Spencers Estate Agents Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Early Series - Day 9

Spencers Estate Agents Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Early Series final day © RLymYC

The last of eight races for keelboats in the Western Solent was sailed in a fresh south-westerly with an ebbing tide. Mary McGough (RO), Chris Knox (ARO) and all race team members suffered a bouncy evening as 57 boats (down from the usual 80-odd due to the weather) competed in the Series sponsored by Spencers Estate Agents but their management of the tricky conditions earned high praise from all the sailors.

In IRC-1, seven boats started the last race of the early series, with Jin Tonic (Andy Roberts), Boomerang (Ray Crouch), Fidelitas and Jelly Baby (William Newton) all in contention for a podium finish in the series.

The fleet set off on a beat to mark B off Pennington. Unfortunately, Full Chat's (Andrew Higgs and Tristan Kemp) enthusiasm on the line meant a restart! On the long run to Cowes Radio, Boomerang provided entertainment with a spectacular gybe but recovered to lead at the leeward mark and remain in the lead until the finish. Jin Tonic also suffered the misfortune of destroying their spinnaker on this leg!

At the finish, it was Boomerang, followed by Jelly Baby and Jin Tonic. The series result was Jin Tonic, Boomerang and Jelly Baby, separated by merely 1.5 points. Close racing !

In IRC-2, the lead was equally tight with Allan Hill's Colleen in the lead by two points. Hound Dog (Paul Harrison & Craig Stewart) and Seascape (Lawrence Barnett) were judged OCS and Simplicity (Rory Fitzwilliams) retired, leaving Colleen, White Mischief (Andy Hind) Gravity (Simon McCarthy & Ronan Grealish) and Mojitabel (Rory Heron & Dan Snow) to fight it out for line honours. At the windward mark, B, the stiffer Mojitabel was first around, closely followed by White Mischief, Gravity and Colleen. Nifty spinnaker work on Colleen including a tricky gybe at 10 knots with 25 knots of breeze allowed them to overhaul White Mischief sailing without a spinnaker. The beat back to D was wet for all crew followed by another fast run with many boats moving at over 10 knots. Gravity sailed further but faster and despite several spectacular broaches, crossed the finish line first, with Mojitabel, Colleen and White Mischief just behind. On corrected time, the honours went to Gravity just 9 seconds ahead of White Mischief, in turn just 9 seconds ahead of Colleen! The series overall was narrowly won by Colleen.

In the last of a strong ebb tide, 12 Folkboats came to the line. The windward mark was small and most of the fleet with the exception of Crackerjack (Stuart Watson & Matthew Jones) overstood it. Padfoot (Chris Hills), Tak (Jeremy Austin) and Paloma (Jim Tennant) followed the leaders on to the first run where some boats chose not to fly spinnakers. There were several close encounters with other fleets. Crackerjack established a substantial lead whilst Tak just edged Padfoot to arrive at the leeward mark second. The beat back to D was followed by a short run to F where Padfoot closed on Tak who had lost their spinnaker halyard during the hoist and were under white sails only. At the finish, Crackerjack was first, Tak held off Padfoot for second and Scaramouche (John Whyte) was fourth.

The Late Series begins next Thursday with nine races open to all comers in prospect!

Series results so far can be found here.