Royal Lymington Nordic Folkboat West Solent Series - Race 1
by Chris Baldwick 27 May 2019 08:32 BST
25 May 2019
Folkboats on the Trinity Landing at the Royal London YC © Chris Baldwick
The first "long race" of the Folkboat West Solent Series, the Race to Cowes, was completed in near perfect Solent conditions.
A building breeze from South West allowed the race officer to send the fleet on an upwind first leg from the Platform to mark B (Dunford), with boats' positions changing regularly as the fleet sought to keep out of the flood tide, and avoid the larger racing boats that were coming west from Cowes. Madeleine and Bonnie risked the shallows inshore to cheat the incoming tide, and Madeleine was first round the windward mark followed by Bonnie.
There followed a long run east to the finish at Gurnard buoy off Egypt point to the west of Cowes. Madeleine held onto her lead whilst Bonnie and Mistral had a close fought dual behind her.
At the finish, Madeleine was followed by Mistral and then Bonnie. Wombat was 4thth close behind Bonnie, having been 4th round the windward mark and holding off Padfoot and Lady Linda, amongst others, on the long run.
The fleet then enjoyed lunch hosted by the Royal London YC before heading back to Lymington and Yarmouth in the afternoon, on a fresh ebb tide with a solid breeze giving perfect Nordic Folkboat conditions for a beat home.