The third race of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series took place on Sunday 11 October in a westerly 15 knots and it was also the second day of racing for the Autumn Championships.  Stalker (Steven Tapper) nailed the Committee Boat end of the line and quickly tacked right to minimise the adverse tide.  Meanwhile Jouster (Tim Collins) was caught amongst Beth (Guy Knight), J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp) and Outrajeous (Richard & Valerie Griffith) and with a lack of clear air was forced to watch the fleet yacht off.  Halfway to the first mark Stalker had taken a convincing lead and Aria (Luca Rubinelli), Beth and J-Dream were trading tacks with Me Julie (Dom Monkhouse) to avoid Bramble Bank, (unlike one of IRC2), whilst trying to stay on the plateau. 

By West Bramble, J-Dream had passed the front pack to set off in pursuit of Stalker on the long run to East Bramble, with Beth and Aria battling it out for 3rd.  A starboard rounding of North Ryde Middle saw the lead J/109s catch the end of IRC2, who were rounding the same mark to port.  To avoid an IRC 2 boat, J-Dream tacked early, whilst Stalker stood on suspecting that J-Dream had tacked too early in the strong east-going tide.  Unfortunately for Stalker, J-Dream rounded the mark ahead of them, for the two-sail reach in 20+knots back to Hamble Yacht Services.  Three-quarters of the way across the wind shifted and dropped, enabling J-Dream to hoist her reaching spinnaker.  Meanwhile Jouster had moved into the back of the following pack and was one of the first to hoist a big spinnaker, which allowed them to commence their challenge to the leaders. 

A beat back across the plateau to Air Canada and a final run back to Fastnet Insurance saw Aria pass Stalker only to lose out to them and Jouster on the run.  The short beat to the finish saw Jouster hold off the challenge from Stalker to take second place by 17 seconds in the Autumn Championship, but they were not racing the Series. 

Meanwhile Audajious (David Jobson) and Go Easy (Stephen Armitage/Ed Winter) took advantage to put into practice some of the tips from the previous days training and debrief sessions.  Go Easy obtained the advantage on the final run and held Audajious off on the short beat to cross the line 25 seconds ahead.

 Results: 

1st        J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp)

2nd        Stalker (Steven Tapper)

3rd        Aria (Luca Rubinelli)