Royal Lymington Spring Series Races 1 and 2

by Royal Lymington YC on 18 Apr 2012 The weather gods smiled on the Royal Lymington Yacht Club on Sunday for the first two races of their Spring Series. Flat water and 6 –10 knots, with perfect sunshine (if it was a little chilly at first) greeted the competitors. Race Officer Jenny Wilson, by having the use of two committee boats was able to set triangle sausage courses and then a very prompt restart for a windward-leeward second race enabling everyone to get in two good length races and still be finished by lunchtime.

In Class 1 IRC, a very competitive if small fleet had a tussle beating up against the tide to a black moveable with the first boat in Class 2, Bob Baker’s Brightwork starting five minutes later, managing to get there before Class 1. Chris and Hannah Neve’s No Chance won Class 1 by 41 seconds from Peter Schofield’s HOD 35 Zarafa. In race 2 the positions were reversed with Zarafa beating No Chance by a much tighter seven seconds!

In Class 2, Brightwork went on to win the first race by 1.5 minutes on corrected time from Christian Sutherland’s Reach Around and Ray Crouch’s Boomerang. In race 2, Reach Around relished the light airs and won ahead of Boomerang and Brightwork.

In Lymington handicap Class 2, Locust, the Magnum 25 owned by Eric Reynolds and Chalkie White made an emphatic start to the series, scoring two firsts ahead of Pat Stable’s two seconds in Google Eye and Roddy Steel’s two thirds in Stren.

In the Folkboats it was a similar story for Jeremy Austin on Tak, who also scored a perfect two firsts ahead of Padfoot owned by Chris Hills in the first race and Keith Whitelaw’s Good Shepherd in the second.

With almost perfect conditions for tactical Elite racing, Crauford McKeon in Kandoo III stamped his authority with two convincing wins. The battle for second and third was hard fought in both races with many changes in position and some exciting light wind luffing battles. After two disastrous starts Steve Powell in E’Tu fought back to take second in both races, with Simon Cavey in Livez and Jonathan Procter in Wombat each taking a third spot.

Results after two races:

Class 1 IRC: 1st, Zarafa, Peter Schofield; 2nd No Chance, Chris/Hannah Neve; 3rd, Jibe, Robin Taunt.

Class 2 IRC: 1st, Reach Around, Christian Sutherland; 2nd, Brightwork, Bob Baker; 3rd, Boomerang, Ray Crouch.

Lymington Handicap Class 1; 1st Minim III, Oliver Dunne.

Lymington Handicap Class 2; 1st, Locust, Eric Reynolds/ Chalkie White; 2nd Google Eye, Pat Stables; 3rd, Stren, Roddy Steel.

Nordic Folkboats; 1st, Tak, Jeremy Austin, 2nd Padfoot; Chris Hills, 3rd Bonnie, Chris Baldwick.

RS Elites; 1st, Kandoo III, Crauford Mckeon; 2nd E’Tu, Steve Powell; 3rd, Livez, Simon Cavey.

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