Royal Lymington Yacht Club XOD Saturday Series - Race 3
by John Olliff-Cooper 15 May 11:15 BST
11 May 2019
With a day of a frequently shifting north to north-westerly breeze, Race Officer Malcolm McKeag and his team of Peter Schofield, James McGill and Diana Stewart set a Committee Boat start for the twenty XODs with a windward leg towards the mainland shore.
Xoanon (aka N1) led for the first two marks followed closely by Ibex (Paul Woodman) and Fury (Jonathon Clark). After a sloppy rounding of the leeward mark, Xoanon fell away down the order, leaving Ibex and Fury in front.
The wind then fell lighter and became very shifty and gusty, favouring some boats whilst seemingly ignoring others who were not that far apart on the water.
Making good use of wind shift blessings, XL (Rory Paton) and Mersa (Eric Williams) made significant gains and went into a lead that they never lost, with Ibex and Expeditious (Ben Paton) close astern. Places continued to change in the chasing group, not helped when the leaders were approaching the finish line with the Wightlink ferry approaching from the opposite direction.
Race 3 Results: (top three)
1st XL
2nd Mersa
3rd Ibex
Full race and series results can be found here.