XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 12
by John Olliff-Cooper 18 Jul 07:28 BST
17 July 2019
With 10 knots from the south west, John And Wendy Trumble assisted by Malcolm McKeag and Mary Ann Jardine, set a well balanced line. With an impressive 21 boats out racing, the early leaders on the beat to B Pennington came from the platform end but many underestimated the strength of the tide and so at the mark Stuart Jardine's Lone Star lead ahead of Phil and Jo Brewer's Zest and Roy Froud in Venus.
By the spreader mark (Rigshop) XL Rory Paton had moved up to third ahead of John Olliff-Cooper's Excalibur and Chris Torrens' Madcap. By the leeward mark (Pylewell Inner) Madcap had moved up to 4th the battle for clear air was intense. Next came a short, 'follow m'leader' reach out to Berthon (mark F) and then a down-tide beat from to C (Colten). Eric Williams' Mersa made significant gains on the tricky run to E (Pylewell) and was able to overhaul XL by taking a more direct line.
On the short beat to the finish line XL made a dive for the platform finish line and although she didn't manage to squeeze past Mersa, held off Robin Balme's X-ray for fourth. Overall another cracking race, well done to Phil and Jo Brewer sailing with Richard Cearns crewing in his first sailing race in Zest for a hard fought win ahead of Lone Star.
Race 12 Results: (top five)
1st X9 Zest, Phil and Jo Brewer and Richard Cearns
2nd X119 Lone Star, Stuart Jardine, Doug Rogerson and Andy Baker
3rd X34 Mersa, Eric Williams, George Smith and Jonah Rogers
4th X48 XL, Rory Paton, Stuart Paton and Rodney Charman
5th X117 X-Ray, Robin Balme and John Renouf
Full series results can be found here.