Lymington XOD fleet Wednesday Series Race 16
by Roy Froud 25 Aug 2014 15:23 BST
20 August 2014
Excellent win for X-Ray
Very tricky racing conditions met the fleet on Wednesday afternoon as the wind varied from 0 to 6 knots and came from multiple directions, forcing the RO to change the course very close to the start time and resulting in a postponement.
A running start across the Solent to mark 2 to the east of Yarmouth saw Stuart Jardine in X119 Lone Star make the best start and lead all the way across the Solent to round first. The beat back up to mark C proved very tricky and this was where Robin Balme in X117 X-Ray chose to take the long route out towards Hurst, which appeared very wrong for a long time until she picked up a good NW breeze and sailed around the Fleet for a good lead.
A fair old ding dong ensued between the boats taking the middle course where Robert Young in X57 Red Coral took the best advantage of the puffs and shifts to round mark C 2nd with X34 Mersa close astern, whilst a little further back John Cooper in X 175 Xenon, then Rory Paton in X48 XL, followed by Ian Burr in X164 Diana and Stuart Jardine in Lone Star battled it out. The positions remained relatively unchanged until these four boats entered the River for the beat back up to the Club and finish. Here Lone Star and and XL managed to squeeze past the others to finish 4th and 5th.
Race 16 Results:
1st X-Ray, Robin Balme
2nd Red Coral, Robert Young
3rd Mersa, Karl Thorne
4th Lone Star, Stuart Jardine
5th XL, Rory Paton