XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 2

Lymington XOD Wednesday Series © Lymington XOD Class

Glorious sunshine and a warm Southerly breeze provide great tactical racing for the sixteen XODs that raced on Wednesday. This was a very welcome change after Saturday's race when they encountered freezing hailstones and thirty four knot gusts!

Race Officer Alastair Wilson and team set a course from the platform across to mark 2 off of Yarmouth followed by a close fetch the East down the Island shore before a run back across to the mainland with a final short beat before the finish.

The entire fleet started on starboard tack and with the tide ebbing and lee-bowing them up to the first mark a drag race ensued with boats trying to hold on to their lane and trying not to be rolled over by windward boats forcing them to tack. However, the first twist in the tale of many, was that boats that did tack off onto port to head to the West, notably X119 Lone Star, Stuart Jardine and X161 Mayday, David Da Cunha, picked up a stronger breeze and on the approach to mark 2 overtook the majority of the boats that had persisted on starboard. Thus the race was turned on it's head with the early leaders appearing mid-fleet as the fleet sailed the close fetch to mark 4 before turning and running back to the mainland. Opinions were divided as to how to approach the run and in the event boats that sailed a more Westerly course gained as the tide switched to the flood and they got swept down the mark E. At this point some of the early leaders from the first beat were pushed even further back, e.g. X48 XL, Rory Paton and X170 Oyster, Nik and Roy Froud. However, another early leader, X192 Persephone helmed by Richard Field employed brilliant down-wind tactics to come out just in front of the chasing group coming from the West.

The third twist in the tale occurred on the final beat out to mark F into a strengthening flood tide. Boats that tacked out into the tide too early faired really badly and boats that stayed in shore made huge gains with Oyster climbing up to fourth and X53 Quest, James McGill & Jay Devonshire, slotting into fifth. By this time Lone Star was starting to disappear over the horizon having squeezed though before the tide had really strengthened, with Mayday and Persephone in 2nd and 3rd respectively also well separated from the pack behind. Positions remained the same on the close fetch to the finish at the Platform, however there were many place changes in the pack behind as boats tried to pass F in the strengthening tide.

Race 2 Results: (top five)

1st - X119 Lone Star - Stuart Jardine
2nd - X161 Mayday - David da Cunha
3rd - X192 Persephone - Richard Field
4th - X170 Oyster - Nik & Roy Froud
5th - X53 Quest - James McGill & Jay Devonshire