Lymington XOD fleet Saturday Series Race 10

Crumpet too hot to handle!

A surprisingly fresh SW wind with gusts of over 20 knots greeted the fleet of 18 X boats last Saturday and the race officer set a very interesting course in the ebbing tide and glorious sunshine; one that allowed a very scenic tour of Fort Victoria and Yarmouth on the Island shore for the boats that decided to take this route.

From the start the fleet had to beat upwind to mark A, Echopilot, and on this leg a number of the boats lost their lead from the start by sailing on too far on starboard tack out into the strong tide off Lymington Bank. This allowed Robin & Louise Balme sailing X117 X-Ray and William Norris in X178 Beatrix, with tactical wizard Bill Dunsdon on board, to save valuable time by cutting the corner moving them up to second and third respectively behind X176 Crumpet sailed by Barry and Carol Dunning in first with X142 Dolce Vita, helmed by James Dodd and crewed by Jack Collings in fourth.

As the fleet rounded A and bore off into the tide for the run to the next mark of the course, mark 5, Harken, to the East of Yarmouth the fleet split into three groups. The leaders generally favoured a route across to Fort Victoria hugging the shore, whilst some stayed a little offshore in the stronger breeze but with a stronger ebb tide against them. The third group decided to delay their route across the Solent to the Yarmouth side and thus initially had less tide against them. The offshore group looked to have gained initially, but alas not in the end as the leader of this group came into mark 5 some way back from the race leaders who had taken the inshore route.

Meanwhile, tight inshore X-Ray attempted to overtake Crumpet by sailing some 5 metres off the sea wall and then disaster stuck when she hit an underwater groyne, doing considerable damage to the boat underwater, and forcing the crew to take down the mainsail to extricate themselves and get sailing again. The boats following had seen X-Ray's misfortune and naturally changed their course to avoid the underwater obstruction.

Crumpet maintained the lead around mark 5 followed by Beatrix and Dolce Vita, which was the only boat in the top 5 to have sailed a slightly offshore and more direct route rather than staying very close inshore. Behind Dolce Vita was a pack of 5 boats, led by X57 Red Coral sailed by Robert Young & Roy Froud, who were each no more than a boat length apart. Quite amazingly, X-Ray was back in contention in fifth place following her earlier misfortune and sailing fast despite her damage!

From mark 5 the fleet had to reach across to mark G, Bridgefords, off Tanners Lane, with boats taking a variety of high and low routes but with no obvious gains from either approach and with no place changes in the top 5.

Boats had to tack quickly around G to make the most of the ebbing tide assisting them in their next leg a beat to mark C, Colten. On the run from C to E, X-Ray took a more inshore but longer route, took some distance from the leaders and almost managed to make up some places she had lost earlier when running aground. After rounding E there was a short beat to the finish where Crumpet claimed her first victory of the season and, even more sensationally, a member of the crew was seen to kiss the helm! Upon further investigation this reporter was able to establish that the member of crew was Carol Dunning, Barry's wife!

Top five results:

1st Crumpet, Barry & Carol Dunning
2nd Beatrix, William Norris & Bill Dunsdon
3rd Dolce Vita, James Dodd & Jack Collings
4th Red Coral, Robert Young & Roy Froud
5th X-Ray, Robin & Louise Balme

Full results can be found at rlymyc.org.uk/Sailing/Racing/Race_Results/XOD_Results.aspx