The final day and three races for the Raymarine Warshash Spring Series could not have been dialed up with better weather - a force three increasing to stiff four from the South East, blue sky and Sun. Going into the final day Lutine was the only boat that had sailed all the races in the series and therefore was leading the points table. For the crew of Peter, Amanda and Natalie Young, Mary Webb and Martin Moss the pre race nerves were intense as Peter had calculated that the nearest competitor, Scarramouche was level on points after allowing three discards. In preparation for the final three races Peter had all spare weight removed and didn't allow the usual lunches, spare kit bags, crates of beer etc - so with a mars bar a piece and one bottle of water for the day Belle set off for the deciding races of the Spring Series.

All three races followed a similar patten with the first three boats, Betty, Tiger Feet and Sparkle being too quick and consistent leaving Belle's crew to try and get round the course ahead of Scaramouche.  For most of the time there was little in it with Belle managing to keep up and occasionally get ahead of Scaramouche helped by enthusiastic trimming from Mary, who nearly threw herself over the stern in her enthusiam to trim the spinnaker! and Natalie unflabably operating the bow. However, the lack of practice and familiarity with the boat which is inherent  for a Club crew allowed Scarramouch to take advantage of Belle's lower mark roundings and to keep then keep the advantage to finish ahead of us.

Belle's crew were more than happy to concede victory to Scaramouche who are a very friendly and sporting crew but on retunring to the shore realised that only two discards had been allowed and therefore they had won the Series after all.

A great effort from the Club and congratulations to everyone who took part and sailed on Belle during the series - who were -

Peter Young

Martin Moss

Darren Powell

Clodagh Mitchell

Liz Lotz

Andy Jameson

Amanda Young

Katrina Dwan

Natalie Young

Phil Stephenson

Richard Shreeve

After a later than planned arrival into Haslar, I managed to join Lutine just in time for a proper dinner and a ‘few’ vino’s.
Club weekend seemed to be off to a good start, we had a great mixture of nationalities, with the English outnumber by an International crew, comprising of representatives from NZ, America and a token Irish punter thrown in for good luck.  Guy, our resident chef for the weekend, was out to impress, wowing us with homemade meals, more home-grown and fresh produce that you could shake a stick at, much of which came directly from his garden in Somerset or his surrounding locale!  That Friday night would prove to be a rather civilised and tame night (when compared to Saturday night!), as we all got to know each others stories and talked about what we may like to get up to the following day on the water.
 
Saturday morning brought with it a touch of wind, Simon reckoned enough to allow us to attempt the NAB Tower challenge, so off we set. 
We made it through the forts and powered ahead to round the tower, getting up to over 8kts. After rounding the tower and a rather confused looking yacht, the wind died down a bit, or so the helm claimed…(!!)….and we crept along to log a time of 2hr.17min.06 (that sound right Simon, I wrote it in log book??). 
 
Over a sandwich lunch on the go, we moseyed our way back towards Cowes,  and talk turned to the likes of monking, nuning and seagulling (all of which are currently being considered for inclusion in next edition of Oxford dictionary…I’m dying to hear the variety in definitions!!) – In hindsight, I think I can safely say, this marked the beginning of the end!
Initial talk of trying to get over to Yarmouth for the evening was abandoned and our focus turned to finding somewhere at Cowes for the night.  We moored up at East Cowes marina and soaked up the early April sun.  A perfect evening of vino, another top class meal from Guy, some pontoon acrobatics from Lorel and Amanda and plenty and plenty of story telling!
 
Sunday morning (early afternoon, in truth!), as you can well imagine, we all arose with fresh, clear heads and raring to go!!  Simon suggested a Girls vs Boys afternoon of racing, which consisted of a simple round the cans course in the best time.  After a few dodgy tacks, the Boys got into the swing of thinks and posted a respectable time just over the 1 hour mark.  Girls were up next, Lorel proved fit & rested enough to join us in our efforts and we got off to a cracking start…concentration and skill required in lights airs, but, true to form, the wind let us down and we abandoned the race when it became obvious that the Boys time would not be beaten – A re-match is most definitely called for!
 
Time had gotten the better of us and so, we made our way back into Portsmouth, tired, happy and some a little burnt after our time in the Sunny Solent!

Orla Mellett