Brewin Dolphin Lymington Thursday Night Keelboat Series - Day 9
by Hannah Neve 27 Jun 2013 04:14 PDT
20 June 2013
Zarafa and JellyBaby at close quarters during race 9 of the Brewin Dolphin Thursday Night Keelboat © Hannah Neve
A beautiful cloudless evening saw 80 boats on the start line for the Brewin Dolphin Thursday Night race run by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. Race Officer Jenny Wilson laid some inflatable marks to give the fleet windward-leeward course but with a strong flood tide and a dying breeze which shifted by up to 30 degrees at a time, finishing the races was always going to be tricky but with ribs stationed at the marks to shorten the courses, everyone was able to get a finish.
In the RS Elite Class the first beat was always going to be crucial. Kiss started below the other boats battling for the favoured end of the line, but with clear air and room to put the pedal down. Able to pick a route around the larger boats that had started earlier Kiss rounded the top mark with a good lead and extended downwind. Places changed behind them and Easy Does It overtook Usain Boat when they over-stood the final lay-line. Despite a battle Easy Does It held on to finish second from Usain Boat.
In IRC Class 1, Flawless J had a very good start, tacking inshore and making gains on the boats further out. At the bottom mark Pylewell, Fidelitas, followed by Zarafa and Jellybaby led the fleet, but Boomerang managed to just pip Jellybaby over the line to take 3rd place at their second top mark.
The IRC Class 2 fleet short-tacked into the shallows along the mainland shore to keep out of the current as much as possible before heading out towards the first mark, laid well out in the stream. From there spinnakers were set for a reach back down tide which turned into a run as the leeward mark was neared. First to finish was the Beneteau 25 Reach Around sailed by Christian Sutherland. This boat goes well whatever the conditions, as her results clearly show – four firsts in 4 starts. Second was Nick Kirkman's J80 Jane and Rory Fitzwilliams' 3/4 Tonner Simplicity was third.
Series results so far can be found here.