XOD Saturday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Day 3
by Fenella Lees 15 May 2012 14:33 BST
12 May 2012
Persephone during Lymington XOD Saturday Series race 3 © Fenella Lees
The summer arrived and 15 XODs raced on saturday afternoon in a gentle northerly wind with uninterrupted sunshine. The shifting wind gave the Race Officers and sailors a challenge.
As junior sailors were racing near the RLymYC Starting Platform the XODs were given a running start across the tide to Black Rock off Yarmouth, which saw plenty of variations of courses - Richard Field in Persephone rounded first having gone for the Island shore and used the back eddy in the Yarmouth Roads. This was followed by a beat to Berthon where Richard extended his lead followed by Oyster (David and Fenella Lees). There was then an interesting run to Lymington Bank via the ODM off the platform which had to be rounded rather than passed to starboard which caught out a few sailors who later retired.
The last leg from Colten to finish at the Platform saw a number of changes in positions, as the key was to take the lifts and keep in the breeze with the big wind holes catching some people out - literally losing a number of places on one tack. Mersa - Karl Thorne - found the best wind and tide on this leg and came through to win.
A mention should go to the fantastic works by the XOD Class Historian (Richard Field) - who lead the fleet the whole way round this tricky course and rounded all the marks correctly - and has just completed a mamoth book to celebrate 100 years of XOD Racing which gives a history of every boat built - a great read, everyone should buy one.
Saturday Series Race 3 Results:
1st Mersa, Karl Thorne
2nd Zest, Philip Brewer
3rd Beatrix, William Norris
4th Lucrezia, Ado Jardine
5th Oyster, Fenella Lees
6th X Ray, Robin Balme