2008 Season

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	Island S.C.. - 28th June - JP Morgan Round the Island Race As everyone says a great day's sailing for most but for a few the Needles were a mile too far. See Image Nos. 2964 (Sonata Presto loses rig at Hurst Narrows) & 2968 (Folkboat Bossa Nova is hit)
	Royal Southern Y.C. - 22nd June - Mid-summer Regatta On Sunday morning the brilliant sunshine and a glorious Southwesterly breeze was just too much for the sportsboat fleets. With gusts of 35 knots and a vicous Solent chop building PRO Tony Lovell had no alternative but to send the boats home. PRO Peter Bateson took the keelboats over to the shelter of the island and managed to get in one race before the conditions deteriorated. However on Saturday in far less pleaseant weather the full racing schedule was completed. See the club website, www.royal-southern.co.uk
	Royal Lymington Y.C. - 14th June - Nordic Folkboat National Championships Three cracking days of racing, with two of them out in Christchurch Bay, and Edward Donald helming 'Madelaine beat Stuart & Caroline Watson's 'Crackerjack' by a single point to take this year's title.
	Royal Southern Y.C. - 23rd - 25th May - J-Cup Here is a selection of images from the weekend's racing. Mixed weather, mostly good & great on Saturday, gave everyone a chance to enjoy some thrills & spills. Full results are on the Royal Southern website. Please contact me for proofs of your boat.
	Royal Southern Y.C. - 23rd - 25th May - J-109 Nationals The world's largest entry of J-109s, 32, contested this year's National Championship. In a wide range of conditions Johnny Blue II successfully defended their title. Click the image to see a selection of images from the racing. Contact me for proofs of your individual boat.
	Royal Southern Y.C. - 10th & 11th May - May Regatta The first monthly regatta of the season attracted a good number of entries. The weekend included the J-80 Southern area Championships, which was won by Terry Palmer with three wins & a 4th place. Ian Southworth & Nigel Smith also won three races to take the Laser SB3 class. The full results are on the club website, www.royal-southern.co.uk. Next weekend sees the club running the prestigious J-Cup.
	First 40.7 National Championships - Royal Southern Y.C. - 10th & 11th May A gallery of images from the weekend's great racing are now on-line here. Not all the images are displayed. Please contact me for proofs of individual boats. Despite the light winds the racing was competitive all wekend. Congratulations to Gareth Williams, 'Challenger', who won it on count back from Tim Spalding helming 'Love Shack'.
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 6 Really the weather was the only winner today. Four of the Black Fleet classes ran out of time and there were only a handful of finishers in the other two. The Sortsboats were unable to complete their scheduled three races. If you were there you would know how painful it was. See the club website for the overall results.
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Sportsboat Championships - 2nd Saturday It was warm! Oh Joy! Not much wind and it was very shifty both left & right and up & down. Geoff Carveth (SB3), Ian Atkins (J-80) & Cacciatore (707) were going well in the early races. Full results at club website, www.warsashspringseries.org.uk
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 5 A most complex weekend's racing. 2nd weekend of the Big Boat Series. 1st weekend of the Sportsboat Spring Championships as well as the normal Sunday's schedule. Very poor weather on Saturday limited me to a few J-80 images and then a failure of the steering cable on my RIB limited me to staying with the Black fleet on Sunday.
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 4 - Black Fleet With last Sunday's races lost to the bad weather there were extra races scheduled for IRC 1, J-109 & J-105 classes. Race Director Peter Bateson got the course lengths right for these classes and there was very little 'hanging around' between the races. See www.warsashspringseries.com for the full story
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 4 - White Fleet All the classes in this fleet completed three races today. Ian Southworth helming 'Chilli Chaser' had a clean sweep in the SB3s but, having missed the 2nd Sunday is 5th overall behinbd Geoff Carveth's 'Palava'. Full results and reports on the Warsash S.C. website soon
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 2 - Black Fleet The wind made life very difficult today. The classes that got away early suffered badly when the wind swung from NW to the Needles Channel. The later classes used Gales HSB as their first mark. See www.warsashsc.org.uk for the full results and report
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 2 - White Fleet The Sportsboat classes had more luck on their courses nearer the entrance to Southampton Water. They got away on time and the major wind shift happened as they were finishing their first race and, with the courses reset, the 2nd race was hald in a reasonable breeze.
	Weston S.C. - Easter Grand Slam - 24th March The weather relented (slightly) on Monday but it was incredibly cold. Still lodsa boats went racing, most of them successfully. It was too cold to capsize. The full results are on the club website.
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 1 - Black Fleet The miserable conditions for the first Sunday's racing didn't deter most of the competitors. The early morning NNW wind built steadily throughout the day as it swung to the North. A steady trickle of boats decided to go for an early dirnk as the gusts went to 25 kts and more. Full report & the results on the Warsash Club website, www.warsashsc.org.uk
	Raymarine Warsash Spring Series - Week 1 - White Fleet By the second race a number of boats didn't come to the start line but the ones that did had a great ride on the downwind legs. Craig Burlton made it a double winning both the Laser SB3 races. Go to the club website for the full report and results. There is now a fortnight's break until the 2nd set of races. I do hope it is warmer by then
	Hamble Warming Pans - 9th March There was a lot less wind on Sunday morning but the Merlins had again classed this event as a Silver Tiller meeting after many years and there was nearly 30 boats entered. It was also good to see the National 12's back on the Hamble. As usual the Foxers did there own thing.
	Stokes Bay S.C. - UKLA Spring Qualifier - 1st & 2nd March A good turnout of nearly 200 Standard & Radial rigs had a great start to the new season. The new Radial Round Robin system was used and early indications are that it worked well, even if helms & Race Officers had to get accustomed to the system. Practise makes perfect. The full results and reports can be found at the UKLA website, www.laser.org.uk