Nordic Folkboat Lymington Saturday Series - Race 9

A good fleet of Nordic Folkboats came to the start on Saturday for the 9th race of the Royal Lymington Saturday Series. Race Officer Ken Hay was faced with a fickle wind, and decided to set a course to the west to make the best use of any sea breeze that might develop.

At the start, the fleet had a good beat to the first mark at Hurst, with a strong ebb tide pushing them towards the mark. All boats elected to get into the rip tide at Fiddlers Reach. Crackerjack rounded first and led the fleet towards Black Rock over by Yarmouth. Tactics came into play as boats first went inshore to avoid the adverse tide, but then it paid to come out again approaching Black Rock to keep the wind. Boats inshore lost out at this stage as the wind died under the Island shore.

The fleet then had a beat back to Hurst where spinnakers were flown in a tight reach back to the Platform. Riot, made good ground on the reach, and as the wind went more to the north, spinnakers came down and Riot managed to catch and then overtake Crackerjack to take the lead. Meanwhile Bonnie had managed to get ahead of both Pilgrim and Tak to be third as the fleet went through the Platform gate.

There then followed a short reach to mark E, and another reach back to the Platform for the finish. Tak made a good rounding at the mark and sailed over Bonnie on the last leg.

The finishing order was Riot first, a great result for Peter Schofield, a new Nordic helm, though hardly a "novice" to sailing! Crackerjack was second, Tak third and Bonnie fourth. Mention should be made of Pilgrim who came fifth, with Sally Potter making a guest appearance at the helm (of her own boat), still very competitive, despite a sabbatical so far this year.

The results of this race also count towards the Nordic Folkboat Southern Area Championship.

Results can be found at rlymyc.org.uk/OnTheWater/Racing/Race_Results.aspx