XOD Wednesday Series at Royal Lymington Yacht Club - Day 18
by Max Crowe 29 Aug 2013 10:42 BST
28 August 2013
At the start of the race we had a South Easterly breeze ranging from 6 - 8 knots. Off the start line the majority of the fleet headed right towards Yarmouth and the stronger flood tide, however myself, X33, X140 and X34 decided to go left and work our way along Pylewell lake towards the first mark H 'Jacksons'.
Once we had rounded the mark in the back quarter of the fleet, the plan was to head into the north shore to avoid the flood tide, however when we received a 60° wind shift to the SSW the obvious thing to do was gybe. This left a lot of the leading boats with no wind and a beat up to E 'Pylewell' whilst myself and X119 were able to reach in towards the mark and make substantial gains on the fleet.
We tacked around the mark and then had a one tack beat to F 'Berthon' which was another opportunity to take a few more boats with a difficult layline to call. Once we had rounded this we had a longer upwind leg to C 'Coltens' most of the boats started to fall into a line behind Stewart Jardine X119 and followed him into the mark, with a few exceptions tacking off and falling back with the tide.
As soon as we went around the final mark it was a run to the entrance of the river and then a tighter reach to the wave barrier, and a club line finish.
Day 18 Results: (top five)
1st X119, Stuart Jardine
2nd X34, Martin Gee
3rd X92, Richard Field
4th X33, Max Crowe
5th X140, Adrian Jardine
Full series results can be found here.