Lymington XOD fleet Wednesday Series Race 6

A building SW breeze of 10-15 knots and a flood tide greeted sixteen boats and crews of the Lymington XOD fleet for race 6 of their Wednesday point's series. Race team of Malcom McKeag, Mary Ann Jardine, Mel da Cunha and Linda Rogerson set a course with a long beat from the starting platform to windward mark B, Dunford, followed by a long run to mark G, Bridgefords following by some shorter legs inshore and a river line finish. This presented the crews with plenty to think about and provided plenty of overtaking opportunities and a close race.

Options were wide and varied at the start and X 178, Beatrix, helmed by Bill Dunsdon was able to win the start at the pin end, with several boats having to bail out due to being pushed down from the line by the tide. Beatrix was able to hold on to this early advantage and pulled off an impressive port flyer on the fleet as they made their way inshore to escape the tide.

Boats that started at the pin end and that tacked early held the early advantage with X48, XL, helmed by Rory Paton, X57, Red Coral, helmed by Roy Froud and X42, Julia, helmed by Stephen Whiteman following Beatrix in the leading group. This leading group extended on the chasing pack until Beatrix sadly ran aground off the Pennington shore whilst leading allowing several boats past before they got going again.

The lay line call for the windward mark was critical and several of the leaders lost valuable distance on the chasing pack by going out into the tide too early before retreating back to the shallows for another attempt!

However, as has become customary, XL made a near perfect lay line call and rounded first, closely followed by Julia, Red Coral and X72 Venus, helmed by Nik Froud who had caught up with the leaders.

Behind the leaders a tightly pack group followed on the downwind leg to mark G with the fleet compressing. However, upon rounding the leeward mark, XL strengthened her grip on the race as the fleet headed back upwind to mark S, Sanders Sails, whilst Red Coral squeezed past Julia and X161, Mayday, helmed by David da Cunha and X119, Lone Star, helmed by Stuart Jardine made large gains and were closing on 4th place. The ensuing run and reaching legs saw no place changes, however it was all to play for on the last beat up to mark Z.

XL was able to use her tacking options to her advantage and comfortably cover the fleet upwind, with the race heating up behind her. Julia displayed fantastic boat speed and found a great lane up the shore to regain her position on Red Coral, with these two boats rounding the mark 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Behind, Lone Star had made good gains on Venus and a bad lane call from the latter allowed her to catch up further, resulting in a very close encounter as both boats rounded the mark, with Venus narrowly maintaining her advantage. Here, the positions remained unchanged on the short reach to the finish.

Thanks go to Malcolm McKeag and team for running a great race.

Top 5 Results:

1st - X48 XL - Rory Paton, Rodney Charman, Ollie Tait
2nd - X42 Julia - Stephen Whiteman, Paul Fisher
3rd - X57 Red Coral - Roy Froud, Robert Young, Rob Mconnell
4th - X72 Venus - Nik Froud, Giles Lloyd Williams, Hannah Froud
5th - X119 Lone Star - Stuart Jardine, Doug Rogerson, Tim Knight

Full results can be found here.