XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 19

The unenviable task of setting a course in a variable Northerly breeze for the 20 XODs starting Wednesday's race fell to Race Officer Alistair Wilson who clocked the wind speed from 2 to 11 knots with a full 90 degrees of unpredictable direction change!

The fleet provided a colourful picture under spinnaker for a running start heading to Mark 2, which we all know is somewhere near Yarmouth - but too small to be seen until you've nearly passed it!

Zest and XL were looking good as early leaders but were losing speed trying to stay low as the flooding tide pushed boats to the East. Madcap picked a great line approaching from well to leeward at speed and shot around the mark clear ahead. Venus followed on a similar line to round just ahead of XL then Zest and Clair De Lune.

The beat back across the Solent to Pylewell (another small yellow mark) became a starboard tack fetch as crews were careful not to be swept too high. Unfortunately for Madcap, the wind backed a little before the mark so a short tack was required allowing XL to close the gap for the downwind leg against the tide to D (Yachthaven). There were gains to be made by running along the shore before gybing out to the mark. Timing was everything and XL picked the moment to perfection to stay clear of the chasing boats and squeeze past Madcap.

Short legs to outer river mark Z, back to D, then to a Platform finish, kept the fleet close but with no position changes amongst the leaders.

Race 19 Results: (top four)

1st XL - Rory Paton, Stuart Paton, Rodney Charman
2nd Madcap - Chris Torrens, David Bedford, Matt Reid
3rd Venus - Nick Froud, Giles Lloyd-Williams, Freddie Fitzsimmons
4th Zest – Phil & Jo Brewer, Debbie Miles

Race Officer; Alistair Wilson. AROs; Frances Evans, Gerry & Carolyn McCafferty
Course: 2(p), Pi(p), D(s), [gate], Z(p), D(p), Finish

Full results can be found here.