Prima 38s in the Round the Island race
by Tom Hayhoe 28 Jun 2004 10:47 BST
26 June 2004
10 Prima 38s started the Island Sailing Clubs' Round the Island Race, the third event in the class inshore championship series.
Early pace setters on the tight spinanaker reach down the western Solent included Guy Spurr's Kylidh, class winners of the event in 2003, Paul King's Serendip and Mervyn Hughes' White Knuckles. Roger Lee's Fat Diva and Tom Hayhoe and Natalie Jobling's Mostly Harmless both made good roundings of the Needles to join this bunch who enjoyed close competition with regular place changes on the beat across Freshwater Bay. Coming into St Catherines, Kylidh became trapped among a group of other IRC competitors, to be passed by Mostly Harmless and Fat Diva.
Mostly Harmless increased her lead as spinnakers appeared on the reach to Bembridge Ledge and run to the No Man's Land Fort, only to see Fat Diva and Kylidh close the gap by going further into Osborne Bay on the reach home. But these two went too close under Norris and ran out of wind, allowing White Knuckles to take second place behind Mostly Harmless.
With three events gone and two more to count, Mostly Harmless leads the inshore championship series from Rodney Emberson's Bounty Hunter.