Lymington XOD fleet Saturday Series Race 22

The Race Team under John Trundell (RO) set a very interesting and tricky course to the east of Lymington River for the 17 boat fleet with glorious sunshine a light ESE wind, ebb tide and mark H, Paul Jackson, the first mark out in the stronger tide.

At the start competition for the pin end was fierce due to the strong bias and it was clear that 17 X Boats were not going to fit into space for 3! XN1 Xoanon, helmed by David Carslaw and X72 Venus, helmed by Nik Froud (with his Mum Lindsey on board!), who started slightly further down the line with speed, got clean away whilst the remainder fought for clean air and to get around the pin. The resultant dirty air after the start forced many boats to tack off after the start and to go out into stronger tide. However, this proved to be a gain as the breeze was stronger and the boats heading inshore were running parallel to the shore and not gaining much in terms tidal relief. X9 Zest, and X57 Red Coral made huge gains through taking this course.

Approaching the first mark, boats sailing further offshore had a shorter lay-line to judge and cut the corner on those inshore with X92 Persephone, helmed by Class Historian Richard Field, making significant gains and rounding in third place behind Venus and X48 XL, helmed by Rory Paton. Unsure of the position of the first leeward mark, S Sanders Sails, Venus bore off around the mark to stay in the ebb tide whilst boats behind immediately gybed inshore. This allowed XL to take the lead by the leeward mark with Persephone in second and Red Coral in third.

Sailing in clear air, XL extended her lead by sailing out into the stronger offshore breeze whilst behind place changes were frequent with two of the leading boats running aground; X161 Mayday came off worst whilst on the run and then X164 Diana managed to find an unknown lump on the final beat and re-joined the pack behind having lost 5 places.

Persephone judged the tide better than most to finish in second whilst X32 Ibex, having lost her lane at the start, made her way up to third. Zest and Venus had decided to take the inshore route on the run to the finish and whilst initially this looked like the wrong decision, once the tide really started to flood offshore after the turn and the breeze started to drop, they started to look really good. However, in the end the breeze offshore filled in again and the direct offshore route was favoured with X178 Beatrix, helmed by Start Jardine, who was struggling to find consistent speed in an unfamiliar boat, finishing fourth with Venus in fifth.

Top 5 results:

1st - X48 XL - Rory & Stuart Paton
2nd - X92 Persephone - Richard Field
3rd - X32 Ibex - Paul Woodman & Oliver James
4th - X178 Beatrix - Stuart Jardine & Douglas Rogerson
5th - X72 Venus - Nik & Lindsey Froud and Henry Collison

Series results can be found here.