Evening Race Series – Overall report

by Chris Thomas on 22 Jun 2017 This Tuesday Evening the Isle of Wight provided Caribbean sailing weather for 55 boats with a 10kn ESE breeze and an almost slack neap tide.

Having started with a beat to the East, boats crossed the finish line under spinnaker, providing a colourful spectacle for those watching from a packed Island Sailing Club balcony but providing a challenge for the race officers to identify the sail numbers!

In Class One Bernard Olesinski’s Xinska and Alex & Andy Moore’s Tilt led the fleet home by a considerable distance on the water but were beaten into second and third places on handicap by Andy Hunt’s smaller Ker 33 Acheron.

Those with knowledge of the local tides took advantage of the changing direction of the stream and the distances between boats were magnified accordingly. In the Sonar Fleet the last boat finished 47 minutes behind the leader ex Paralympic helmsman Andy Cassell.

The XODs were the only class to sail two rounds with plenty of crew work allowing James Meaning from Yarmouth in Vexilla to beat regular Jonathan Clark in Gin by mere six seconds in a closely contested race.

Results: