Wednesday XOD Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 2
by John Olliff-Cooper 8 May 2017 22:44 BST
3 May 2017
XL during the final race of the 2016 Lymington XOD Wednesday Series © Lymington XOD Class
The 10 strong Lymington XOD fleet were greeted with a chilly 8-15 knot north-easterly breeze, and a fantastic inshore course laid by RO Chris Baldwick for the 2nd of the Wednesday series.
The heavily biased platform end of the line led to a contested start, with X48 XL helmed by Rory Paton winning the favoured end, shortly followed by Stuart Jardine crewed by Doug Rogerson in X119 Lone Star. Further along the line, X72 Venus had also made a clean start and it was these three boats that traded windshifts up the first beat to occupy the top spots as they rounded mark Pi to starboard before turning onto a reach to mark E.
From then on, both XL and Lone star were able to further establish themselves at the front of the fleet, however places were traded throughout race for the rest of the top five. Displaying impressive downwind speed, X117 X-Ray sailed by Robin Balme with regular crew John Renouf overhauled Venus on the penultimate run, only to then be re-overtaken by Venus on the final beat. Meanwhile, David Da Cunha and Jay Devonshire sailing X161 Mayday demonstrated the importance of playing the upwinds shifts to leapfrog both boats, with X5 Madcap and Chris Torrens finding tidal advantage on the right hand side of the course to also overtake X-Ray, placing them in 5th.
With XL and Lone Star continuing to extend, the last run of the race proved to be the first leg where places remained unchanged as Mayday was able to strengthen her grip on 3rd place ahead of Venus and then Madcap, and that order that was maintained to the finish.
Thanks go to Chris Baldwick for laying an exemplary course with plenty of overtaking opportunity that made for a challenging and very enjoyable race!'
Race 2 Results: (top five)
1st - XL, Rory and Stuart Paton and Rodney
2nd - Lone Star, Stuart Jardine and Doug Rogerson
3rd - Mayday, David Da Cunha and Jay Devonshire
4th - Venus, Nik and Roy Froud and Sarah Richards
5th - Madcap, Chris Torrens and David Bedford