RLymYC Ocean Safety Thursday Night Racing Late Series - Day 7
by Hannah Neve 14 Aug 2018 17:06 BST
9 August 2018
The Race Officer Roger Wilson and Team came out in a beautiful 10 knots and sunshine to set up for the platform start, ten minutes later in was gusting over 20 knots and cloudy with a choppy sea.
The flood tide made the IRC 1 fleet opt for the Platform end of the line at the start of their short beat up to the Port rounding of Colten. Irvine Laidlaw's Spirit 52 'Oui Fling', followed by 'Fidelitas' (Mark Broadway) and 'Boomerang' (Ray Crouch) rounded the mark and ran cross-tide on a tight reach towards Caldwells on the island shore without spinnakers in the gusty conditions.
By now the wind was gusting up to 28kts with some big shifts. Oui Fling gained on the beat by laying Yacht Haven in one before the shift came that meant the following boats had a full on beat in lumpy seas and hail! She continued to build her lead on the next downwind leg, and held her A3 spinnaker; others had less success with their masthead kites resulting in some lurid moments.
Rounding the Jackson to Port, and beating once more inshore and up towards the line, Oui Fling had pulled out an impressive 13 minute lead over Fidelitas to take line honours, and the overall win on corrected time. Boomerang held 3rd, a minute ahead of Jin Tonic (Andy Roberts).
With only two more races to go in this Late Series, Fidelitas holds a 2 point series lead over Boomerang, with a 9 point jump to Jelly Baby in third spot.
The J80's were in for an exciting evening, after the short beat to Colten they bore off to follow Class 1 to Caldwells, only they decided to hoist kites. In a plume of spray and on the edge No Regrets (C&H Neve) followed by J Caramba (H Castledine) and the others flew downwind much to the enjoyment of the Class 1 & 2 boats. J Caramba pushed hard on the long beat to Yacht Haven and made ground on No Regrets, a short run to Berthon followed but with less wind and fun. The wind dropped back to more manageable conditions for the final beat to the finish with No Regrets 1st, J Caramba 2nd, Traffic Jam 3rd.
Full race and series results can be found here.