XOD Saturday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 8
by John Olliff-Cooper 19 Jun 2018 07:12 BST
9 June 2018
Anchors aweigh!
A light sea breeze arrived just in time to get the XOD fleet off with a short beat up to C (Colten) against a fairly weak tide. Clair de Lune was first round having found more wind in the deeper water whilst those heading up the shore lost out. Ibex was next closely followed by Zest then Vexilla, sailed by James Meaning from Yarmouth. En-route to the next mark H (Jackson), those two overhauled Ibex by climbing into the deeper water closer to the channel. Sadly, before any boat could reach this mark the wind failed and it became apparent that they hadn't quite reached the 'tidal lay-line' so anchors were deployed. Clair de Lune, Zest, Ibex and Expeditious all found their anchors dragging and were slowly taken the wrong side of the mark.
The morning's North-easterly finally returned, so the race to round H had four boats headed west under spinnaker facing the remainder of the fleet (those who hadn't gone home) weighing anchors, and sailing close-hauled as they approached the mark with the tide under them. First round was XL followed by Lone Star then Ibex, Expeditious and Zest for a reach across to E (Folkboats UK) before a run to the finish. Lone Star picked a nice line and carried good speed to get ahead and hold that place with some well-timed gybes in the once-again fading breeze. Zest pulled clear into third and narrowly missed sneaking a higher place with just a few seconds separating the boats.
So it appears races can be easily won or lost on the anchor work – another 'practice drill' to add to the list!
Our thanks go to Race Officer Chris Knox and his team Gerry and Carolyn McCafferty and Sinead Joyce.
Race 8 Results: (top four)
1st Lone Star; Stuart Jardine, Doug Rogerson, Liz Morris
2nd XL; Rory & Amanda Paton, Ollie Tait
3rd Zest; Phil & Jo Brewer
4th Vexilla; James Meaning
XL's second place was also just enough to secure the overall win in the Lymington Regatta as the 3rd race in the series with Zest second and Expeditious third.
Full series results can be found here.