Lymington XOD Class Autumn Series - Race 8

Race 8 of 10 and towards the business end of the Autumn series got under way in champagne sailing conditions, albeit slightly chilled. With the "historic" Brexit debate going on, some thought there was a subliminal message with the course BJDE set by James McGill and his team.

Perhaps given the Brexit situation our race committee should not have been surprised when too many boats were over eager on the first attempt to start, and a general recall ensued.

With the tide on the turn the delay seemed to affect some boats' pre-planned strategy. With James Markby's X179 Expeditious leading from Paul Woodman and Ollie James' X32 Ibex at B (Pennington), Jonathan and Gillian Clark's X78 Fury and X173 Heyday respectively pointed south, perhaps influenced by their crews from Yarmouth and headed towards the Royal Solent YC. Whilst some chose south others chose north, at the end of the run to J Phil and Jo Brewer's X9 Zest's middle path proved the right way to go, as they powered into the lead ahead of X48 XL with Rory, Amanda and Stuart Paton.

On the long beat to D (Outer Distance mark) Expeditious and Ibex managed to pass XL, Zest however was in a zone of her own, and went on to win handsomely.

After eight races the leader board is tight with XL and Ibex tied on 14 points and Fury two points behind. Do not ignore Zest though, because once they can apply a second discard they will shoot up the leaderboard.

Race 8 Results: (top four)

1st X9 Zest, Phil and Jo Brewer
2nd X179 Expeditious, James Markby
3rd X32 Ibex, Paul Woodman and Oli James
4th X48 XL, Rory Paton

Full results can be found here.