Lymington XOD fleet Wednesday Series Race 12
by Roy Froud 13 Jul 2015 13:10 BST
8 July 2015
XL wins race 12 of the Lymington XOD Wednesday Series © RLymYC
Race Officer Chris Baldwick set a course that took the fleet over to the Island shore where good tidal knowledge and judgement was required to find the winning route!
The wind was from the W - NW which made for a close fetch to the first mark off Pennington Marshes and Rory Paton in X48, XL, made a good start at the platform end of the line and led into the first mark. The first 5 boats were closely bunched on the run across to mark 4 to the east of Yarmouth and in the end a higher route against the flood tide paid.
From mark 4 there was a short beat to mark 2, just to the east off Yarmouth Pier and this where tidal knowledge and judgement can into play with XL making the buoy and the next 5 boats all misjudging the strong tide and having to tack back again to make the mark. This let Ado Jardine in X140 Lucrezia back into the fray allowing her to make up 100 metres and move up to 5th but still more than 100 meters behind Barry Dunning in Crumpet.
The next leg was a tight reach across to mark H, Paul Jackson, with some boats initially trying to fly their spinnakers but then taking them down. There was some compression of the fleet but the order remained the same. With the strong flood tide the natural way home from mark G was to make for the lighter tide along the mainland shore, however, Lucrezia tacked first and was able to just lee bow the tide as the fleet headed back to Lymington. Boats following Lucrezia didn't experience the same lifts that she received (Unfortunately! - Ed) and only a header for some minutes allowed Stuart Jardine in X119 Lone Star and John Olliff-Cooper in X87 Excalibur to round the river entrance mark inside Lucrezia.
The wind was shifting some 20 degrees and varied in strength from 15 to over 20 knots and this together with the challenge of the tide on the Island shore made for a very enjoyable, tactical race.
Race 12 Results: (top five)
1st X48 XL, Rory Paton
2nd X87 Excalibur, John Oliff-Cooper
3rd X119 Lone Star, Stuart Jardine
4th X140 Lucrezia, Ado Jardine
5th X176 Crumpet, Barry Dunning
Full results can be found here.