Lymington Town Sailing Club Early Points - Race 4
by Rob Martin 11 Apr 2017 15:10 BST
9 April 2017
There was glorious spring weather for Race 4 of the LTSC Early Points Series; that is glorious in every way except for the wind that failed to fill in and settle to a constant speed and direction. The course was set with relatively short laps around the inshore marks to try to allow for the tide which was running strongly to the west.
Fleet 1, the fast fleet, started as soon as the wind settled to a south westerly direction at around 6 knots. They were followed 5 minutes later by the combined fleets 2&3. Despite the strong fair tide both fleets were disciplined and there were no recalls.
In Fleet 1 the Tri of John Levell and Toby Collyer quickly opened up a big lead. It was followed by the RS700 of Rich Keaton and the D-One of Giles Chipperfield who had escaped from the other D-One and the RS400s. Part way into the second lap the wind died and progress on the run against the tide became very slow until the wind filled in from the south west again picking up the later boats first. This closed up the fleet and gave the advantage to the slower boats. However the tri had completed an extra lap and was well placed as the breeze filled in enabling it to take the win from the D-One and Kevin podger and Hetaher Chipperfield in an RS400.
There was a similar pattern in the Feet 2&3 race. For the first lap there was close racing between the RS300 of Nick Bubb, the Merlin of Nev Herbert and Karl Thorne and the Tasar of Richard Russell and Sylvia Weger. As the wind dropped only the RS300 made it round the leeward mark and off down tide. It looked as if it had done enough to take the win but as the wind filled in the rest of the fleet were able to close in allowing the slower boats to take advantage. The win went to Jenny Bennett in a lasar radial followed by Malcolm Buchanan in a solo and Pete Wills in another lasar radial.
Race 5 in the LTSC Early Points Peries starts on the Baverstock Line at 10:30 next week.
Race 4 Results:
Fleet 1
1st Tri, John Levell & Toby Collyer
2nd D-One 411, Giles Chipperfield
3rd RS400 1439, Kevin Podger and Heather Chipperfield
Fleets 2 & 3
1st Laser Radial 160565, Jenny Bennett
2nd Solo 5570, Malcolm Buchanan
3rd Lasar Radial 204561, Peter Wills