Lymington Town Sailing Club Wednesday Summer Points Series - Day 3
by Alastair Beeton 23 Jul 2014 11:58 BST
16 July 2014
A real mix of classes for the LTSC Wednesday Summer Points Series day 3 © Alec Payne
Lymington Town Sailing Club's Wednesday Summer Series was again well attended with 45 boats taking to the water. Taking into account the main fleets, the Race Officer Robin Milledge set a course to suit all boats and the tide.
The fleets were sent east of the river to allow for the tide. The fast fleet went to 'Black & White', 'Pylewell Inner', 'Yacht Haven', back to 'Pylewell Inner' then to 'East Mark' and the 'River Line' before finishing at the Club line. The Medium fleet followed a similar course except instead of going to Pylewell Inner for a second time they went to 'East Inner'. The slow Fleet went to 'Black & White', 'East Inner' and East Mark' before crossing the 'River Line' and finishing at the Club Line.
The 15 knot breeze favoured most boats providing the majority of competitors with the opportunity to plane for at least some of the legs in the Solent. In the Fast Fleet Luke and Emma McEwen maintained a secure lead and crossed the line some ten minutes ahead of the first RS400 home. This gave them a convincing win by just under four minutes on corrected time. In 2nd place were Rob & Jan Martin with Kevin Podger & Heather Chipperfield just fifty seconds behind.
The Medium fleet saw a very close battle for the top three places with Jack Collings, sailing a near perfect race in his Dawn 390, stealing the lead from Richard Russell (Tasar), by just twenty-eight seconds, who was just two seconds ahead of Stuart Watson's Blaze.
In the Slow fleet race the drama struck at 'East Mark' when Pete Wills (LR Scow Beagle) got stuck in irons allowing Sue Sutherland & Sarah Unsworth (LR Scow ScottBailer) to sneak ahead to eventually win the race. In 2nd place was Jonny Tait (Laser 4.7) who was closely followed by Harry Fitzsimmons & Sam Woodhouse in their Cadet.