Moore Blatch Royal Lymington Yacht Club Thursday Night Series - Day 1
by Hannah Neve 6 May 2014 14:49 BST
1 May 2014
Light airs for Class 2 Lymington Handicap on day 1 of the Moore Blatch Lymington Thursday Night Series © Hannah Neve
The Thursday Night racing season at the RLymYC sponsored by Moore Blatch got off to a great start with 70 boats turning out for the first race despite the rain before the start.
The race team managed to get some good racing in for all the Classes and get everyone finished despite the dying breeze. Class 1 had a beat to 'Dunford' buoy which saw plenty of place changes, Fidelitas led around the mark and ran inshore into the first of the building flood tide. Jelly Baby had to do a penalty turn after touching Edith at the congested mark. Jibe decided not to follow the others and headed offshore where she caught more breeze and overtook the fleet except for Fidelitas who led up the final beat in the dying breeze and shallow water to take line honours and handicap victory.
Working the tides was the key to success in Class 2 with Reach Around revelling the light airs and making no mistakes to take a well deserved 1st place, one and a half minutes ahead of the J80 Jane, both being lightweight racing machines. In 3rd place was Simplicity, the 3/4 tonner, a much larger and heavier yacht. In 4th place came Stren, the Norwegian double ender – a fine example of a traditional yacht from the middle of the last century. The handicap system seems to be doing its job and allowing a fleet of widely differing boats to enjoy close racing.
10 Folkboats lined up for their first race and apart from Lady Linda, who was over the line, managed to get away to a good start. The beginning of the flood tide dictated the right hand side of the course and with the usual predictability Tak was first round the mark closely followed by Crackerjack and then a middle order bunch comprising Second Wind, Hannchen Chavala and Good Shepherd.
On the downward leg Tak went right no doubt hoping to get the benefit of the increasing flood tide but to no avail as she was overhauled by Crackerjack who took a more inshore and direct line to the Leeward Mark. The middle order continued to shuffle around and following the rounding of the Leeward mark Good Shepherd established herself in 3rd place followed by Chavala and Hannchen. All was not over however as on the final leg Crackerjack managed to attach herself to the putty which enabled Tak to sneak through and take line honours with Crackerjack extricating herself just in time to keep ahead of Good Shepherd who took a creditable third place.
The victors were given bottles of Champagne courtesy of the sponsors Moore Blatch.
For more information on the Club series please visit www.rlymyc.org.uk/Racing/Thurs_racing.shtml