s and Prima 38s. But watch out for Ian Maclean and his Ker 36 Software Mistress, they have been training hard over the winter and could have a dynamite crew on board, possibly including top match racing sailors Ian Williams and Americas Cup sailor Simon Shaw. Jerry Otter’s IMX 40 Exabyte 2 is the current champion of the series but he is most likely to be racing his Farr 45 Werewolf under the IRM class.

The big boat class under IRC should see four J133 vying for top spot; Jonathan Goring winner of the last Commodore’s Cup will be in Jeronimo and will be competing against Jump (Stewart Hawthorn), Jammy Dodger (Neal Martin) and Jareau (Graeme Hutchinson). Chris Brown’s DK 46 Fidessa Fastwave is the current Raymarine Warsash Spring Series Champion and should they race under IRC will be difficult to beat.But Jerry Otter and Werewolf and Shaun Frohlich’s new Exabyte 4 will also be racing but will struggle under IRC.My bet is John Shepherd’s long awaited Ker 46 Fair Do’s, (If she does enough races)



IRM

There are all sorts of rumours flying around regarding the IRM class, two classes are a possibility; in IRM 1 there could be as many as ten Farr 45s lining up with several DK46s and Swan 45s. IRM2 would be made up of Farr 40s and Ker 11.3s. There are two weekends scheduled as a Big Boat Series in March and April.

Currently there is only one entry! One way or another the Farr 45s will be racing this Spring, either under IRM or level rating….

The re-birth of the Farr 45 fleet has been continuing with the highly successful Shaun Frohlich purchasing Exabyte 4 which will be competing in its maiden series. Werewolf (Jerry Otter) had a fantastic season in 2005 as did Rebel (Duncan Morris). Rennaisance (John Bainbridge) is also confirmed for the Series

Peter Morton has owned six of the Farr 45s racing in the Solent this year and will be racing Atomic, he explained the situation to Louay Habib and believes that a ‘first past the post’ system is favoured by the owners.

“ I have been in discussions with all of the Farr 45 and the DK46 owners, the problem is that the Farr 45s do not rate at all well under IRC and the DK46s have a similar problem under IRM. The Swan 45s probably fair better under IRC. In essence it is not possible to please all of these boats all under one rule. However I feel you have to do what the vast majority of the owners want and the emails and conversations with them are all pointing to the idea of level rating, this was tried out in the Vice Admirals Cup last year and everybody competing said it was a resounding success and the fact that, in a mixed fleet, a Farr 45 came first and last shows that the winner was down to boat handling rather than handicap.”

Peter Morton certainly knows what he is talking about, Nick Lutte, owner of DK46 Shockwave described the Vice Admirals’ Cup as “The best fun I have had with my clothes on all year!”

Apologies to the followers of the Sigma 33s, Sigma 38s, Mumm 30s and Hunter 707s.
The Raymarine Warsash Spring Series is such a popular event that it would require a book rather than a magazine to mention all.

One last tip, bang up to date weather information is a real bonus and top weather specialist Mike Broughton (07770667857) provides a forecast updated every hour by text message, this service is available right up to the first start.

For those competing; wrap up well, good luck and above all have a good laugh!

This article was produced for Yachts and Yachting Magazine www.yachtsandyachting.com