Lymington XOD Autumn Wednesday Series - Race 4

Lymington XOD Autumn Wednesday Series race 4 © RLymYC

With the wind in the SW Race Officer Malcolm Mckeag set a course with two windward leeward legs off the mainland shore. With a very even start line the fleet were divided over where to position themselves although the majority opted for the platform end of the line with the option for an early tack out of the flood tide. In the event the pin end appeared to be favoured as boats criss-crossed and decided when to venture out into the tide for the windward mark. X57 Red Coral (Roy Froud & Robert Young) led the pack, after an early decision to leave the shore, followed by X32 Ibex (Paul Woodman & Oliver James).

The leaders bore away at the mark and them gybed back after a short time, however a couple of boats elected to go out further for more tide and gained from this decision. At the first leeward mark H, Red Coral continued to lead followed by Ibex and X48 XL (Rory & Stuart Paton) as they headed hard inshore to the various bays and lakes off of the Pylewell shore to escape the tide. This was tactical X boat racing at it's best with lots of short tacking making helms and crews work extremely hard to get their boats back up to speed after each turn.

Ibex overtook Red Coral as they crossed tacks on the approach to the second windward mark and rounded ahead with XL still in third and X178 Beatrix (James Meaning & Bill Dunsdon) making good gains.

There was a final twist on the last leg in the river as the wind almost switched off and XL managed to move up to second place by clever use of their spinnaker with Beatrix making huge gains to finish in third with Red Coral in fourth and X72 Venus (Nik Froud) finishing fifth.

Race 4 Results: (top five)

1st X32 - Ibex - Paul Woodman & Oliver James
2nd X48 XL - Rory & Stuart Paton
3rd X178 Beatrix - James Meaning, William Norris and Bill Dunsdon
4th X57 Red Coral - Roy Froud & Robert Young
5th X72 Venus - Nik Froud & Henry Lloyd Williams