Solent Super Series 2025 - Round 3 at Lymington
by Mark Angell 11 Nov 06:03 GMT
8-9 November 2025
2025 Solent Super Series Round 3 at Lymington © FourthCape
The Solent Super Series crews returned to their boats for Round 3 on a bright November morning and were met by light and shifting wind (roughly from the west).
Series Race Officer Rich Palmer set up the start line on the Hill Head Plateau between the committee boat 'Cowes United' and the Marlow MarkSetBot ODM, enabling adjustment of the line right down to the warning signal. The fleet made a competitive start with Griffin leading the charge at the committee boat end and continuing to lead around the first two marks of the 8.7nm course.
Making their series debut, Jumping Jellyfish J109 opted for the right-hand side of the first beat early on, making good gains by the top mark to round in 4th behind a group of Sun Fast 3600s and taking two positions down the run. Another boat at the top of the fleet was the Mumm 36 Panther showing her downwind VMG speed with a 'traditional' symmetrical spinnaker allowing her to sail the rhumb line.
Race 1 concluded with a beat back up to the West to finish in Thorness Bay with Jumping Jellyfish having taken the lead on the water by some 16 seconds ahead of Panther. On corrected time it was Jumping Jellyfish 5m40s clear of Griffin with Panther 1m20s behind completing the podium places
Race 2 followed with a start in Thorness Bay heading to the west as the fleet continued to the round's destination, Lymington. By this time a strong 3kt ebbing tide provided a challenging start scenario, but after a clean start, the fleet made their way west with the course of 13.8nm.
The west going tide made for quick upwind legs, and slower tactical downwinds, teams opting for varying tactics keeping each boat's 4 crew on their toes, often multitasking. After the third beat and 2 half hrs racing, the fleet was shortened at Lymington Bank and motored in for drinks and hot showers at Round 3's host port Lymington Yacht Haven.
Round 3's welcome drinks were provided by Marlow Ropes, who distributed reels of 3mm Excel Pro line to each team, as well as awarding the prize for Round 2 winner's GameOn - a new set of Blue Ocean Docklines for their efforts.
The now famous and much anticipated prize draw was drawn by Jack Ginty of Marlow Ropes with the top prize, a new Marlow Grand Prix spinnaker halyard won by Sun Fast 3600 Smash, further boat names out of the hat were Solis Ortis winning a whole crew set of Musto Thermal Long Socks and Griffin winning a bottle of wine at the Round 4's social at Haslar Marina. With the prize-giving and draw completed the evening's dinner could be served.
Sunday's forecast had always promised more wind than Saturday but less sunshine and delivered a decent 18kts from the SSW, racing got under way on time at 10:00, with a 20nm racecourse which would see the fleet returning to the central Solent.
Working upwind against the tide to Black Rock gave way to a zigzag downwind/beat/downwind combination back to Cowes Week 2026 South of Beaulieu River before a 15-degree shift turned the penultimate leg into a two sail reach to South Bramble and back to Cowes Yacht Haven before a run to the finish at TeamO. With the racing under way, the two-minute silence was observed by the fleet to mark Remembrance Sunday at 11:00.
Quick out of the blocks were Solis Ortus and Insert Coin who led at mark 1 with Jumping Jellyfish and Griffin hot on their heels, by the second windward mark Jumping Jellyfish had stretched out in front to a 200m lead and went on to take the win on the water and on corrected time. 2nd to 5th places were filled by the Sun Fast 3600s [Griffin, One Way, Smash, Solis Ortus] with boats overlapped at the finish.
On their Series debut, the J109 Jumping Jellyfish team completed a hat-trick of race wins, owner David Richards commented, "A fantastic weekend of sailing. We thoroughly enjoyed the format of the event, particularly sailing with a reduced crew, and thought the whole thing was very well organised. We definitely hope to be back next year." A crew member continued, "The result was great, but that aside... It's the best event we've had all year. Different, efficient and broke the norm. Having a destination is amazing with a small informal social was a highlight!"
After three rounds, top of the Series leaderboard is the RORC Griffin youth team with consistent top results on 18 points, with 30 points the Sun Fast 3300 Lord of the Dance is in 2nd and One Way a point adrift with 31. The fourth and final round of the 2025 series will take the fleet to the Eastern Solent, where they will be warmly welcomed at host marina - Boatfolk Haslar Marina in Gosport.
Who will be crowned 2025 Solent Super Series champions we'll find out on the 22nd/23rd November!
Find out more at www.solentsuperseries.com