Nordic Folkboat Lymington Saturday Series - Race 2

Ten Nordic Folkboats met at the Committee Boat start line, just east of the platform. For some this was the second race of the season for others this was to be their baptism of fire - little did they know!

The set course was east to mark E, south to mark F, then west to mark C, returning to the start line twice round the course. The tide was flooding to the east for the entire race; the wind was a cold northwesterly, light and variable at first.

At the start, Crackerjack led the fleet away followed by Samphire, Padfoot and Bonnie. After gybing around mark E, Bonnie pulled through to second.

The long westerly leg up tide to mark C was a starboard fetch with most boats going inshore towards the mainland to escape the tide. Here the following pack made gains as the wind freed - then it happened! A large black cloud that was making its way down the Lymington River from the north suddenly developed into a vicious squall. The wind increased from light to 34 Knots in a matter of seconds. Bonnie the eventual winner, was doing her penalty turns in all of this, while Crackerjack, was struggling first to get her spinnaker up, and then almost immediately to get it down again. The following pack wisely kept their spinnakers in the bag, and white sailed it until the wind moderated after about 15 minutes of mayhem.

A certain amount of carnage ensued, with blown out spinnakers, spinnakers under boats, hats lost overboard – but fortunately no serious damage or injuries amongst the Folkboat fleet.

In the meantime, other fleets were having their problems with broken masts, damaged rigging and a number of dinghy capsizes. Both the Yarmouth lifeboat and the Lymington inshore lifeboat were launched, and proceeded to the aid of boats in trouble. Order was eventually restored.

Meanwhile, as Crackerjack struggled to retrieve her spinnaker, a number of boats had managed to pass her, and after sorting her spinnaker out Crackerjack went to the rescue of a nearby XOD in trouble with a broken forestay. Crackerjack stood by the XOD and as a result is seeking redress.

The wind continued to blow strongly. Bonnie managed to pull away from Samphire, while Padfoot got the wrong side of a big wind shift, thereby loosing ground to both. Spinnakers were flown by the remaining boats on the final leg to the finish as the wind began to moderate.

At the finish the order was Bonnie, Samphire, Padfoot and Lady Linda, with only 4 finishers, the remaining boats having sensibly retired to the bar to lick their wounds. By the time boats were packed up and put away on moorings, it was once again a lovey sunny spring afternoon!