Selden Merlin Rocket Nationals at Lyme Regis Sailing Club - Day 5

Day 3 of the Merlin Rocket nationals at Lyme Regis © Mike Rice / www.fotoboat.com

Day 3 of the Merlin Rocket nationals at Lyme Regis © Mike Rice / www.fotoboat.com

After the champagne conditions on Tuesday, Wednesday brought Dark & Stormy's leading to a decision to postpone race 4 until Thursday. The view from the shore on Thursday morning looked sunny with a pleasant Northwesterly breeze but this view was soon disabused as the fleet negotiated a hairy run to the start.

Conditions were about as challenging as they come. The strong Northwesterly was coming straight over the cliffs producing massive shifts and bullet gusts which were to ruin a number of teams days as they either hit the tide or saw their beautiful carbon rigs come crashing down.

At the start of race 4 the wind was left and Stu Bithell and Christian Birrell were able to tack across the fleet. The breeze then went 20 deg right burying those on the left and putting Stu and Christian in a commanding position. As the race progressed Taxi and Tom Pygall pulled through to challenge Stu and Christian but were unable to get the upper hand. Dave Wade and Ben Rayner sailed a solid race to take third. Behind the leading group a number of top names were struggling to recover through the fleet with a number capsizing on the big gusts.

Race two again favoured those who got onto port early with Ben and Roz McGrane leading into the right hand corner to round first ahead of Dave Wade / Ben Rayner and Nick Craig / James Stewart. By the end of a breezy triangle, Taxi / Tom had taken third and were up to second by the run which proved pretty eventful. Both Taxi / Tom and Dave / Ben capsized as did Stu / Christian who were trying to recover from their first bad position of the week. While Ben / Roz sailed off into a commanding lead to take their first bullet of the week, Taxi / Tom recovered quickly to regain second by the finish. With Stu / Christian retiring (broken boat or broken mojo – the jury is out), Taxi / Tom have moved into a position where a reprieve of their match racing skills could be called upon tomorrow.

As an example of how challenging this week is, one of the pre-event favourites Dave Hayes is working through the spare parts catalogue with a scoreline of DNF, OCS, 2, DNF, DNS. For those of us feeling we are having a bit of a mare, a quick chat with Dave is a good tonic for the spirits.

Results after Day 5: (five races, 1 discard)