The past week saw a winding down of a variety of sailing events across the northern hemisphere, but we see our colleagues Down Under now winding things up for their amazingly long 9+ month summer sailing season.Starting with our friends in Australia, the venerable J/24 class held their almost always hotly contested J/24 NSW Championship hosted by Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Pittwater, with racing taking place on Sydney Harbour. The weather made for a rather tempestuous event.
Then, across to Europe, yet another devoted group of J/24 sailors made the most of their pandemic-restricted event to hold the Coppa Italia J/24 Championship off Nettuno, Italy...a southern "suburb" of Rome along the Mediterranean seacoast.
Finally, our enthusiastic sailors in the United Kingdom continued their much-coveted fall classic, the Hamble Winter Series on that infamous "river" called the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the greater Southampton region. Crazy weather confronted the fleet, a notorious fall weather pattern that included with "remnant depressions" of Atlantic hurricanes!
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Sailing Calendar
Nov. 7- Hot Rum Series I- San Diego, CA
Nov. 14- Around the Island Race- Hong Kong, China
Nov. 21- Hot Rum Series II- San Diego, CA
CONVICTS REVENGE Wins J/24 NSW Champs
(Pittwater, Sydney, Australia)- The Australian J/24 NSW Championships was hosted by Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Pittwater from October 31st to November 1st on the gorgeous Sydney Harbour. Ten entries participated, but Paul Donnelly's CALYPSO suffered a trailer-related incident and did not compete (it’s a long story but a good one…. ask Paul about it when you’ve got a few minutes to spare).
Those regular boats who chose not to compete missed out on a great event, notwithstanding the weather which threw everything at us from warm and sunny to thunder and lightning and at times LOTS of rain! The venue and facilities were excellent, lots of hardstand space, cranes, a very professional race crew and helpful, welcoming staff. COVID Rules were obviously in place and restricted social activities a little, but it all ran very well.
The RPYC PRO Stephen Merrington managed to get all 6 heats run on a difficult stormy weekend when a lot of other club racing around Sydney was cancelled.
Saturday started with a Northeasterly breeze around 10 kts, but later shifted southerly. Two races had to be abandoned halfway through which was unfortunate (especially for Steve Wright's TINTO, leading both times), but that’s sailing!
Steve Quigley's CONVICTS REVENGE won Race 1, followed by TINTO and Clinton Hood's EL FIDELDO. Then, Race 2 was won by Dave West's ACE from John Crawford's INNAMINCKA and David McKay's STAMPED URGENT. Another race was started, but then the storm closed in and competitors were sent home in the pouring rain.
With the forecast for an early southerly expected to get up to 30 kts, hopes were not high for much sailing on Sunday. But, we were fortunate to get all four races run, in a wind moving from SW to S and increasing from 8-10 kt to well over 20 kts.
Wright's TINTO won Race 3 after a poor first leg, coming from 4th at the last mark to the final margin of 24 seconds from Quigley's CONVICTS REVENGE and West's ACE. Race 4 went to Crawford's INNAMINCKA from CONVICTS REVENGE and ACE.
With the strengthening wind, all boats we were on jibs for Race 5. This race had the closest finish of the series, with the first five finishing in 6 seconds!! ACE taking first from INNAMINCKA, then TINTO.
The final race was getting tough with the strong and gusty Southerly really testing everyone. CONVICTS REVENGE got the better of ACE in a tight tactical battle up the second work to win, with TINTO taking third.
Racing overall was very tight and competitive, with most finishing within 2 or 3 minutes each race. However, there were no protests and no (bad) collisions, so a good weekend all round.
Congratulations to Quigley's CONVICTS REVENGE team that won the series on a tiebreaker/ countback from West's ACE team on 10 points. Wright's TINTO rounded out the podium with the bronze medal. The balance of the top five included Crawford's INNAMINCKA in fourth and McKay's STAMPED URGENT in fifth position.
OVANGA DELTA Wins PHS
The handicap-based PHS sub-division results gave the win to woman skipper Janette Syme's OKAVANGO DELTA crew. Second was Marc Tromp's WATERBORNE AGAIN and third went to Clinton Hood's EL FIDELDO.
A "Resilience Prize" was awarded to Steve Arnold's SAILMATES. Competing in their first State Champs, they finished every race and flew a kite on every run. Well done!
Finally, special “Thanks” to Bryce at Infinity Rigging, and Shane at Doyle Sails who donated prizes for the event. Please support these locally owned businesses where you can. Thanks for this contribution from Stephen Wright. For more Australian J/24 Class sailing information
LA SUPERBA Five-peats J/24 COPPA ITALIA! (Nettuno, Rome, Italy)- With a trio of victories and a second place for the series, the Italian Navy's Ignazio Bonnano sailed their famous ITA 416 LA SUPERBA to victory in the COPPA ITALIA J/24 off Nettuno, south of Rome along the Mediterranean coastline. Bonanno’s crew included Simone Scontrino, Francesco Linares and Vincenzo Vano. Hosting the event was the Nettuno Yacht Club and the Circolo of Vela Anzio Tirrena, with the technical and logistic collaboration of the Marina di Nettuno, the Circolo Canottieri Nettuno and the Italian Class J/24 and the sponsor support of Margutta Che Frutta!, Life Soup, Bontà Verde Agroama and Mille Gomme.
Taking the silver medal was Luca Silvestri and his ITA 458 team on ENJOY TWO. Then, sitting in third, just one point from the second, was Massimo Mariotti's ITA 502 AVOLTORE.
After the first four National Regattas (Marina di Carrara, Mandello del Lario, Cervia, & Nettuno), Bonanno’s LA SUPERBA is leading with Pietro Diamanti's JAMAICA team in second. Eleven J/24s have competed so far in the four-event series.
"Maximum attention was paid to the provisions on containing the spread of Covid-19, thanks also to the active collaboration of the Port Authority and the naval sector of the Guardia di Finanza, who were present and available for every need," explained Valerio Taveri of Nettuno Yacht Club. The President of the Marina di Nettuno- Ugo Lori, the NYC President- Mariano Manenti, and the CVAT President- Andrea Sanzone, strongly wanted to host this edition of the Coppa Italia. The Race Committee was composed of Costanzo Villa, Livia Serafini, Emanuela Proietti, Enrico Ragno, very willing to participate in the event, despite the period we are going through. We also wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Anzio Maritime District Office and the brilliant assistance of the Maritime Finance."
The final regatta of the Italian National J/24 series will be held on November 14th and 15th. Thanks for this contribution from Italian J/24 Class secretary Paola Zanoni. For more Italian J/24 Class sailing information
Hamble Winter Series Week IV Report
(Hamble, England)- The Hamble River Sailing Club worked with local and national authorities in the United Kingdom to ensure that sailing events could take place on the Southampton Water and the infamous Solent while adhering to the covid-19 pandemic guidelines. As a result, they were able to start up their annual Hamble Winter Series, albeit with a bit of a delay. Here is the latest report from Trevor Pountain and thanks to Paul Wyeth for sailing photos.
"This week should have seen the culmination of the Hamble One-Design Championships, with racing on both Saturday and Sunday. However, the Weather Gods, or Storm Barbara as they were called last week, had other ideas. It was clear for several days in advance, that Saturday would be a complete non-starter. So, competitors were given an early cancellation on Friday lunchtime. With a well-known and respected online weather predictor giving 17-23 knots average, but gusts of 28-33 knots for the Sunday, the Race Team gave another early cancellation on the Saturday to prevent teams travelling and boats being launched.
The Forecast was not bad enough to trouble the IRC Classes, so Peter Bateson took the fleet to the vicinity of "Hamblewinterseries.com buoy" for a probable start area. The wind was moving between WSW and W, but was otherwise as expected. By 1000 hours it had gone south and dropped to 2-4 knots. There was much head scratching on the committee boat, and the competitors who had braved thunder and hail stones on the way to the start area, began to frantically adjust their rig settings and look for lighter headsails. With Windycator v2 showing 25 knots from the SW everywhere but the Bramble plateau the PRO decided to wait.
After half an hour, the wind was still light and from the south, so Peter Bateson decide it was better for the fleet to do something rather than sit around waiting. New courses were quickly designed to deal with the southerly starting breeze, but with the later legs ready for the expected southwesterly.
IRC 1 Class and IRC 2 Class got away at 1110 hrs and 1120 hrs, still in shifty, very light airs from the south. IRC 3 Class departed at 1130 hrs, with a building breeze of 10 knots.
IRC 1 Class were near the third mark at West Knoll when the "proper" breeze returned (10-15 knots) from the SW. IRC 2 yachts were half way from the first mark (East Knoll) to the second, with spinnakers up, when the wind switched from very little from the S (coming from Cowes) to 15+ knots from the NW (direct from Southampton) and several boats had a minute or two bearing off in the direction of Portsmouth before they could drop their kites and get onto the beat, which the leg had become. IRC 3 started on a beat which turned into a fetch, but at least the second leg became another beat! The rest of the race was more-or-less beats and spinnaker runs, as intended!
Big wind shifts nearly always have a snakes and ladders effect on the positions, and so it was in IRC 2 Class. Simon Perry's J/019 JIRAFFE got caught up in the pin end melee, leaving Mike & Susie Yates J/109 JAGO in clear air mid-line, alongside Gavin Howe's J/88 TIGRIS and Rob Cotterill J/109 MOJO RISIN.
In the end, it was the Yates' JAGO taking line honors and extending their lead for the series with a cumulative 2-1-1 tally for 4 pts and a near-unassailable lead on the fleet. However, "no one is counting their chickens before they hatch", so to speak. Perry's JIRAFFE team got smoked and ended up taking a 6th place to drop off their "death match" with the JAGO team...now posting 11 pts. Sailing the most consistently is Gavin Howe's J/88 TIGRIS, hanging onto third overall with the series with a 4th place, for a total of 11 pts. Yet another J/crew sits on fourth for the series, Mark Stevens' J/105 JACANA with a 4-2-7 tally for 13 pts.
In IRC 3, the amazing Greenhalgh family continues to hang in there. Though they had a disappointing 6th place this past weekend, their series tally of 6-1-6 for 13 pts keeps them in the hunt at the top of the leaderboard. While currently sitting in third place, no one doubts they have the talent and the desire to jump to the top of the class.
The Key Yachting Prosecco and Chocolates were enjoyed by all the winners, not just Susie Yates.
Next week is the mid series break, and when the fleet returns on November 8th for the real winter bit of the series. Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth For more Hamble Winter Series sailing information
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