Moore Blatch Royal Lymington YC Thursday Night Late Series - Day 9
by Hannah Neve 29 Aug 2014 12:53 BST
28 August 2014
So the sailors gathered for the last Thursday night race of the year; SW winds up to 22 knots but with the ebb changing to a flood after the start, the seas flattened off to produce great racing conditions.
IRC Class 1 was a game of ever decreasing circles with a beat up to Dunford then a gybing run down to Bridgfords provided some entertainment before a beat back through the gate to Colten, another run to Pylewell and back to the finish. Zarafa had a good start, and even a broken jib halyard on the first beat did not stop her reaching Dunford first. Boomerang stretched her legs on the run and she never lost the lead, gaining line honours, a fourth consecutive win and the Late Series overall.
In IRC Class 2, Purple Haze, the J80 of Shane Armitage, showed the fleet a clean pair of heels. Revelling in the strong wind she planed down the first downwind leg and afterwards was never challenged taking line honours and winning on corrected time. Behind her the remaining boats enjoyed some close competition with quite a bit of place changing on the second beat as they tacked up the mainland shore trying to keep out of the building tide. Kipper, John Corden's Scampi took second place on handicap, ahead of White Mischief, Andy Hind's Hanse 291. Purple Haze was overall winner of the Late Series with 10 points. Stren, despite not sailing the last race, held on to second place with 18 and there was a tie for third between Kit Off, the Corby 25 sailed by Jon Boyd and Allan Hill's J30 Colleen, both with 21.
In LH Class 2, Jim Gill's Crystal narrowly won the series with 16 pts from Headstrong which finished with 17pts. Nigel Walbank's Breeze was a clear series winner in LH 3 as was Fox Hound, Richard Rouse's Gaff Cutter in LH 4.
The organisers thanked the volunteers on behalf of the sailors for all their efforts over the summer, and the sailors were especially grateful to the generous sponsorship of Moore Blatch.
Results at rlymyc.org.uk/Sailing/Racing/Race_Results.aspx