Moore Blatch & Station Financial Lymington Thursday Night Series - Day 3
by Ben Vines, Helmsman, Purple Haze 16 May 2016 15:56 BST
12 May 2016
Sunset sailing in the RLymYC Early Thursday Night Series race 3 © RLymYC
More great racing this Thursday with the J80s fielding 11 boats for the start of race 2 of the Early Series.
A biblical deluge an hour before the start left the Western Solent a little windless for a while but the thunderclouds eventually cleared and a light southwesterly crept in.
The Race Committee did a cracking job of getting everyone quickly off and first out of the blocks was No Regrets with a nicely executed pin end start, closely followed by Fiducial and then James Harrison (who needs to name his boat!).
Taking a nice right shift from the Platform end came Wildcat III, nearly taking the lead but just slotting in behind No Regrets.
The fleet compressed at the first mark with the first six boats all bow to stern, led by No Regrets heading inshore out of the tide. First to gybe east was Wildcat III followed by Purple Haze and then the long game of less tide inshore vs more breeze offshore played out with both looking like being the winner at times.
By the leeward mark both options had payed off with Purple Haze sneaking round first from offshore, overlapped with the most inshore boat Wildcat III.
With no overtaking lanes left the race from there was a procession with Purple Haze taking the bottle, Wildcat III second and No Regrets in third place.
Special mention to Jumping Jack Flash for doing so well despite losing their helmsman somewhere in Africa mid-week.
For results of all other classes, please visit rlymyc.org.uk/OnTheWater/Racing/Race_Results.aspx