This past weekend was Round 2 of the Series, and as usual, Saturday began in the central Solent, with sunshine and a crisp 12 knot NW’ly wind, the Race Team set up their start line to the East of Bramble bank at 4W Ancasta, Race 1 was a 14.3nm zigzag course taking the fleet down to the West.
[Click image below to see the drone video of Race 1 Start]
Round 1 Winners Griffin lead the fleet around the course showing some good boat handling and sail selection by their 4 crew, but the fleet was hot on their heels – the Sun Fast 3300 GameOn made some significant gains finishing under a minute behind Griffin and 25 seconds ahead after IRC correction and 2.5hrs of racing. Griffin would have to settle for second and Lord of The Dance in third.
The start for Race 2 was set up in the Western Solent close to Yarmouth Harbour with a shorter 10nm course – the breeze had increased at this stage with squally showers testing the metal of the teams. Relishing the conditions, GameOn, who had elected to dip the fleet and start on port, led on the water by the leeward mark. The Sun Fast 3300’s large asymmetric and full volume bow showed its pace winning on the water and IRC handicap too. Tight racing between the Sun Fast 3600 teams match racing each other down to the finish with One Way and Smash separated by 2 seconds on the water and Griffin and Solis Ortus 18s.
With racing complete, it was into Yarmouth Harbour for hot showers and drinks on the dock courtesy of MarkSetBot with teams debriefing the days racing. With boats packed away and crews changed, competitors headed further west by road to The Hut at Colwell Bay, for further MarkSetBot drinks, race tracker analysis and dinner.
At dinner, Round 1 Winners Griffin were awarded with a matching set of Musto MPX ‘Duck Hats’, whilst Round 2’s top prize draw winner Solis Ortus received a FourthCape WeedWand.
Day 2 – With the clocks being wound back an hour, the crews were treated to extra time in their bunks. Blue sky’s, bright sunshine and 18kts of wind had the fleet starting just outside of Yarmouth Harbour on time at 10:00. The Race Team elected to make the most of the conditions and sent the fleet out through the Hurst Narrows to Warden as the windward mark, this gave way to a long but fast downwind leg to Newtown East with teams making different sail selections – once again GameOn who chose to fly their A4 spinnaker instead of Code 0 shot out of the blocks with a healthy lead by the first leeward mark. Further back teams were sailing on the edge with spinnakers in the gusty conditions.
“With a solid forecast of wind this weekend we decided to go with a full complement of four onboard… a first for GameOn and it certainly made a positive difference.” Commented Ian Hoddle “The racing and starts were super tight and a lot of fun. We were really pleased to win all three races, particularly race 2 where we started last but managed to turn it around. Race 3 on Sunday was our collective favourite…a Sun Fast 3300 with A4 kite in 20+ knots at 120-130TWA is fantastic fun and we sat at 13-15 knots of boat speed from Hurst to east of Newtown Creek. Thank you to Conor, Sophie and Flynn for never giving up and a big thank you to the team at Fourth Cape for an impeccably organised weekend again.” Ian
Game On finished up 4.5 mins ahead of the other 3300 Lord of the Dance who were just under 2 minutes ahead of the leading Sun Fast 3600 Smash. GameOn scores a hattrick for the round becoming Round 2 champions, next up is Round 3 – 8/9 November with Lymington as the host port.
Find the results, race tracking and images over on Round 2 – Yarmouth Page