With an unfavourable wind forecast, indicating little or no wind, the Race Officer decided to delay the start of racing on the second day of the Royal Lymington Yacht Club's Spring Series supported by Mount Gay Rum by one hour and setting a short course of just over 3 miles for all four classes close to the mainland shore.

All four starts were clean, despite a strong ebb tide which was close to mark G, ‘Bridgeworks’.

The boats made rapid progress upwind to the first mark, D, ‘Yacht Havens’, then were faced with a challenge of how best to fight the current on the downwind leg to the gate at E, ‘Circle Marine’. On the first round of two, most opted for deep gybes into the North shore and out again, while some took the direct line through the ‘gate’ then on to a laid mark some 200 yards east of E. On the second round, most boats opted to take the direct route.

The wind kept up just enough for the majority of the boats to reach the finish line in time and those that didn’t were finished at mark D., where the Race Officer had decided to station the main Committee Vessel, Robin Taunt's motor boat "Mock Knot”. After the finish, the Race Officer, Simon Van Der Byl commented that he had never managed to set a course in such light winds before but was pleased that it seemed to work. Certainly, the sailors seemed happy to have achieved a race at all, when many of the available forecasts were suggesting that it was ‘unlikely!’

Daily Prizes Winners were: IRC - Juno (Michael Carrington); LAH – Last Fling (Harry Ellens); Sportsboats – Dark n Stormy 2 (Edward Smith); Folkboats – Gybe n’ (Cy Grisley)For full results and more information about this year’s series please visit: https://rlymyc.org.uk/springseries‍

| with 0 comments