Royal Lymington Yacht Club Portmore Insurance Spring Series - Day 3
by Hannah Neve 15 Apr 2014 10:54 BST
13 April 2014
Kit Off leading Class 2 on day 3 of the Portmore Insurance Spring Series © Hannah Neve
Lovely clear skies, 8-12 knots of shifty northerly breeze and a tide due to turn an hour into the racing met the 40 boats for the 3rd Sunday of racing. Race Officer Roger Wilson set a windward/leeward style course for all classes close to the mainland shore.
Class 1 saw a great battle between No Chance and Jibe as the wind varied in strength and direction which made it a game of snakes and ladders. Eventually after 1 hour and 20 minutes of racing they both corrected out with the same time and shared the honours, the following 3 boats finishing just 40 seconds apart on corrected.
The second race was postponed to allow the wind to regain its strength and settle in direction. Class 1 eventually got away only for the wind to shift up the first beat that allowed the left hand boats to fetch the mark, Jibe rounded first and gybe set with the rest of the fleet close behind. There were some big holes in the wind and with the building ebb it was a struggle to get to the leeward mark with all the boats coming in close together. Boomerang with its large kite made the best of it, rounded first and stretched away on the beat to the finish to take line and handicap honours with Jibe second so winning boat of the day. It is now very close at the top with all to play for in the final 2 races after Easter.
In Class 2 the light conditions suited Kit Off which romped away to take line honours despite being the 2nd lowest rated boat and to win the first race from Accomplice and Brightwork.
The short 2nd race saw Accomplice first across the line but slipped to 4th on corrected behind Hephzibah, Kit Off and Colleen who came 3rd despite a jury-rigged and badly bent spinnaker pole, the legacy of a collision at the start of race 1. With two races left in the series Hephzibah with 9 points holds a respectable lead over Kit Off and Accomplice, tied on 13 points apiece.
11 Nordic Folkboats had two light yet challenging races. Both races saw aggressive starts and plenty of position changes. In the 1st race Crackerjack and Padfoot were over the line at the start but fought back through the fleet to come 1st and 2nd respectively. The first outing of the season for Madeleine rewarded them with a 3rd in the 1st race and 2nd in the 2nd race whilst the age and experience on Tak gave them a win in the difficult conditions of the 2nd race.
Full results at www.rlymyc.org.uk/Racing/Results/results.shtml