Spencers Estate Agents Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Early Series - Day 7
by Vicky Leen 11 Jun 10:06 BST
6 June 2019
Boomerang during Spencers Estate Agents Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Early Series day 7 © Roger Wilson
Race 7 of the RLymYC Thursday Evening Series, sponsored by Spencers Estate Agents, saw over 60 yachts racing on a sunny evening. The spring ebb faded during the race, as did the light southerly breeze. However, imaginative course setting by the Race Officer ensured all boats managed to finish.
Three of the six competing IRC Class 1 boats misjudged the strength of the tide at the start and were over the line. The two J105s, Jelly Baby and Jin Tonic, returned while Full Chat continued - unfortunately scoring an OCS. Boomerang's perfect start set her up well for the race. She led convincingly to take the win, followed by Islay and Jin Tonic, who recovered skilfully.
The LAH1 class enjoyed some of their best racing of the series so far. The 10 yachts were closely matched round the course. The finishing official was unable to split Strega and Crinian awarding them a dead-heat, and Charlotte and Susimi were similarly overlapped at the finish with just 1 second between them. The race was won by Tim Wookey's Red Kite which continues to lead the Series. Beep Beep and Charlotte were second and third respectively.
The 7 LAH3 boats included newcomer Egor, a 22ft E-Boat. The fleet were cautious of the ebb tide at the start, getting away cleanly, with Tactile rounding the top mark just ahead of Unity. Debutante Egor made good progress in the second half of the race to finish second on the water behind Tactile. Corrected time left Tactile with the win, Temptation second and Egor slipping to third.
The largest fleet of the evening was again the Nordic Folkboats. 21 boats came out and all got away cleanly from the line. The fleet split on the first downwind leg with those gybing for the mainland shore being favoured. Harry Hall's Yarmouth boat, Svane, led for much of the race before being hunted down by Series leader, Crackerjack. Crackerjack went on to record her 6th win from seven races. Svane held on for second and Tak took third place.
Just two races remain in the Spencers Early Series. Podium places in all the fleets are still very open, with the exception of Crackerjack's dominant position in the Nordic Folkboats.
Series results so far can be found here.