Royal Lymington Yacht Club Champion of Champions Event
by Luke Mcewen 13 Nov 2018 10:06 PST
11 November 2018
Royal Lymington Champion of Champions Event 2018 © Paul French
The annual contest to find the champion of the RLymYC's individual class champions was held on Saturday 10th November, in apocalyptic weather, right in front of the clubhouse. The spectators watched the dramatic scene from the club bar as hail and gusts of 20 knots alternated with flat calm and rainbows, while the hardy race team, led by Roy Froud, laid a short triangular course across the river.
The top sailors from each of the club's keelboat and dinghy classes, aged from 13 to 60-something, battled for supremacy in eight evenly-matched Lymington River Scows, generously loaned by the Wednesday Junior Sailing Scheme.
After two general recalls it was clear that all the competitors were hungry for the prize, or perhaps just keen to finish quickly and get out of the rain, but with no discards a premature start could be costly and so the race team managed to control the competitors' enthusiasm by imposing a round-the-ends rule. Three close races ensued, punctuated by squalls and passing ferries.
The sailors bailed the rain out of their Scows as fast as they could, with encouragement from the soggy hecklers on the pontoon. The Junior fleet team were hit by a big gust and had to retire early with a broken shroud, and several boats came close to capsizing in the turbulent wind.
Luke and Emma McEwen successfully defended the Champion of Champions title on behalf of the Dinghy Fast fleet. Hot on their heels in the first two races came Rory and Alex Paton, twice previously winners of this event, representing the XOD keelboats. Scow class nominees Sarah Richards and Eleanor Mordaunt took a well-deserved second in the final race but the Patons fought back from a bad start to finish third in that race, giving them second place overall, just one point ahead of Sarah and Eleanor.
Photos are at: www.flickr.com/photos/coolhat_paul/sets/72157697571595170
Overall Results:
| Pos | Boat | Class
represented | Helm | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Martineau II | PY Fast | Luke McEwen | Emma McEwen | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2nd | Stormy Haven | XOD | Rory Paton | Alex Paton | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| 3rd | Praline | LR Scow | Sarah Richards | Eleanor Mordaunt | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| 4th | Good Havens | PY Med | Peter Blick | Ali Husband | 4 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
| 5th | Thank Havens | Folkboat | Claire Sowry | Matthew Jones | 5 | 6 | 4 | 15 |
| 6th | Flying Horse | IRC 2 | Andy Hind | Billy | 6 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
| 7th | Valmai | Junior | George Richards | Emma Breese | 7 | DNF | DNC | 25 |
| 8th | Snoopy II | PY Slow | Harry West | George Overton | RET | DNC | DNC | 28 |