Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town Sailing Club

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk

Lovely Lymington Town SC was the venue for the weekend's racing, held on the 5/6th June. 21 visitors made the journey with 14 from the home club, making 35 eager competitors, some of whom hadn't raced within a Solo open fleet for over a year. Maybe that accounted for some of the letters seen on some peoples score cards!

RO Keith Willis used a trapezoid course for the six-race series, giving great beats/runs and 'Solo angled' reaches.

Saturday dawned clear and sunny with the forecast 18-20 knots kicking in for the 12:30 start and maintaining throughout the afternoon enabling four leg-aching races to be completed, taking the pressure off of the Sunday with lighter wind forecast. Two races were run on the Sunday, one port hand and one starboard for variety and tide considerations.

Start lines were the normal competitive environment, with port tack flyers proving the best option for two of them.

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town - photo © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk

Outside of racing, 'after sailing' donuts on Saturday and home-made cakes on Sunday kept the sugar levels up! Overall, the conditions on Saturday couldn't be bettered (F4/5 wind, waves and sun), with Sunday's gentle breeze a welcome relief to many after the rigours of a challenging first day.

Also present on the race course were John Doerr (ISAF Race Official) ensuring fair play, along with Liam Willis providing great drone footage! The video was also used for a post-racing de-brief covering the application of the rules (in practice) and giving the sailors a chance to see where they might have gone wrong!

Race 1 - 14-16 knots SW, ebbing tide, Course C, 3 laps

The lead bunch starting at the pin end included James Boyce, Guy Mayger, Andy Hyland, Paul Davis and Lawrence Creaser with Mark Lee just to windward and all headed out left into more tide. Mark Lee found the early tack back to the right and laid the port lay line. The tide and a slight left-hand shift caught out those on the far left meaning they had to reach back into the windward mark. Paul Davis made it over the top of Lawrence Creaser before the gap at the windward mark closed up. Mark led from Paul and Lawrence down the first reach.

Paul went deep round the second mark getting the inside track on Mark down the run and led from there. The next upwind required passing through the gate and, unfortunately, many missed this in the SIs resulting in DSQs with a couple also OCS. A lesson learnt by some/many who really should know better! Much reading of damp SIs ensued before race 2 got under way.

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town - photo © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk

Race 2 - 14-17 Knots SW, Turning tide, Course C, 3 laps

No such SI oversights from then on, so back to 'normal service'. Middle to right paid on the first beat with the lead bunch coming from the middle. Some hit out left and were caught out by the tide that had now turned. Lead bunch Guy Mayger, James Boyce, Paul Davis, Mike Dray, Jamie Morgan and Tim Lewis. Guy led round with positions staying the same till the bottom reach; Paul rolled Tim just after timing his gybe and coming out on a wave.

Paul was third round the leeward mark with Guy leading. Paul tacked off early to a clear lane then tacked back pretty quickly. With the tide now turned the challenge was to get the lay line right. Paul got this spot on and was just able to lay the mark, Jamie was second to Guy but he hit the windward mark and that dropped him down to fifth. Course again shorted after two laps. Paul, Guy, James, Mike and Jamie were the top five.

Race 3 - 17-20 knots SW, Flooding tide, Course C, 3 laps

Committee boat end favoured, Andy Hyland took pole position, I followed him in late and tacked early to hit the right. However, Jamie Morgan played the clean air and boat speed card and port tacked most the fleet and headed to the right, whilst being congratulated by his competitors. He led at the windward mark, followed by Paul and Andy Hyland who was showing local knowledge helped.

Once round the windward mark this groups lead extended with the help of the tide. James, Lawrence and Guy followed and the places stayed the same, with Jamie leading from start to finish. Again, course shorted to two laps much to the relief of the fleet (thank you Keith!), including Robin (the Power) Milledge who unfortunately snapped his boom mid race.

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town - photo © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk

Race 4 - 17-20 knots SW, Flooding tide, Course C, 3 laps

Race 4 started with a somewhat depleted fleet of 23, with three full-on races having taken their toll. Similar to race 3, Jamie Morgan going for the port flyer worked again. Paul went right for less tide with the usual suspects of Mark, Guy and Andy in the hunt.

A shorter course had been laid this time and at the start of the second beat the windward mark had been pulled in to give a slightly less arduous lap - this took Jamie's concentration resulting in Paul tacking out of the tide first and getting past at the top of the beat. Great reaches were again available at the top and bottom of the course.

Paul, Jamie, Mark, Guy, Andy and Tim Lewis made up the top six overnight.

Race 5 - (Sunday) 8-10 Knots, ebbing tide, Course C, 3 laps

It got crowded at the pin end on the start with a few going early taking the fleet with them, resulting in a general recall. The second start and out came the U flag. Jamie Morgan needed to win both races to prevent Paul carrying his good first day through to a series win. Lead bunch at the windward mark were pin end starters Guy, Nigel Thomas, James, Paul, Lawrence and Simon Derham.

On the first run, James Boyce gybed out to clear his air but resulted in more tide against, Lawrence also followed with Nigel, Guy and Paul sailing closer to the rum line in less tide. Positioned stayed the same for the next lap till the run where James Boyce sailed a perfect rum line and took third from Paul and closed the gap on the lead two.

Course shorted again after two laps, with Nigel taking the win from Guy, followed by James and Paul in fourth. Jamie Morgan was mid fleet which meant Paul's fourth was enough to secure the win.

Race 6 - 8-10 Knots, ebbing tide, Course C, 3 laps

Again shortened with this time a starboard hand trapezoid - keeping the run inshore out of stronger tide. Again, the tide was carrying boats over the line and five transgressed this time including Guy who could otherwise have been in the top three (but took it with good heart).

The beat favoured going left, but coming back in before the top mark lay line in order to avoid the starboard boat right of way fleet. The reaches were "follow my leader", but the run was making competitors think, go left for less tide but possibly less wind and a bit further - in the end the rhumb line seemed the best option.

In the final analysis Lawrence held his nerve from James and Mark with Rob Martin - new to Solos last year - a creditable fifth.

Age category prizes went to Simon Derham from Littleton, Malcolm Buchanan (event organiser) from Lymington and Stephen Waite from Highcliffe.

Paul Davies received the Southern Area Champion Trophy from Lymington Commodore Tony Evans, who accepted thanks on behalf of the club for running such an excellent weekend's racing.

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town - photo © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk

Overall Results:

Solo Southern Championships at Lymington Town - photo © Liam Willis / www.lw-media.co.uk