The breeze was shifty on March 13, as expected, with a northeasterly coming off the mainland shore and it was swinging up to 45 degrees and quite variable in speed; average 10 knots that occasionally dropped to seven knots and rose at times to 13 knots. There was generally enough breeze to run against the strong spring tides, although this did mean each downwind turning mark opened up big tide gates in some fleets. The White Group and Black Group IRC Four classes were kept close to ’home’ with their courses starting and finishing at hamblewinterseries.com buoy. Several ’race rusty’ White Group competitors were caught out by the strong easterly going tide, combined with the northeasterly breeze, and were over the line at the start for race one. By race three of three, they were back in the swing of it with a clean start. Racing was tight with significant overlaps between the classes making for some exciting boat-on-boat competitive sailing. At the end of the three races, the J/70 Cosmic (Patrick Liardet) was leading the combined White Group, with Injunction (Steve Venables) in second place and leading the J/70 class. There was a good crowd back in the clubhouse after racing to collect the winners’ champagne prizes, presented by Annabel Shove from race partners Rolly Tasker Sails. The Warsash Sailing Club runs the Helly Hansen Warsash Spring Series and for the White Group Combined results is using the Warsash Handicap System which has been developed from the 2015 Championship results. More information may be found on the event website: http://warsashspringseries.org.uk/2016/index.htm.