Monday Evening Dinghy Racing at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Day 2
by Ann Brunskill 4 May 2016 12:33 BST
25 April 2016
The sun came out on cue for the second Monday Evening Dinghy race at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, after a damp and windy day. Race officer Steve Green and his team took full advantage of the SW force 3-4 and high tide to send competitors around a good windward-leeward course in the Solent, with a good fickle wind for the battle back up the river to the finish.
First off were the Optimists, led by George May, ahead of Jake Stokes and Hugh Anderson and they finished in the same order.
The Scow fleets had a good race out into the Solent and through Oxey Lake. In the Gold Fleet Eric Williams led for much of the time but was overtaken towards the finish by Cy Grisley. David Hayles was third, with a number of leading helms following in his wake. David Carslaw was first in the Silver Fleet with Nigel Russell and Claire Sowry second and Dubbie Robinson and Jane Cook third.
The Slow Handicap fleet was dominated by the three Fevas. Alex Paton and Jasmine Summers showed the boys how it should be done at the start, but Euan Etheridge and William Homewood were quicker to hoist their spinnaker. Isabella Drewitt in the Laser 4.7 took second place again and leads overall. In the Medium Handicap fleet, Richard Russell and Sylvia Weger's Tasar had a good start ahead of Mark Barwell and Lou Johnson in their borrowed classic Merlin Rocket. The Tasar team made a good tactical call judging the long layline to the windward mark to capitalise on their advantage and take the win on corrected time, ahead of Alex Hayman's Aero and Keith Willis with a small army of crew in his RS Venture "The Ship". Nick Ryley was doing well in his Laser until he dropped his mainsheet, providing spectators with the only capsize of the race.
Luke and Emma McEwen's RS800 got away cleanly at the start of the Fast Fleet. They were overhauled in the river by John Levell and Steve Homewood in their home-made trimaran, but the trimaran didn't get far enough ahead on handicap, its big spinnaker proving a disadvantage on the tight reach back to the river entrance. Rob and Jan Martin led the hiking boats in their RS400 to take a respectable second place behind the McEwens, beating Nigel Walbank's Musto Skiff by two seconds on corrected time.
Full results at rlymyc.org.uk/OnTheWater/Racing/Race_Results.aspx