Royal Southern Yacht Club AVEVA September Regatta - Overall
by Phil Riley 21 Sep 2015 11:11 BST
18-20 September 2015
The Royal Southern's summer racing series came to a spectacular conclusion as the AVEVA September Regatta provided some perfect late season Solent racing.
And if the on the water action delivered – once weekend mist on both days eventually dispersed and the breeze filled in - so did the onshore atmosphere in the club, described as 'vibrant' by a number of racing sailors.
With a diverse entry across 12 different classes there was a genuine mix of racing options, with the AVEVA-sponsored event also encompassing two national championships.
The J/80 UK National Championships saw 10 races over three days, all hotly contested by a 15-strong fleet. A steady performance saw Mike Lewis' Jester take the title after fending off some determined opposition.
"It's been an excellent few days with really good racing," said Mike. "For us consistency paid off. J out of the Box were leading early in the regatta but were OCS on one race and had to go back, which was their discard, and then in the first race on Sunday they got buried at the pin and couldn't recover which dropped them out of first place."
Racing the J/80 since 2010, Mike is the class captain and is looking forward to 2017 when the Royal Southern is hosting the world championships. He added: "We do a lot of racing here and we have twice won a Royal Southern series. I would like to move the home of the J/80 to the Club so we can incorporate the Academy boats while sailing out of here. There is just a really good atmosphere."
Yannig Loyer's French team on J out of the Box took second place, their four first places putting them ahead of Jon Powell's Betty on countback. Betty, however, did enough to win the Raymarine Championship, a series of seven regattas over the season.
The other national championship saw a tussle among the ever-competitive J/111 fleet, with three different winners from three races on the Saturday.
A pair of bullets on the Sunday – to add to a win in the first race – saw Tony Mack's McFly take the UK National Championship title ahead of Martin Dent's Jelvis and Chris Body and Andrew Christie's Icarus.
"With three winners from the first three races all credit to the J/111 class, they are all terrific sailors," said Tony. "Sunday saw more solid breeze and we found it a little easier – if you can make the windward mark first it's a lot easier than having to battle your way through the fleet. We were delighted, but even if we had not done well what a brilliant weekend to go sailing. It was lovely."
And he was full of praise for the race organisation and the atmosphere within the Club itself: "The courses have been marvellous and really clear. Some places you think they are trying to catch you out, but here it's been really clear over the radio about what was going on. It's worked really well." He added: "In business you get a feel, a smell, an atmosphere of success, and you can also go to businesses and you find the opposite feeling, but the club has that vibrant feel about it everywhere."
Another racer celebrating success echoed the sentiment, with Sir Keith Mills saying: "The new Prince Philip Yacht Haven has made a huge difference and I don't think I have seen the Southern so vibrant with yacht racing, which is terrific and just what a yacht club needs at its heart."
Sir Keith's Ker 40+ Invictus posted four straight wins on the way to winning the recently formed Fast40 class for high-performance racing machines, though had to give best in the final race to Stewart Whitehead's Carkeek 40 Mk 2 Rebellion.
"On Saturday I didn't think we were going to get any wind, but it filled in and we have had a great weekend's racing," said Sir Keith. "Five races in all, quick races, windward-leewards and really testing for all the crews with lots of lead changes. The Fast40 offers a new style of racing with smaller versions of the TPs, it's Grand Prix racing, stripped out and very responsive racing. They are big dinghies really and a lot of fun."
Someone well versed in high-performance racing, but successfully choosing the J/70 class for the AVEVA September Regatta, was Niklas Zennstrom aboard Ran.
"What's great with these small J/70s is that they are so easy to sail," he said. "You just launch the boat, hoist the sails and off you go, so compared to the TP52s and the Maxis it's a very different thing – quite nice actually to just go out sailing from the Royal Southern. "It is our third regatta with the boat and I think we have now figured out how to sail them, so we had a pretty good weekend with a 3-1-1-1-2," he added. "Downwind we have improved quite a lot, and also our boat handling and just our speed, just putting it all together really. The summer series here at the Southern has been really good, a great atmosphere with good race management, it's been a success."
Ran finished ahead of Patrick Liardet's Cosmic and Simon Carvey's Just 4 Play.
In other White Line classes victory went to Andy Hamlett's Satu (XOD), Fenton Burgin's Sioma (6m), and Gary Baker's Trio (Sportsboat).
The Black Line saw David Greenhalgh's J/92 J'ronimo tied on points but winning on countback from Annie Kelly and Andy Howe's J/97 Black Jack II in IRC3, with Peter Bromley's A31 Aneet Djinn taking the final podium place.
In IRC1 Nick Rawbone's Playing Around posted three wins on course for a class win, ahead of James Wilkie's Puma and Daniel Anthony's Malaika.
In IRC4 Jonty Sherwill's Cockleshell took a clean sweep of wins, while IRC2 went to John Barrett's Stiletto by a clear margin thanks to a 1-1-2-3 scorecard. Pat North's Dino Volante was victorious in the Cruiser Class.
After racing hundreds of competitors and guests enjoyed the Royal Southern Pirate Party with a Caribbean BBQ and a welcome dark 'n stormy. For those with enough energy left after a great day's racing. Ed and Al provided live music into the early evening. Tomorrow, racing at the AVEVA September Regatta and the J/80 UK National Championship, will come to a conclusion.
For photos and video of the AVEVA September Regatta go to www.royal-southern.co.uk or www.facebook.com/RoyalSouthernYC