Lymington Town Sailing Club Solent Circuit - Day 3
by Nigel Walbank 29 Oct 2019 12:29 GMT
27 October 2019
Race 3 J80 start in the of the LTSC Solent Circuit © LTSC
After days of high winds, Sunday morning saw the Lymington River glassy calm. Nevertheless, the LTSC race team set out into the Solent and were rewarded by a very gentle northerly breeze springing up in time for the fleets to get away on schedule.
The J80s were the first fleet away, and with the wind patchy and shifty, soon became quite spread out. Chis and Hannah Neve's No Regrets rounded the windward mark first and held their lead until the end from Andrew Hurst's Fiducial and Keith Willis' Dark and Stormy 2.
A second race on the day was run for the J80s and again No Regrets took the line honours but this time Dark and Stormy got the better of Fiducial.
The handicap fleets were given courses taking them over to the island shore which with a strong ebb tide running caused problems as they came back across the Solent. A number of boats found themselves swept the wrong side of marks or getting very close to a mark or the finishing line only for the wind to drop and the tide take them backwards.
All Class 1 IRC boats were able to complete a shortened course, but IRC 2 and Class 3 saw a number of boats retiring plus 3 that kept racing until the 4 hour time limit had expired. Their reward for keeping going was a finishing position one place behind the other boats in their class that had completed the course.
Class 1 line honours were taken by William Newton's Jelly Baby and on handicap she also managed to win by just 11 seconds from the Baker's Jaywalker and Any Robert's Jin Tonic. Class 2 saw a 16 second win on handicap for Harry Hutchinson's classic Swan 36, Anna Mai, from the J 30, Colleen, and Hanse 291, White Mischief. Class 3 was led home by Mat Perkins' modern classic Spirit 37, Strega from Steven Broomfield's Deheler 34, Headstrong. Fizz and Susumi were still racing when the time limit expired and therefore were rewarded with equal third place.
The Folkboat fleet benefitted from being kept on the mainland shore of the Solent and Simon Flack on Stralende won for the second week running from J Sowry on Mistral and John Cooper on Jen. Back at the club the winners were rewarded with prizes, this week sponsored by Rivaaz of Lymington. Race officer Nigel Walbank as well as apologising for the ambitious courses leading to the many retirements, also thanked other sponsors, Pennyfarthing Homes, Caldwells Estate Agents, Grabau International, Lymington Yacht Haven, Ringwood Brewery and Harken UK. Full results and information can be viewed by visiting ltsc.co.uk/yacht-racing