Harken 29er Grand Prix Round 2 at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club

Harken 29er Grand Prix Round 2 at Lymington © 29er UK

The Royal Lymington Yacht Club hosted the second Harken 29er Grand Prix on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of October, and the event offered a great opportunity to practice in some tricky conditions with tide, chop and a windy forecast.

The event began to a windy start, which meant a 2-hour postponement was quickly ensured. Once the wind settled the fleet launched and began racing at 2pm with the wind blowing across the race course in a range of 20-25 knots. However, due to the delay in the morning fewer races were scheduled and only 2 races were sailed in the end. Race 1 began in some tricky conditions and ended with Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson winning the race with a rather large lead. Race 2 began with an exciting start with 6 boats getting U-flagged due to the tide pushing everyone over the start line; again Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson won the race. Overall, the day proved challenging and did result in some broken masts and spectacular capsizes.

Harken 29er Grand Prix Round 2 at Lymington - photo © 29er UK

At the end of the day, Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson were winning on 2 points with Charlotte Ormerod and Jess Jobson closely followed behind on 4 points. Beyond 10 th place, many boats were carrying letters due to some boats having to retire or being U-flagged on the start line from the tide pushing them over. However, there was plenty of opportunity to move up on results due the optimism of getting 3+ races on the Sunday therefore allowing the sailors to have a discard.

On the Sunday, due to poor visibility a short postponement was put up. Once the rain began to clear, the fleet was once again launched into fairly windy conditions with the wind ranging between 10-15 knots. The race committee managed to get in 5 races in, in the end which was a long and tiring day sailing. Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson sailed very well securing bullets in all the races apart from the first race on the Sunday in which Freya Black and Millie Aldridge managed to get the bullet. On the whole all the competitors sailed very well making the racing challenging.

Overall, the weekend was a big success in terms of giving people the opportunity to practice on a tricky sea venue with some quality racing put on by the Race Committee. Congratulations to Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson who won the event, Freya Black and Millie Aldridge took second and Charlotte Ormerod and Jess Jobson finished third. In the boy's prizes, first were Henry Jameson and Louis Johnson, second were Freddie Peters and Toby Atherton, and third were Oliver Evans and Will Jarman.

In the lady's prizes, Freya Black and Millie Aldridge came first, second were Charlotte Ormerod and Jess Jobson, third were Elodie Edwards and Hannah Morris. The first mixed were Monique Vennis-Ozanne and John Mather and first juniors were Sam Jones and Jake Atkins.

Also, on behalf of the sailors, a massive thank you to the Royal Lymington Yacht Club for hosting such a good event and all the safety staff on hand ready to help with capsized boat and broken masts as well as all the competitors for coming and bringing excitement to the race course. In addition it was lovely to see lots of new sailors who have recently joined the 29er class at Lymington and we hope to see them at future events.

Overall Results: