Spencers Estate Agents Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Early Series - Day 1
by Vicky Leen 29 Apr 2019 19:19 BST
25 April 2019
Andy Robert's J105, Jin Tonic on day 1 of the Spencers Estate Agents Lymington Thursday Night Early Series © RLymYC
Andy Robert's J105, Jin Tonic, was quick out of the blocks in the first race of Royal Lymington's popular Thursday night racing, sponsored by Spencers Estate Agents.
A good breeze of 13 knots from the SW, together with an ebb tide gave the Race Team plenty of options for the 53 boats that came to the start. The forecast of showers avoided the West Solent, so good racing conditions were enjoyed by the approx. 200 sailors.
The five Class 1 yachts were given a beat to the newly sponsored RLymYC buoy 'Chewton Glen', where the deciding tactic was judging the port lay-line from the fair tide in the channel into the mark. Jin Tonic proved the most adept at this, and carried her lead on the downwind leg. She made few mistakes and finished in the lead, pursued by Boomerang some three minutes back.
Twelve J80s were out for the first race. These one-designs frequently enjoy close racing and tonight was no exception.
The entrants in the Lymington Handicap fleet have been divided into 3 classes this year, reflecting a wider than usual variation in performance. The scratch boat this season is the 19 foot VX One, Beep Beep a high performance sports boat. The 45 foot Susimi rounded the windward mark in the lead, but the VX One, Beep Beep, flew downwind to open up a huge lead on the fleet. Beep Beep won convincingly by nearly 8 minutes on corrected time.
16 Nordic Folkboats raced on Thursday and Crackerjack resumed her winning ways. Bonnie lead round the windward mark, chased by Tak and Jen. The leading boats then headed inshore, but the tidal advantage proved less than expected enabling Crackerjack to move up to second. Bonnie crossed the finish line at the front of the fleet, but received no winner's gun as she was judged over the line at the start. Thus Crackerjack was first followed by Jen and Tak.
The Club bar was busy as expected, and Rob Batten of sponsors Spencers Estate Agents presented the evening's prizes.