HOD35 Nationals at Royal Lymington Yacht Club

21st/22nd September 2002

The 2002 HOD35 National Championships were held over the weekend of the 21st/22nd September, hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. Saturday saw a gentle north to north east breeze with strong spring tides. Courses were set in the West Solent and varied in type and length.

Race one saw Zarafa leading at the first mark followed by Capitali$m, these two then proceeded to sail to the wrong leeward mark, round it and then have to chase back upwind to catch Owl who rounded the correct mark. Peter Schofield on Zarafa managed this well recovering to take first place, with Psipsina 2nd and Owl 3rd.

Race Two was a trapezoidal with a windward/leeward leg. Confusion over the sailing instructions left half of the fleet missing out the start/finish line on round one with one returning to re-round. On the water Zarafa maintained a good lead through out, followed by Capitali$m. The race then went to the room with 3 boats being DSQ'd for sailing the incorrect course, promoting Carpetbagger to second. This opened up the battle for 2nd place overall,as Zarafa rounded off the day with another bullet in race 3.

The annual class dinner was held at the Royal Lymington on the saturday evening which included a weigh in of Zarafa and a few of the larger crews amoungst the fleet just to see how much everyone was over the unenforced weight limit!

Sunday dawned with a force 3-4 from the north, with one long inshore race, the majority of the fleet rounded the windward mark in close company and a battle across the tide pursued with the right paying off for Owl who captured the lead from Zarafa only to give it back to them up the next beat. Zarafa rounded off an impressive weekend with another win and the National Championship. A big thank you to Lewmar for prizes and the members of the Royal Lymington for orgainising the racing.

Overall Results: