Lymington XOD Class Autumn Series - Race 4
by Chris Torrens 4 Oct 2019 06:35 BST
2 October 2019
The light northerly breeze and strong spring ebb tide persuaded the race officer to give us a committee boat start with Sanders as the outer distance mark.
The fluctuating wind made line setting difficult and in the few minutes before the start the pin end became favoured with port tackers led by Eric Williams in X34 Mersa getting clear away. Others in the charge were Jon Clark in X78 Fury, Rory Paton in X48 XL and Ado Jardine in X140 Lucrezia which was more or less the order at Dollar, the first weather mark.
There followed a tricky run down to F Berthon mark, with boats making gains and losses in the strong ebb tide. Mersa maintained her lead followed by XL, then Chris Torrens in X5 Madcap and Jon Clark in Fury. The shifting northerly breeze made for a tactical beat back to Dollar with the three lead boats closely matched at the weather mark. D (Outer Distance) was the next leeward mark with shifty down wind conditions and an increasingly strong ebb providing more gains and losses.
Mersa maintained her lead with Madcap easing ahead of XL only to loose it on the beat up to Z, near the river mouth. Fury also lost out to Phil Brewer in X9 Zest, crewed by Simon Olliff. Passing through the line there followed a down wind leg to F which was again challenging in the very strong tide. Rounding F the order remained the same but on the final beat back to the platform finish, Madcap gambled and lost by going hard right, finishing behind Zest with Eric Williams and Rory Paton 1st and 2nd. Elsewhere in the fleet Robin Balme finished a commendable 6th in a borrowed boat and Gill Clark in X173 Heyday made a good recovery finishing 7th having been OCS.
After having lost the previous Saturday and Wednesday racing due to severe weather it was great to be racing again.
A very big thank you was due to the Race officer James Hoare with Francis Evans and the McCaffertys for laying on an excellent course and making it such an enjoyable day.
Race 4 Results: (top four)
1st Eric Williams X34 Mersa
2nd Rory Paton X48 XL
3rd Phil Brewer X9 Zest
4th Chris Torrens X5 Madcap
Full results can be found here.