Lymington XOD fleet Saturday Series Race 3
by Roy Froud 4 May 2015 08:48 BST
2 May 2015
Lymington XOD Saturday Series © RLymYC
Many twist and turns before Excaliber excels!
A shifty 10-12 knot SSE breeze coming off the Isle of Wight with a strong ebb tide lead to probably the most difficult yet exciting race the Lymington XOD Fleet have experienced in many years. Amongst the 15 boat fleet at least 7 boats must have thought they were winning at some stage on the beat across the Solent to the no. 4 buoy to the east of Yarmouth. However, although the boats that tacked off for the Island earlier initially looked to be in a great position compared to those that stayed on the mainland shore, many found their undoing came as they approached the lighter/flukey winds off the Yarmouth shore with the ebb tide sweeping down against them.
It was those that persisted in the lighter tide Eastward up the mainland shore that prospered in the end. This group lead by Mayday and followed by Excaliber, Lucrezia and Clare de Lune rounded ahead, however on the run back across the Solent to mark C both Mayday and Excaliber were swept too far West on the tide allowing Lucreczia ahead. However, there was another twist in the tail and on finishing the shortened course at the Lymington Platform Lucrezia learnt she had been over the start line early giving the win to Excaliber (X 87) with Mayday 2nd (X161) and Claire de Lune 3rd (X33). Despite the tricky wind and tide conditions the top six boats all finished within two minutes of each other.
Congratulations and thanks to the race team of Ken Hay, Mel da Cunha and Steve Green for setting an excellent course with a long beat and a well positioned start line that really gave all of the crews something to think about.
Saturday Series Race 3 Resuls: (top five)
1st John Oliff-Cooper, Excaliber X 87
2nd David Da Cunha, Mayday X 161
3rd Max Crowe, Clare de Lune X 33
4th Stuart Jardine, Lone Star X119
5th Karl Thorne, Mersa X 34
Full results can be found here.