The forecast for the second Sunday’s racing saw a contrast to the start of the Series – sunshine for the morning and a moderate NW breeze dropping to light but never below 7 knots.

That’s how the day started but after the start of the second race, the breeze dropped to next to nothing for an hour, testing the IRC 3 competitors in particular in a very different way from the blustery conditions of the previous week.

The first race was a ‘windward-leeward’ of 4 legs totalling 4.75 miles for IRC class 2 and 4.0 miles for IRC class 3, set with starboard roundings as the tide was setting to the NW. The start was near to Hamble Yacht Services buoy in 10 knots of breeze, with ‘William’ used as the windward mark. In IRC 2, Mojo Risin’ (J/109, Rob Cotterill) led the way on the water and on corrected time over Arcona 38 Triarchy (Ollie Reynolds and Faith Burns), both of them well clear of the rest of the class and with Chris Burleigh’s J/109 Jybe Talkin’ 3rd. In Class 3, James Crew and Peter Rutter on the half-tonner Quokka moved up from two 2nd places last week to take the win by 1¼ minutes over David Greenhalgh’s J/92 J’ronimo 2nd and last week’s winner Betty (SJ320, Jon Powell) 3rd just 20 seconds further back.

With the breeze apparently performing as expected at around 6-8 knots, still NW although shifting around quite a lot, the second race started around mid-day. It was set ‘around the cans’ and a bit longer, at 7 miles and 6 miles for the different classes. A sharp windshift left in the last minute before the start favoured the pin end, however IRC 2 got away safely. A 10-minute delay saw the ODM moved and a revised course set for IRC 3.

As the breeze died away, the race committee shorted the course at around 3 miles. IRC 1 just made it to the finish before the long lull. However IRC 3 had to sit it out, creeping forwards against the tide, drifting back, kedging, creeping forward… Eventually a little breeze arrived from the west and the boats closed the finish at speeds of up to 2 or even 3 knots! Even so, crews were glad that the race could be completed rather than abandoned.

In IRC class 3, Quokka again headed the results, this time by 4 minutes on corrected time. Betty pipped J’ronimo to 2nd by just under a minute on corrected time, with Memory Maker (First 31.7, Don Forster) 50 seconds further behind. In IRC 2 the same boats as in race 1 held the podium but in a different order, Triarchy winning 2 by 26 seconds over Jybe Talkin’, with Mojo Risin’ third, just under a minute further back.

After the delays when the wind disappeared, it was hoped that not too many ‘Brownie Points’ were lost by competitors being later home than planned for Mothering Sunday lunches or teas.

A third of the way through the Series and with discards not kicking in for another two weeks, Triarchy leads Class 2 by 2 points and Quokka heads Class 3 by 1 point.

The series continues on 4 more Sundays through to the end of April, with a break for Easter. The Spring Championship with multiple races for IRC, Cape 31s, J/70s and SB20s is over the two weekends of 15th-16th and 22nd-23rd April.

by Peter Bateson