XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 8

Pleasant sunshine and a healthy south/south west wind off the Island allowed the local XOD fleet to enjoy some tactical racing, with the added challenge of a fast west going tide.

The Race Management team of Alastair Wilson, James McGill and James Hoare sent the fleet out to Black Rock off Yarmouth. Careful assessment of the conditions was essential to make full use of the shifting wind.

The early boats round were VENUS (Nik Froud) with JULIA (Stephen Whiteman) with XL (Rory Paton) and LONE STAR (Stuart Jardine) close behind. The long downwind leg to Colten proved interesting as the boats began to spread out, doing their best to use the tide and gain any small advantage. A fast beat to mark A followed, with the ebbing tide (helping for once) allowing a number of skippers and crew the chance to claw back some places by holding on to port tack and using the south-going eddy off the Spit rather than tacking out on starboard (to find a little more tide) and then tacking, only to find they had over reached.

Once again the fleet were split downwind (against the tide, of course). The decision, whether to go inshore, shallow water and less tide, or take the rhumb line through the gate to mark E. VENUS and LONE STAR very nearly forgot to pass through the gate but fortunately realised their error just in time. Perhaps the skippers were concentrating a little too much on some match racing!

Back to the starting platform and the finish saw VENUS clinch first place with LONE STAR close behind followed by XL and JULIA. A good day was had by all. The results are subject to protest.

Full results can be found here.