Long Distance Race 1 at Lymington Town Sailing Club
by Rob Martin 27 Jun 2019 08:03 BST
23 June 2019
On Sunday 23rd June Lymington Town sailing club held the first of its long distance races for dinghies and combined this with a race for the cruisers. The conditions were near perfect with the wind averaging around 10 knots meaning and the sun breaking through. Two courses were set, 10.5 miles for the faster dinghies and 9.0 for the slower ones.
The first leg was a long run almost to Hurst spit. In the fast dinghies George Richards and Gregory Brown led at the first mark and lengthened on the 2 mile beat back only to capsize on the next reach. This let the Musto Skiff of Gary Stones and the RS700 of Richard Lilley through. The RS700 had to retire. The RS800 went on to take line honours on a slightly shortened course with the Musto Skiff close behind.
Meanwhile the RS400s, Merlins and RS300 were maintain their distance behind. David and Vicky Lenz were looking good in the merlin but had to retire. Kevin Podger and Julie Willis And Mat Thomas and Steve Nicholas in their RS400s both had navigational issues leaving the Merlin of Tony and Louise Johnson who sailed consistently throughout to take the win on handicap. Gary Stones was second in the Musto skiff and Ben Green third in an RS300.
In the slower class the long first run favoured the Seafly of John and Pam Martin. They led throughout from Matt and Maria Perkins in an RS200 and just held their handicap on the solos of Andy Highland and Richard Goodenough. Richard Russell was fourth in an Aero 5. Just 2 minutes separated these 4 boats after nearly 2 hours of racing.
There was a select fleet of cruisers who sailed the same course as the faster dinghies. The J80 of Adrian Bateman led from the start and built up what looked to be a substantial lead over the Contessa of Rob Milledge and Google-Eye (a Quarter Tonner) sailed by Pat Stables. As the race progressed Steve Homewood in his Pajot/Fontaine cat settled down and finished second on the water. When the handicaps were applied the J80 won from Google-Eye and Contessa Catherine. Again the results were extremely close with 3 minutes separating the four boats.