Last minute Bart's Bash at Lymington Town Sailing Club

With the Lymington Scow 'National' Championship being held at LTSC on the 17th September, normal Sunday club racing was cancelled. Although nothing had formally been organised in the Western Solent this year, it was also the weekend of Bart's Bash and this provided a good opportunity for those keen, to still get out on the water.

Over coffee and bacon sandwiches a course was agreed between the boats who had either not realised club racing was cancelled and just turned up or had been summoned to the club the night before by a secret squirrel email. In the end 15 boats turned out, all very keen to avoid a Sunday of domestic chores.

Steve Homewood kindly agreed to lay a start line for us and off we went. With a light North to North East breeze and a strong ebbing tide the prior agreed 'backwards P' course was somewhat poor, but it did have a half reasonable beat given the conditions. 2 laps resulted in a 40min race for most. Just long enough to earn lunch and a few beers back at the club. Most importantly though the jobs around the house had been delayed to another weekend.

Once some 'manual' handicaps had been applied the F18 Cat helmed by Dougal Harris took the win. The F18 was so far ahead on the water they must have won. Followed in 2nd by Richard Russell and Sylvia Weger's Tasar, who looked like they were close enough to the RS400 of Matt Thomas and Steve Nicholas to have beaten them on handicap. Leaving Matt and Steve to take 3rd as the rest of us were too far away...

By the time the club closed on Sunday evening £80 had been deposited in 'Bart's Pot', not bad considering 12hrs earlier we would not be joining in.

Sail on Bart!

www.bartsbash.com