Lymington Town Sailing Club Wildwind Wednesday Late Points Series - Race 5
by Tony Stickland 31 Jul 2018 15:32 BST
25 July 2018
Lymington Town's Wildwind Wednesday Late Points Series race 5 © Alastair Beeton
Race 5 of LTSC's Wildwind Wednesday Late Points Series saw 53 entrants looking to enjoy the sunshine and a moderate SW sea breeze. The ten boats in Class 1 got a clean start and headed into the wind and flood tide for a long beat to Plus mark. Of the fourteen starters in Class 2, two Merlin Rockets had to re-cross the line after a premature start. The largest start was Class 3 with 25 entrants, of whom two Aeros were also over the line, whilst the three competitors in Class 4 had plenty of room for their clean start.
The wind held to allow Classes 1-3 all to reach Plus mark before their speedier down- tide and wind legs back across the river mouth. Shorter second windward/leeward legs saw the fleets becoming well spread out, with Dougal Harris and Henry Castledine in the Formula 18 catamaran way ahead on the water in Class 1, Richard Russell and Sylvia Weger's Tasar leading Class 2, and Pete Barton at the front of Class 3 in his Aero; Class 4 had a much shorter windward leg with Peter Wills rounding first.
With the sea breeze only dropping very slightly towards the end of the race, the long courses for Classes 1-3 did not require to be shortened and most competitors enjoyed well over an hour of racing in idyllic conditions, with plenty of hiking for the non-trapeze boats. The absence of the LTSC Committee boat Baverstock, out of the water for maintenance, challenged some competitors who used it as a reference for locating other race marks.
Line honours in Class 1 went unsurprisingly to the Harris/Castledine catamaran, followed by Toby Collyer and Ed Reeves each in an RS700; in Class 2 it was the Russell/Weger Tasar clear ahead of Rob and Jan Martin's Merlin Rocket and then Tim Knight and Pete Bell in another Tasar. Class 3 saw Pete Barton take line honours in his Aero 9, ahead of Liam WIllis also in an Aero 9 and David Gautier in his Contender, while in Class 4 Peter Wills (Lymington Scow) lead Sylvia Pepin (Lymington Scow) and John Reynolds (Keyhaven Scow) across the line.
Other than in Class 3 the application of handicaps made little difference to the final results which were Class 1 - Harris/Castledine (F18), Collyer (RS700), Reeves (RS700; Class 2 - Russell/Weger (Tasar), Knight/Bell (Tasar), the Martins (Merlin Rocket); Class 3 - Pete Barton (Aero 9), Dave Ellis (Aero 7), Clive Taylor (Laser); Class 4 - Wills (Lym Scow), Pepin (Lym Scow), Reynolds (KH Scow).
Results can be found at www.ltsc.co.uk/results