XOD's at the Royal Solent Yacht Club Tattinger Regatta

by Karl Thorne 23 Jul 2013 09:21 BST 20-21 July 2013

Taittinger Royal Solent Regatta 2013 © Jake Sugden / www.jakesugden.photoshelter.com

Last weekend saw twenty-three XODs take part in the Tattinger Regatta hosted by the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth. A star studded fleet assembled for the three race open series, including nine Yarmouth boats, eleven from Lymington and three visitors from Itchenor. The racing on both days was in some of the best sailing conditions of recent years, a decent Easterly breeze and baking hot sunshine.

In Races 1 and 2 on Saturday, the starts and first beats were very challenging given the strength of the tide on the Isle of Wight side of the Solent. The strong tide on the long beats meant tacking hard against the shoreline, luckily this was aided by one or two of the local boats giving the visitors the courage to nose in a little closer than they otherwise might of dared. Throughout the weekend Stuart Jardine (Lone Star) and James Meaning (Gleam) excelled on these beats up the shore and at times this allowed them to pull out big leads on the fleet. In both of Saturday's races there was a long run downtide to Hurst [A], a shorter beat up the "North Island" back to Colten [C], a reach back to the island and a very difficult short windward leg in the strong tide up to the finish. James Meaning won the first race, with Stuart Jardine second. In the second race, Stuart won and Robin Balme (X Ray) sailing an excellent first beat was second.

Not all of the competitors made the start line for Race 3 on Sunday morning, despite the perfect sailing conditions once again. This time the course was much shorter and was kept on the island side. There was much more shift in the Easterly breeze than the previous day, and this shifting proved to make the start very difficult, as at times it was almost impossible to cross the line on starboard in the strong tide. It was a case of needing to get onto port in a hurry to get to the shore and shelter from the tide. Needless to say most of the top boats from the previous races managed to break free and in no time were off on their own up the shoreline, this time it was John Tremlett (Lass) who sailed an excellent race to go on and win, with Stephen Lawrence (Catherine) second. Stuart Jardine's fifth place was enough to secure first place overall by one point.

This turned out to be an excellent couple of days of close racing, and was perfect training for some of the conditions and courses that might be found at Cowes Week in a few weeks time.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	X 119	Lone Star	Stuart Jardine	2	1	5	8
2	X 188	Princess Jalina	David Palmer	3	3	3	9
3	X 80	Lass	John Tremlett	4	6	1	11
4	X 26	Catherine	Stephen Lawrence	10	5	2	17
5	X 9	Zest	Phil Brewer	5	8	4	17
6	X 34	Mercer	Karl Thorne	6	7	6	19
7	NI	Xoanon		12	10	10	32
8	X 4	Westwind		9	15	9	33
9	X 147	Foxy		11	16	7	34
10	X 156	Gleam		1	4	30	35
11	X 117	Xray		7	2	30	39
12	X 5	Madcap		17	13	12	42
13	X 48	XL		7	9	30	46
14	X 170	Oyster		15	20	11	46
15	X 153	Sans Souci		20	21	13	54
16	X 161	Mayday		16	11	30	57
17	X 42	Julia		14	14	30	58
18	X 164	Diana		18	12	30	60
19	X 16	Mystery		13	18	30	61
20	X 138	Spray		30	17	14	61
21	X 45	Jewel		30	30	8	68
22	X 102	Whiskey Johnny		30	23	15	68
23	X 49	Rosalita		19	19	30	68
24	X 162	Xenia		21	22	30	73
25	X 148	X Factor		22	24	30	76
26	X 75	Delight		30	30	30	90
26	X 32	Ibex		30	30	30	90
26	X 115	Mix		30	30	30	90
26	X 92	Peresphone		30	30	30	90