Despite the forecast being skeptical about whether there’d be any wind for the weekend 20 fireflies turned up for the Hamble River SC open meeting to be greeted by hazy sunshine and a calm river.

Having been promised there was sufficient breeze on the race area the fleet made the long trek (well for a firefly anyway) to the course set off Hill Head. Despite the haze a light sea breeze filled-in in time for racing to start and remained there or thereabouts for the rest of the Day 1.

The ebb tide giving a slight lee bow on starboard making for some interesting starts, but Race Officer Rob Lamb maintained good discipline. First blood of the day went to Simon Spolton and Sally Wilson leading from the start. Hamble heros Barney Smith and Alannah Witherby took the second race. The final race of the day saw a dying breeze and a very close battle for line honours. Spolton and Wilson took an early lead with Mark Tait and Sophie Brookes taking the upper hand at the leeward mark only to loose out the next time round when Spolton and Wilson took the opportunity of a small lane to cross the running fleet and a port lift to get ahead on the short beat to the finish.

Racing started promptly on Sunday but the first beat confused a lot of the fleet, paying handsomely to head out into the tide to get the starboard shift. However, most of the fleet got caught the wrong side of a cruising yacht towing a tender at the mark but Andy Palmer-Felgate and Liz Sutton on the right-hand side of the course managed to avoid the commotion and sailed off in to a healthy lead. Roger Morris and Sally Wakefield chased hard to finish second.

Morris and Wakefield improved on their second place and went on to win Race 5 which left the points very tight at the top prior the last race.

With four boats within two points of each other overall, the final order continually changed up to the end of the nail-bitingly slow last run in Race 6. Eventually Morris and Wakefield took the race win and second overall, with Tait and Brookes slip through int second place in the race and overall victory.

Overall Results

1st F498 Dido, Mark Tait and Sophie Brooke 2, 2, 2, (8), 2, 2 10pts
2nd F3119 Horror, Roger Morris and Sally Wakefield (5), 4, 3, 2, 1, 1 11pts
3rd F3925 The Sith, Simon Spolton and Sally Wilson 1, 3, 1, (7), 4, 4 13pts
4th F3023 Fourwood Thinking, Barney Smith and Alannah Witherby 3, 1, (5), 3,
3, 3 13pts
5th F3919 Mrs Brock, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby (10), 5, 4, 6, 7, 5 27pts

1st all female boat
9th F3739 Willow Lucy Boreham and Rachel Crebbin Dell Quay SC

1st Under 18 boat
16th F3711 Eric Fiona Jones and Sammy Burns Hamble River SC