Moore Blatch Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Series - Day 9
by Robin Taunt 1 Jul 2014 08:59 BST
20 June 2014
Little wind, strong tides and challenging courses
Heavy rain and no wind at 4 pm last Thursday rather dampened the spirits of the race team as they donned their wet weather gear. But, by start time, the clouds scattered and a light wind appeared, swinging around somewhere between east and south.
With a flooding tide, race officer Tony Blachford sent the fleets away westward on a downwind start, posing but the first challenge on a series of interesting courses for the seven fleets. The vital decision was whether to start inshore, with less tide, or to go for clear air and a full spinnaker further down the line.
The challenges for the Folkboat fleet were typical: the run to the first mark was followed by a tricky down-tide beat: picking the lay line to the mark was critical, with the risk of being swept past the mark on the strong flood tide. On the next leg, getting the angles to the inshore downwind mark was an exercise in geometry, with several positions changing before the final beat to the finish.
The seven Lymington Handicap class 3 boats made a slightly ragged downwind start, with Pathogem, Tokoloshe and Nauti Lady leading the pack. These lighter dayboats excelled in the light conditions and quickly sailed away from the heavier cruisers. After rounding a leeward mark off the Salterns, the two groups drew further apart on a beat out into the middle of the Solent, followed by a slow downwind leg inshore and a reach against the tide up to the finish. Once again Pathogem was first across the line but, on handicap, Tokoloshe was declared the winner with Nauti Lady and Pathogem tying for second place. Unity led the cruiser group home in fourth.
The IRC 1 fleet followed a similar but longer course, requiring the navigators to identify the buoys on the Island shore. Boomerang took off at the start, followed by JIBE. However, they were undone by a wind shift at the final leeward mark, back on the mainland shore. The leading boats headed for the shore to shelter from the tide, whilst following boats chose to stay offshore, in stronger wind, and stem the tide to the finish. Ray Crouch on Boomerang hung on to win on handicap, closely followed by William Newton on Jelly Baby and Malcolm Thorpe with the Yarmouth based J105, King Louie.
Results can be found at rlymyc.org.uk/Sailing/Racing/Race_Results.aspx