RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Early Series - Day 5

RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Early Series day 5 © RLymYC

At the start there was a light NNE breeze of about 8 knots but with the near certainty of the wind fading by the time limit of 8pm. At the start there was a gentle flood tide which was due to change at about 7:30.

Race Officer Alistair Wilson & Chris Rustom, course setter for the day, set an interesting and challenging course taking the fleet on a running start down to "George Hotel" on the island shore and then there was a reach along the shore past Yarmouth to Black Rock followed by a beat back to Pylewell and then to a Platform finish with the J80 fleet not having to go to Black Rock.

IRC1 got away well under spinnaker with 'Islay' (Richard Down) moving into the lead by gybing down the centre of the course. This lead was to be short lived as the faster yachts led by 'Jelly Baby' (William Newton) overtook her just before the first mark. The reach to Black Rock saw no changes in position but 'Jelly Baby' and 'Boomerang' stretched their lead.

The beat to Pylewell was tactically demanding with very shifty winds which gradually dropped to about 3 knots. Jelly Baby played the shifts well and had increased her lead to nearly two minutes on Boomerang and she held this to the finish deservedly winning the race. 'Fidelitas' was second having caught up well on the beat and 'Boomerang' was third.

In IRC2, even with just six boats competing, the start was exciting with most sailing an arc towards the Island to allow for the current. At the first mark, 'Kit Off' (Rick Otten and Jon Boyd) had a narrow lead over 'Colleen' (Allan Hill) closely followed by 'High Spirit' (Andy Maskell), 'Google Eye' (Pat Staples) and 'White Mischief' (Andy Hind). The lighter 'Kit Off' made good progress to Black Rock and then to E and the Platform, finishing just 8 minutes before the 8:00pm cut-off! 'Google Eye' and 'High Spirit' made good use of the reverse eddy off Yarmouth towards Black Rock but no-one apart from 'Kit Off' finished before the time limit was reached and so the rest of the fleet were deemed DNF and awarded 2 points except for 'White Mischief' which had retired earlier.

With 16 J80's coming to the start it was hotly contested with a split decision as to whether the less tide inshore would pay against the better angle at the pin. 'Wildacat 3' (Andy Ashvie) got the best start inshore and 'No Regrets' (C & H Neve) at the pin. Some of the fleet gybed, including 'Purple Haze' (O Dunford & S Armitage) with Hattie Rogers helming, at the pin and headed straight to the Island but in the lightening breeze this didn't pay as they had to gybe back with a poor angle. It turned into a game of snakes and ladders as the breeze came and went and the tide started to ebb. Wildcat 3 got the angle prefect to round "George Hotel" 1st and they managed to play the ladders well to finish 1st followed by 'No Regrets' who just managed to sneak past 'Fiducial' (Andrew Hurst) at the last mark.

Full race and series results can be found here.