Royal Temple Yacht Club Spring Series Opener
by Karen Cox 19 Apr 2021 12:49 PDT
18 April 2021
Royal Temple Yacht Club Spring Series opener © Piers Hodges
Racing in 2021 kicked off in sunny conditions with a chilly 8-10 knot breeze from the North and calm seas, ideal conditions for the eager crews to get back to sailing, in what promises (fingers crossed), to be a full season of racing.
It was great to see so many out with 13 yachts starting the race.
The IRC Class 1 and 2 fleet made a clean start with a short fetch to the first mark, against the southerly running tide. As usual, the short first leg saw considerable congestion at the mark, where the fast starting X-99 'Xpedite' was caught by the Pronavia 42 'Assassin' and rounded side-by-side separated by inches, with Rob Smith's 2020 one-off 'Kabluzo' level and above the mark.
A series of runs and beats around the club marks saw the field begin to spread out with the down-tide runs and beats against, favouring the boats with better up-wind performance.
'Assassin' took line honours from the Corby 36 'Stiletto' and squeaked a 12 second win on corrected time in Class 1. Class 2 saw the X-34 'Foxy' take line honours from the First 34.7 'Cobra' and 'Xpedite'. Foxy's 15 second lead was not enough to prevent Cobra taking the class win on corrected time.
Meanwhile in the Cruiser Classes with the line clear Pippy and Titch had a good start leading Manana and Cordyll 2. A short beat to Channel Mark 2 followed by a longer spinnaker run to ICOM. Pippy in the lead, followed by Titch with Manana holding the middle ground from Cordyll struggling to get round Channel Mark 2.
A shortened course was announced and then a confusion over the course by Titch meant that they retired as well as last place Cordyll. This lead to a two horse dash for the finish with Pippy getting line honours but Manana got a first position on corrected time.