Moore Blatch Royal Lymington YC Thursday Night Late Series - Day 5
by Hannah Neve 6 Aug 2014 14:41 BST
31 July 2014
The 8 Class 3 Lymington Handicap boats started off downtide in a tight bunch. Boats that tacked inshore to find clear air up to the windward mark off Pennington fared worse than those that stuck it out in the stronger tide.
Then, after a long uptide spinnaker run it was Unity, Pathogem and Tokoloshe that arrived together at the leeward mark off Pylewell. As the wind and tide eased Seascape came through strongly while Pathogem took a penalty giving the order at the finish, and the result on handicap, as Tokoloshe first, Seascape second and Unity third.
The WSW wind, gusting to well over 20 knots at times, caused some exciting moments in the IRC2 fleet, gybing spinnakers in the choppy wind-against-tide seas near Lymington Bank. Purple Haze, the J80 of Shane Armitage showed how it should be done and led from the start, followed by sister ship Jane, sailed by Nick Kirkman.
Third on the water was Jon Boyd's Corby 25 Kit Off but she wasn't fast enough to hold off the challenge from Colleen, sailed by Tony Ferris while owner Allan Hill is away on holiday which finished third on corrected time. Stren, the Norwegian classic sailed by Roddy Steel and normally a real threat in such conditions did not finish.
Just over halfway through the series Purple Haze leads overall from Stren with Colleen lying third. The points are close and the overall result is wide open at this stage.
In IRC Class 1 the fleet set off to Echopilot, having to leave Dunford to port. The run to Black Rock proved testing for those who hoisted their kites earlier rather than later, with Stewart Duffin's Flying Boat unfortunately hitting the rock itself. The gybing run to Bridgefords was also quite hairy with Boomerang and Zarafa being laid flat for several long moments.
Another short beat back to a moveable mark near Dunford and a run to Folkboats UK, and a beat to the finish meant a very enjoyable race for everyone. The results are also very close with Edith, Zarafa and Boomerang separated by only 3 points in the top 3 slots.
Results can be found at rlymyc.org.uk/Sailing/Racing/Race_Results.aspx