Lymington X One Designs at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week
by Roy Froud 12 Aug 2014 10:39 BST
2-9 August 2014
Twenty boats and crew from Lymington ventured to Cowes last week for the most prestigious event in the X One Design (XOD) racing calendar, Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week. Here they were joined by another sixty XOD boats and crews to make up the largest fleet at Cowes with eighty boats in total.
Top Lymington boat in ninth place was X72 Venus with the under 25 team of Nik Froud (19 - helm), Charlie Cox (20) and Henry Lloyd Williams (21) on board, closely followed in tenth place by X48 XL; Rory (helm), Amanda & Stuart Paton. X9 Zest; Phil (helm) & Jo Brewer plus daughters finished in 14th place and in total there were eleven Lymington boats in the top half of the results placing Lymington Division second to Itchenor in the Phillipson Challenge Shield which counts the top four scores from each division for each day of racing.
Venus scored a first on Wednesday after a superb start and a close boat on boat tussle with previous Captain's Cup winner Andy Shaw and his crew on X186, Phoenix. The team on Venus were all taking part in their first ever Cowes Week in the XOD class having previously sailed in various dinghies at national and international level and it is believed that they are the youngest team, with Nik Froud being the youngest helm, to win an XOD race at Cowes Week!
X32 Ibex; Paul Woodman (helm), Oliver James & Simon Cake, were very unfortunate to not finish in the top ten after suffering gear failure after the start in the last race and having to retire. Prior to this they had posted consistent top ten results and were aiming for a top five overall finish. X179 Expeditious; James Markby (helm) & Ben Paton, were also in the top ten for the early part of the week but suffered a couple of disqualifications to take them down the order.
Finally, local hero status must to to Rory Paton and the crew of XL for there port tack start on the last Saturday. This was executed perfectly and they were able to cross the majority of the fleet!
Full results can be found on the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week website.