Lymington Town Sailing Club Solent Circuit - Day 1
by Rob Milledge 8 Oct 2018 14:51 BST
7 October 2018
J80s crossing the start line on day 1 of the LTSC Solent Circuit © Rob Milledge
Sunday 7th October saw the first race of the 2018 Lymington Town Sailing Club Solent Circuit for keelboats. The club welcomed new series sponsors, New Milton based award winning house builder Pennyfarthing Homes, along with all the competing yachts on a sunny morning out on the Western Solent.
With a light to moderate northerly breeze, the committee boat was anchored to the east of Lymington River and a short upwind leg was set to the moveable Pennyfarthing Homes mark. The starts for the five separate classes were hotly contested, but all got away cleaning and on time.
In the IRC class the course took the fleet across to the Island shore and back several times. Bob and Jon Bakers J97 Jaywalker led the way, extending their lead over the twelve nautical mile course to win by an impressive margin of nearly twenty minutes. Andy Roberts was second sailing J105 Jin Tonic with Ray Crouch and Paul Bakers Adams 10 Boomerang in third.
The J80 fleet sailed two short windward / leeward course closer to the mainland shore. Racing was extremely close between the leading boats, with numerous position changes on the upwind legs as crews battled the shifting breeze and building ebb tide. Ray Mitchell and crew, sailing Checkmate won race one with Keith, Julie and Liam Willis, sailing Dark & Stormy II taking the honours in race two.
Lymington Adjusted Handicap (LAH) Class One and Two followed a similar course to the IRC boats. As the breeze started to fade away LAH class one made it around the whole course, but LAH class two had their course shortened at Mark 4 over on the island shore to the east of Yarmouth.
As the breeze dropped away to mere zephyrs, only the Folkboats were left stranded out in the foul tide. Anchored to maintain their positions, the hardy crews waited patiently for the wind to return but were eventually thwarted as the four hour time limit approached.
Full results and detail of how to enter the racing can be viewed at www.ltsc.co.uk/solent-ciruit.
Racing continues on Sunday 14th October and is open to all keel boats. LTSC would like to thank all the event sponsors for their support including Pennyfarthing Homes, Caldwells Estate Agents, Grabau International Yacht Brokers, Ringwood Brewery, Lymington Yacht Haven, Harken and Sanders Sails.