RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Early Series - Day 8

After three weeks of little or no wind, Race 8 saw a steady 18-20 kts at the start with the tide just turning to the flood.

The ten-strong IRC 1 fleet split tacks immediately after the start on the beat to Dunford, with a number of yachts heading inshore, and the rest staying out on Starboard tack looking for a later turn of the tide out in the Solent. Boomerang (Ray Crouch) led Jaywalker (Bob Baker) and Jin Tonic (Andy Roberts) at the mark and led the fleet out into the Solent with a now favourable tide towards G. The low tide and the inshore sections back to 'Yacht Haven' caught out more than one boat, with groundings delaying a couple of the bigger boats, but the leaders continued building their advantage.

The prudently set course, with shorter second lap was well judged, as the wind started to drop, and the tide inexorably increased. At the finish, Jin Tonic took line honours and a well-deserved overall win by nearly 2 minutes, with Boomerang in second, ahead of Jaywalker third. There is everything to play for with the top 3 boats covered by just 2 points with 1 race to go.

In IRC 2 most boats started on the committee boat end but 'White Mischief' (Andy Hind) started further out and was able to cross the fleet & continue on port tack into the shallows. They carried this advantage to the leeward mark G, hotly pursued by 'Kit Off' (Rick Otten and John Boyd) and 'Colleen' (Allan Hill). On the second windward leg to Yacht Haven, the deeper draft boats had to stay in the current whilst those with shallower draft and considerable nerve fared better tacking up behind the Platform. After rounding G second time, 'Colleen' fared well on the inshore and was first across the line closely followed by 'White Mischief' and 'Kit Off'. On corrected time, 'White Mischief' won by 28 seconds over 'Colleen' with 'Kit Off' 3rd.

The J80 fleet were expecting a blast this week but the wind started to drop almost straight after their start. The fleet hugged the shore to 'Dunford' where 'Purple Haze' (O Dunford & S Armitage) led the fleet until getting into the dirty air of the class in front and couldn't quite shoot the mark and had to do a 360 to round behind several of the fleet. With the points so close for the series there were a few luffing matches going on down the gybing run to 'G' and there were several place changes on the beat to Yacht Haven and the subsequent run to Folkboats UK with Fiducial, Wild Cat 3, Tip Top, Checkmate & No Regrets all regularly swapping places. The last beat especially was very testing as the wind started to get very shifty indeed as Checkmate found to their cost. Wild Cat 3 managed to pull it out of the bag with Fiducial 2nd and No Regrets 3rd.

Full race and series results can be found here.