RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Late Series - Day 5

RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Late Series day 5 © RLymYC

A strong flood tide and light South West wind saw the IRC 1 fleet start at the Platform on Starboard and then tack inshore, except for Boomerang (R Crouch) who started on Port, crossed the fleet and led on the beat to the first mark at Colten.

A left-hand wind shift half way up saw those boats further offshore gain against Boomerang. Several boats misjudged their tack out to the mark in the tide, and struggled to round. At the front of the fleet, the long spinnaker run down to the Tanners mark saw Jaywalker (B Baker), Fidelitas (M Broadway), and Aventurera (D Gough) all well placed.

After another short inshore beat, followed by a run down to Tanners again, the final beat to the finish line saw Aventurera pull out a convincing lead over Fidelitas and Jaywalker and took both line honours and the overall win. Most of the J80 fleet started at the Platform but Traffic Jam (T Collyer) and Purple Haze (O Dunford, S Armitage), having seen the shift started at the pin. It was then a battle of less distance verses less tide. Wind pressure was up and down and played a large part in the outcome.

Purple Haze rounded first and went into a commanding lead that she never relinquished. Traffic Jam rounded just ahead of No Regrets (C& H Neve) who then passed them on the run but not by quiet enough to cross them on the gybe and Traffic Jam rounded ahead. Dark & Stormy 2 (L Willis) who were always close behind got in front of No Regrets after they had a twist in the kite at the last top mark, it was a close race to the finish with Dark & Stormy 2 gaining 3rd place by 1 second.

Full race and series results can be found here.