(Warsash, England)- It’s that time of year again on the wild &
woolly Solent! Time to remove the winter warps, dust off the old
stallion, bend on the sails and take another spin around the cans. Who
has the Solent mark chart? Anyone, anyone?? God Forbid anyone forgets
that single most important bit of kit for navigating the zillion
sponsored marker buoys deployed around the Solent. For sure, veteran
sailors of this local body of water are usually some of the world’s
better sailors— damn hard to find all the marks for starters, but then
one has to factor in massive currents, whirlpools, enormous 40 kt
container ships bigger than skyscrapers zipping around the channels and
sand banks like a “dodge’em ball competition” and the capricious winds
& weather that are never, ever what was forecast. While the UK MET
Office is pretty good at weather forecasting most times, somehow that
little river of water that flows between the Needles, across the Ryde
Sands and past the Forts between the mainland and Isle of Wight often
confounds even the savviest of meteorologists.
The Brooks Macdonald Warsash Spring Series starts this weekend and runs
all spring from March 16th to April 27th. The Warsash Sailing Club has a
50-strong race management team that is second to none, taking great
pride in conducting fun, often challenging, races over the course of the
series. After all, it is Great Britain’s premiere season-opening event
and nothing is spared to ensure the sailors go home happy with grins
plastered on their faces (some might say that may have been induced by
“Guinness”?).
The regatta attracts passionate sailors from across the UK. Over 100
entries are registered with good one-design fleets of J/70s, J/80s,
J/109s and J/111s. Also sailing are J/92s, J/97s and J/105s!
The half-dozen J/70s have several new teams joining the fray. In
addition to Marie-Claude & Paul Heys on BRAVO JENNY JONES and
Malcolm & Tristan Jaques on DJANGO, the class welcomes new Warsash
entries like Colin Simonds’s DOOLALLI, Mike Flood’s J7T, Ian Wilson’s
JOYRIDE and Simon Cavey’s JUST4PLAY.
As well as six Spring Series Sundays, the Spring Championship is being
held over the final two weekends of 12th/13th and 26th/27th April.
Warsash Sailing Club extends a warm welcome to all competitors at Shore
House. A selection of hot and cold food is available each Sunday as well
as two barrels of FREE BEER! Weekly class winners are also presented
with a bottle of champagne by title sponsors Brooks Macdonald. A free
water taxi is in operation on Sundays before and after racing to and
from berths up river as far as Port Hamble. As was mentioned above,
it’s just darn hard to beat such great regatta organization! Sailing photo credits- Tim Wright/ Photoaction.com. For more Brooks Macdonald Warsash Spring Series sailing information
