St Helier Yacht Club Offshore Series overall
by Rhys Perkins 18 Sep 2019 06:00 PDT
22 June 2019
Start of race 6 in the St Helier Yacht Club's Offshore Series © Darren Stower
Abracadabra and Kalina win Offshore Series
Last weekend saw the sixth and deciding races in St Helier Yacht Club's Offshore Series. The race was held in a N.E. wind Force 3-4. The first leg was downwind to Demie de Vascelin north of the Minquiers, then a close fetch across to N.E. Minqs buoy before a run down South of Chausey and reach across to Granville. This gave a course of about 38 miles.
In Class 1 the overall winner would be between Abracadabra [Rhys Perkins] and Arctic Tern [Phil Burton] with Chez Moi [Julian Barber] close on their heels. Arctic Tern was first to fly their code zero soon followed by Abracadabra and Chez Moi.
As the wind freed the fleet peeled to their spinnakers which were dropped at the mark for the reach across to N.E. Minqs buoy.
Arctic Tern and Abracadabra tried hoisting the code zeros but it was too tight and Chez Moi benefited from keeping to two sails.
After rounding the mark there was a fast broad reach down to Chausey before dropping spinnakers and a close fetch across to Granville. Arctic Tern took Line honours closely followed by Chez Moi and Abracadabra not far behind.
When the handicaps were applied the positions were reversed with Abracadabra winning from Chez Moi. Overall in the series this made Abracadabra first, Arctic Tern second and Chez Moi third.
In Class 2 there was a great tussle between the two leading boats. Initially Kalina [Rodney Challinor] seemed to be doing best but lost out on the close fetch along the north of the Minquiers.
By the time they rounded N.E. Minqs Paper Tiger [Peter Crabb and Peter Williams] had taken out a significant lead which they held to the finish but in the later part of the race around Chausey Kalina managed to claw enough back to win on handicap. This gave Kalina overall victory in the series in Class 2.
The return race back on Sunday for The Trevor Beaton Trophy was for both classes. The course was straight back to Jersey and with a NE wind force 3-4 this gave a shy reach with spinnakers going up and down with the shifts.
Unfortunately the wind dropped for the slower boats at the finish making for a fast boat race. First was Abracadabra, second Solis Ortus [Nigel Coxshall] and third Arctic Tern.