Lymington Town Sailing Club Sunday Early Points Series - Day 3
by Keith Willis 17 Mar 2015 05:24 PDT
15 March 2015
Sunday marked the first race due to start outside the river, with an easterly wind and gusts in the high teens and occasional early twenties the race officer set a 3.5mile course for the fast fleet and a 2.5 mile course for the medium, both starting with a reasonable length beat!
After a 5 minute postponement the fast got away almost cleanly with only the Blaze of Myles Mence over at the start, and headed towards the first mark with the inevitable RS800 of Luke and Emma McEwen leading the way.
The second mark however proved to be a problem, as it had gone missing, causing some confusion as to where to go. However most boats seemed happy to just go with the flow and follow on to the next mark (with only one case for redress later filed!).
A decent length kite leg then followed before starting it all again, with the RO eventually shortening at the 2 lap point.
The medium fleet all managed a clean start despite the line being a touch short for the number of boats. The race suffered the same missing mark as the fast fleet but, apart from some interesting gybing techniques and a few centreboard inspections, was largely uneventful.
Both fleets were characterised by some very close mid-fleet racing; in the fast fleet the 400s and D-Ones were always pretty tightly bunched and likewise in the medium fleet there was some very close racing for the Lasers and ever-increasing Aero fleet.