RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Early Series - Day 7
by Vicky Leen, RLymYC 11 Jun 2018 20:18 BST
7 June 2018
RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Early Series day 7 © RLymYC
Another light air race with boats left rushing to get out when the wind unexpectedly appeared from the west. RO Roger Wilson set a short windward-leeward cascade whilst the wind held.
In the J80 fleet Ben Vines on 'Purple Haze' scraped around the top mark just ahead of Andrew Hurst's 'Fiducial' but was quickly passed downwind by 'Fiducial' and 'Jitterbug' (John Martin). This left 'Jitterbug' and 'Fiducial' fighting it out at the bottom mark with 'Checkmate' (Ray Mitchell) third around. 'Fiducial' soon passed 'Jitterbug', but was now faced with also trying to cover 'Checkmate' who bravely split with the pack to head inshore where he picked up new breeze. Approaching the top mark 'Fiducial' chose to 'cover the wrong boat', as Andrew said later, and 'Checkmate' rounded ahead to take the win. This now leaves 'Checkmate' and 'Fiducial' tied on points for the series lead heading into the final two races! Third across the line was the very consistent – and very fast – 'Tip Top' (Olivia Dowling) who now lies third overall.
In IRC 1 the majority of boats stayed out on Starboard tack to use the ebb tide, but with a slightly stronger breeze inshore, the fleet was very closely bunched at the windward mark. Rounding the mark to Starboard, spinnakers were hoisted on port gybe with 'Jelly Baby' (William Newton), 'Jin Tonic' (Andy Roberts) and 'Boomerang' (Ray Crouch) leading the fleet inshore to escape the tide. A poor hoist by 'Fidelitas' (M Broadway) saw them uncharacteristically slip down the fleet and eventually retire. Meanwhile, 'Islay' (Richard Down) kept close company with 'Aventurera' (David Gough) and the big Swan, 'Philippides' (Richard Balding), as the yachts turned at the downwind mark. With the wind now starting to drop, the final downwind leg to the finish enabled 'Jin Tonic' (Andy Roberts) to edge ahead of 'Jelly Baby' (William Newton), with 'Boomerang' (Ray Crouch) in 3rd.
With just two races to go in the RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night series, 'Fidelitas' (Mark Broadway) holds onto first place, 3 points ahead of 'Jin Tonic' (Andy Roberts) and 'Boomerang' (Ray Crouch) who are separated by just 1 point.
Full race and series results can be found here.