Saturday XOD Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 14
by John Olliff-Cooper 24 Jul 2017 11:06 BST
22 July 2017
Anyone who believes that sailing is meant to be a summer sport might well have preferred to find another way to spend this particular afternoon. But, despite the cool and gusty wind, rain and a poor forecast, what had looked like being a really dirty day actually provided good conditions for an excellent race.
13 boats came to the start, probably with varying degrees of enthusiasm, in a gusty, shifty, south-westerly breeze of around 15 to 20 knots. A strong ebb tide and a veer in the wind direction meant that everyone was able to lay the first mark, Black Rock, without a tack - but the fleet then split for the run back to Sanders. Lone Star and Mystery elected to stay on the island side of the track for a while, a tactical decision which soon proved to be sub-ideal.
The rest went across the tide to the north in several variants of a dog-leg to get out of the worst of the current. Richard Field in Persephone, who went furthest, did best and from S to T and back to C for a final run to E, he and Rory Paton in XL exchanged places ahead of Robin Balme in X-Ray and Phil Brewer in Zest.
Persephone rounded E first to head for the finish but did so rather closer than the rules allow. However, in his endearingly eccentric style, Richard chose to retire rather than endure the inconvenience of doing a penalty turn. Perhaps he was right: to that point he had sailed an immaculate race and there was probably nothing left to prove.
Top five results:
1. XL – Rory Paton
2. Zest – Phil Brewer
3. X-Ray – Robin Balme
4. Beatrix – William Norris
5. Diana – Ian Burr
Full RLymYC XOD Series results can be found here.