XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 11
by Roy Froud 10 Jul 2016 08:02 BST
6 July 2016
Sunshine and a light to moderate SW wind allowed the XOD fleet to enjoy some close competitive Wednesday afternoon racing. With a strong ebb tide Race Officer Nigel Thomas set a short first beat to Colton buoy and once round the fleet was tightly packed behind leaders John Oliff-Cooper in X87 Excalibur, and Joey Hutchinson in X183, Condor.
Most of the fleet headed hard inshore with only Condor and X140 Lucrezia helmed by Ado Jardine taking a more direct line back towards the platform area and then inshore towards the first leeward mark, Inner Pylewell.
At the second leeward mark, Baker Marine, Condor led from X48 XL helmed by Rory Paton who had overtaken Excalibur with Persephone, X92, helmed by Richard Field and also Lucrezia making good gains by sailing a more direct route and benefitting from the wind clocking to the right.
On the beat that followed Condor over-stood the first mark, allowing XL through into first whilst Persephone, sailing two up, struggled to hold off Lucrezia when the wind picked up a little. Positions for the top five remained the same on the next lap whilst positions further back changed as boats tried different downwind approaches to tackling the strong tide.
Wednesday Series Race 11 Results: (top five)
1st - X48 XL - Rory Paton
2nd - X183 Condor - Joey Hutchinson
3rd - X87 Excalibur - John Oliff-Cooper
4th - X140 Lucrezia - Ado Jardine
5th - X92 Persephone - Richard field