Lymington Town Sailing Club Sunday Late Points Series 4
by Luke & Emma McEwen 11 Sep 2017 08:44 NZST
10 September 2017
Lymington Town SC Sunday Late Points 6 © Emma McEwen
Sunday dawned bright and sunny with light winds but an ominous forecast for big breeze and rain by lunch time. The race team hoped to squeeze in two quick races before the conditions deteriorated. By the first start the south-westerly wind had already freshened to 18 knots gusting 20 and several competitors decided prudently to head back home at this point.
In the fast handicap, Giles Chipperfield made the best start at the committee boat in his D-One but was quickly rolled by the B14 sailed by Liam Willis and Abby Keightly-Hanson. Visiting guest stars Nick Craig and Toby Lewis started at the pin end heading out into the adverse tide in their B14, but by the windward mark had built up a substantial lead. This was lucky for them as Toby had to re-rig the kite down most of the first run which was a fairly hazardous operation in the now boisterous conditions. This gave Richard Lilley chasing in his RS700 an opportunity to close the gap. But by the finish Nick & Toby had stretched their lead to 7 minutes on corrected time taking the win with the Richards Lilley & Keeton completing the podium in their RS700s.
The medium handicap fleet was led off the line by Nick Simmons and Alex Hayman in their Merlin Rocket. They revelled in the conditions downwind extending their lead to the finish. Behind them the McGills looked like they were having lots of fun in their 420, finishing in second place on corrected time just ahead of David Gautier in his Contender.
By the time the last competitors finished the race the wind had built to 26 knots and three masts had broken so the race team decided to call it a day and sent everyone home.
Results can be found at www.ltsc.co.uk/results