News

 

More Cowes success for Itchenor Xs

 

The weekend of July 24/25 saw the annual Household Division Yacht Club and Royal Yacht Squadron Regattas at Cowes.  It was an Itchenor "one two" in both races for XODs.

 

On Saturday it was X26 Catherine who took line honours form Peter Taylor's Felix X192.  Newly arrived from Antigua, Alasdair Ashford showed he had not lost his "X touch" with a first on Sunday in Relaxation X177.  Felix was again second and was the most consistent performer of the weekend.

 

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Cowes Classics Week

 

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XOD Central Solent Championships 2010

For the first time in 99 years, XODs were seen racing off Hythe in Southampton Water at the weekend.  Heads turned on the decks of the Red Funnel ferry as 17 XODs from Yarmouth, Cowes, Hamble and Itchenor sailed from a start line on the Netley shore and raced to the northernmost Hythe buoy near Hythe jetty.   The third race of the XOD Central Solent Championships had a course to commemorate the first XOD race held in June 1911 by the Motor Yacht Club that had its headquarters aboard the old ex-Admiralty paddle steamer Enchantress moored off Netley.    

The two-day five-race series was organised by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, whose race management team gave the fleet excellent courses, clear comprehensive communications and a quick efficient turnaround between races, despite the 35 degree wind shift after the attention signal for Race 2 which required a postponement to reconfigure the course.  

Race 1 saw the fleet sailing across Southampton Water to the Royal Southampton buoy and back to the ODM twice round in a brisk westerly breeze of 16 knots and was won by Tim Harding’s newly restored X47 Vanity helmed by Peter Baines, with Peter Taylor’s X192 Felix in second place.  Race 2 was started after a short postponement when the wind veered to the north-west and increased gusting to 22 knots.  The start was very close with the Line Officer’s eyes widening when James Meaning’s X72 Venus approached from course side and ducked behind the line at the last minute.  The call was “All Clear” - just.   The race was won by X2 Palassie helmed by Lisa Childerley and crewed by her husband Stuart and their two young children, with Neil Payne’s X172 LizzWhizz in second place.   Race 3 saw the wind easing and backing slightly, making it possible to set the commemorative race to Hythe, which saw Mark Palmer helming X177 Relaxation first round the windward and leeward marks only to be passed up the last beat by the Childerley’s in X2 Palassie hugging the Woolston shore and playing the wind shifts to finish ahead of the rest of the fleet at the finish line at Moorhead, closely followed by Peter Taylor’s X192 Felix scoring another second place.

At the end of the first day, a Prizegiving in the Royal Southampton YC’s clubhouse followed the racing with prizes being presented to Day One’s race winners

Sunday morning saw a cracking good sailing breeze of 15-20 knots of wind from the south-west and the fleet was joined by Alan Perry’s X55 Falconet and Jasper Bardon’s X151 Xanadu from Itchenor.   From a start off Netley Dome, CRO Mike Garvey sent the fleet across Southampton water to marks on the Fawley shore, timing the racing to miss a huge outbound car transporter which passed just after the finish.  The course of 3 windward and leeward legs saw X2 Palassie pull ahead decisively to score her third win, with Alan Perry’s X55 Falconet in second place.   

Race 5 saw another close fleet start with Peter Baines in X47 Vanity subject to an Individual Recall as the fleet pulled away across Southampton Water.  At the end of the first downwind leg, X124 Kathleen dropped their spinnaker in the water and crew John Roberts followed into the water while attempting to retrieve it.   Helm MOS FitzGerald and remaining crew managed to pull him aboard again promptly and they joined the tail-enders of the fleet, who had to gybe to avoid a Red Funnel ferry on the last downwind leg.  The race was won comfortably by X2 Palassie scoring her fourth win, while second place went to X188 Princess Jalina, sailed by new owner David Palmer, in his first season in XODs and in his fourth Princess Jalina, following his Sigma 33 and two Dragons.  With his results improving impressively during the series, this could be the XOD to watch for the future.   As the fleet sailed away from the finish bound for home ports, the radio crackled with thanks to the Royal Southampton’s race management team for a superbly well organized and enjoyable series, to replies of “See you next year”.

Tina Scott

Overall Results:

1^st    X2 Palassie - Lisa Childerley

2^nd   X172 LizzWhizz - Neil Payne

3^rd    X13 Mischief -  Diana Wilson

Full results can be found on the Royal Southampton YC website

See photographs in the Gallery

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Cowes Week 2010 entries

 

Cowes Week is as popular as ever with the XODs with 88 entries as I write (July 24th).  Itchenor Xs entered so far are:

Catherine X26

Chartreuse X171

Felix X192

Judy X191

Kittiwake X15

Lass X80

Madame X X141

Perdix X169

Phoenix X186

Relaxation X177

Skua X149

Thora X101

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Westmacott Regatta June 12th and 13th

 

There was a 100% increase in XOD entries from last year with 6 XODs - 4 from Hamble and 2 from Itchenor, but one Hamble boat had mast problems and could not actually sail there to participate on the day.  The 5 XODs participating were:

 

X13 Mischief – Diana Wilson – helm Rick Neall

X90 Calypso – John Harding

X124 Kathleen – MOS FitzGerald

X177 Relaxation – Tina Scott – helm John Long

X191 Judy – Bill Mallam

 

In addition to the XODs, there were also 17 Victory’s, 6 Squibs and 5 Bembridge One Designs, total 33 boats.

 

It was a superb event ably managed by the RN&RAYC and supported by Portsmouth Sailing Club, with excellent berthing and infrastructure from Haslar Marina.  Saturday’s 3 races were excellent in a NNW F3-4 with sunshine and spring tides.  The race area provided continuous interest for crews, with ferries, hovercraft, customs boats, cruisers, classic yachts Marquita and Eleanora and fishing boats to watch against the backdrop of the Spinnaker Tower, Fort Blockhouse and Haslar.  For the helms, all the maritime activity provided a constant challenge to their concentration.  The courses and times for racing were clearly announced on VHF together with the PROs intentions for races 2 and 3.    Races 1 and 2 had windward-leeward courses round fixed marks and laid marks and race 3 included a wing mark.  Tina Scott’s Relaxation helmed by John Long with Tina and Guy Partington crewing had two firsts and a second.

 

After racing, everyone was towed through Portsmouth Harbour entrance over a fast running spring ebb and congregated in the Mary Mouse Lightship at Haslar Marina for refreshments.   An enjoyable evening followed with an excellent dinner with speeches at the RN&RAYC.   On Sunday, one longer race was programmed, but the light variable wind never settled enough to set a line or course, so the race was lost. 

 

A prizegiving and lunch was held aboard the Mary Mouse Lightship and the organisers and Race Officers were thanked by all competitors for the excellent organisation and superb on-water support from the PSC RIB fleet.

 

XOD Results:  1st Relaxation, 2nd Mischief, 3rd Calypso

 

Report from Tina Scott and Bill Mallam

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Early season results roundup

 

April Fools Mug was won by “early bird” Perdix with the Stocker prize going to Beaver and the Pilsey to Vixen.

 

Felix Bowl was again scooped by Felix.  Falconet was the Stocker fleet winner.

 

Hutcheson Cups were won by Wenda (1^st) and Perdix (2^nd).  Ilex was top boat in the Stocker fleet and Vixen once more in the Pilsey.

 

In the navigation races, the Vernon Cup saw Wenda again on the podium and the Leuw Cup gave Thora her first taste of silver this season.

 

For full results go to Results

 

Wenda wins the Hutcheson Cup - photograph David Priscott

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Pre season fun

 

Report from our West Sussex reporter:

A fun evening was had at The Gribble Inn's skittle alley in Oving on Friday 19th March.  About 30 thirsty Itchenor XOD members competed in a keenly contested competition between the Winner, Stocker and Pilsey fleets.

 

Our Class Captain - Alan Perry awarded prizes to Tina Scott for the lowest score, William Plant for being the most improved player of the evening, but the overall winners, coming from nowhere in the last round to snatch victory in the last 3 balls of the event, were the Pilsey team.

For those interested in the name of the pub and its famous local micro brewery beer - The Gribble Ale.....yes, it is the virulent little sea creature that is eating away at Itchenor Sailing Club's wooden staging and well known to the ISC Hon Bosun - Jim Jerwood.......it's the gribble worm!