XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 10
by John Olliff-Cooper 29 Jun 2018 15:24 BST
27 June 2018
At the start, the fleet found light winds from the east with an ebbing tide - conditions that remained remarkably consistent for most of the race.
As we all knew well, that combination was going to impose a tricky beat up a shallow shore, with the mud beckoning on the left, and incoming boats with right-of-way as they came into the shore, having to be avoided: an endeavour that would call for steady nerves and a modicum of recklessness.
Making a good start, clear of wind interference, both X34 MERSA and X32 IBEX pulled away nicely from the rest of the fleet, who were inevitably struggling for clear air within a bunched-up fleet, and safe passage along the shallow shore, where those notorious mud banks penalised over-bold skippers.
Talking of which - our recently retired Mayor, Barry Dunning, clearly found the temperature a little too hot as he conveniently went aground, and enjoyed a few wet and muddy moments over the side - pushing off! When to tack on to port and head out to the first mark G (where the tide was strongest) called for good judgement or a lot of luck.
As the wind went lighter a shortened course (G, C, F) allowed the crew of the 20 XOD's racing to come ashore for a well deserved tea and cake. It was good to see two boats join the race from the Yarmouth Division and VEXILLA (James Meaning) and SUNSHINE (Brian Harding) both showed good boat speed at times. Interestingly of the top five boats finishing, four came from the same builder - Newman. Newman boats are noted for their good performance in lighter wind strengths.
It was a blissful day's sailing in near perfect conditions. The sun shone brightly upon our XOD fleet. But then, in one way and another it always does.
Race 10 Results: (top four)
1. MERSA (Eric Williams)
2. IBEX Paul Woodman)
3. ZEST (Phil Brewer)
4. JULIA (Stephen Whiteman)
Full results can be found here.