IRC Autumn Championships at the Hamble River Sailing Club

Two Cape 31's on the podium at the Autumn IRC Champs. With sailing cancelled on the Saturday due to light winds, the IRC Autumn Champs became a one day regatta.

Excerpt from HRSC report;

In race 1, Tokoloshe 4, Cape 31, Michael Bartholomew, shot round the two laps of the course in 43 minutes and 55 seconds in IRC 1, despite there being only 4/5 knots of breeze. Fanatic, Cape 31, Johnny Cooper came home second, just under two minutes later and Raging Bull 2, Tim Tolcher was third. Jiraffe, Cape 31, Simon Perry had a coming together with the riser on the leeward mark. It seems Jiraffe does not only have a long neck but also a long keel, though to be fair at low water there is some slack in the buoy's ground tackle. "We just stopped to eat our sandwiches," joked Simon. It was good to note that the rest of the fleet understood what a rib carrying an M flag meant, as they all gave Jiraffe and the tangled buoy a wide berth.

For Race 2, with the wind building to 5/7 knots, Classes 1&2, started with one lap of the Race 1 course, then a second beat to the windward mark and spreader, followed by spinnaker reaches to East Knoll (4H) where a gybe took them to QXI International (4N). A two-mile beat to Darling Buoy (4R), was followed by a spinnaker reach to 4J and a run to the original laid leeward mark with finish at Hill Head (4M,) a total of 7.5 miles.

Tokoloshe 4 repeated its Race 1 result with a second bullet. This gave the "new" Tokoloshe the IRC Class 1 Championship that last year's "old" Tokoloshe won so convincingly. In doing so she won the Hamble Star Trophy for the Big Boat Championship for the second time too. In the second race, Jagerbomb, J111, Paul Griffiths saved it's time to relegate Fanatic to third place. In the overall standings these positions were reversed however.