XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Race 18
by Oli James 20 Sep 2019 17:23 BST
19 September 2019
Sixteen teams endeavoured to tackle at tricky, light and deceasing easterly breeze. We enjoyed clear blue skies and a air temperature in the the late teens, whilst racing in what is arguably the most competitive One Design racing in Lymington, if not the whole Solent.
With the tide starting to run to the West, the fleet started with an upwind leg to D (Tanners). The early leaders, X9 Zest, X57 Red Coral, and X32 Ibex gambled on staying out in the tide, heading straight to the mark. X48 XL and X156 Gleam tacked out further in order to get their bows across the tide, and this did pay off somewhat.
As the fleet reached the first mark, the order was X9, X52, and X87 Excalibur - those boats were well ahead of the pack. Phil and Jo Brewer in X9, light air specialists, judged the approach perfectly and set off on the long downwind leg to C Oxey. The wind then freed and died further, which made the race up and down the shore a bit of a procession.
The conditions forced four retirements, and two boats were out of time.
In the end, Phil and Jo Brewer in Zest won easily, and clinched the highly prized 2019 Wednesday series.
The final podium positions were:
1) Phil Brewer X9 Zest
2) Rory Paton X 48 XL
3) Robert Young X57 Red Coral
Full series results can be found here.