Royal Lymington Yacht Club XOD Saturday Series - Race 6
by John Olliff-Cooper 5 Jun 2019 19:50 BST
1 June 2019
Malcolm McCaig our chief race officer set a course from the committee boat stationed near Pylewell on this beautiful day with a very light wind from the SW and a tide flowing SW initially, but changing 90 minutes into the race.
There were 21 starters and those who started in a theoretically poorer position further to leeward and in more tide, caught a better wind leaving most of the fleet behind. However at Mark C (Colton) the spinnaker run down to Mark E (Berthon) there was very little wind, in fact only just sufficient to stem the tide. Some gybed and went inshore others kept in the tide, hoping for a little more wind offshore. They didn't get it.
After about 30 minutes we saw Folkboats coming towards us with their spinnakers set. When we met, a breeze was filling in from the East and the race started again. The inside boats had slightly more breeze, but those to weather should have been in a more advantageous position. What actually happened was X5 from inshore arrived at Jack in the Basket first followed by Xray from the offshore group following.
Several boats went inside Jack into the Lymington River possibly contravening the sailing instructions and which has resulted in the first three boats being protested.
There was then a good tacking duel inshore to Mark F (Berthon) with Xray tacking early and not quite making the mark. X5 had a respectable lead over X119 Lone Star X179 Expeditious and X117 Xray.
We then had a reach to Inner Pylewell, a spinnaker run to D (Outer Distance) then a beat to E, most boats went inshore to get out of the tide but Xray tried to make the buoy from much further out and only missed it by a small margin.
We then reached to Sanders Sails and home to a river finish. The leading boats had not changed position but X48 and X32 had caught up Xray which had lost out by going into the tide. We then had a spinnaker run to the finish with Xray holding off X48.
The finishing order was X5 Madcap (Chris Torrens) X179 (Expeditious) James Markby X115 (Lone Star) X117 Xray (Robin Balme) This order is subject to protest of the three leading boats.
Full race and series results can be found here.