RS200s at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta

RS200s at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta © Tristan Jones / www.nautipics.co.uk

RS200s at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta © Tristan Jones / www.nautipics.co.uk

On the leisurely drive over to Lymington on Saturday for a 1pm start, Karen had been telling me about previous events here being great, but my main take away point was that you always go right and right. And true enough that was the story of the weekend.

Following a friendly welcome at LTSC and registration/briefing at RLYC, we made our way out to the east course of the regatta. The starts all got away cleanly, and the very first beat showed Matt and Bethan with upwind pace, navigating their way to the windward as leaders. The downwind condensed the fleet back together again, before the 2nd upwind allowed some time for brand new pairing Karen and Lorna to work their way up from a slow start to take the lead for the final soaking leg of the day, followed closely by Steven and Christina.

Race 2 followed a similar theme - get across the line and get towards the shore, out of the strongest tide. It was a fine balance of not going too early to avoid having dirty air for the whole leg from the 4s and 1s, but not leaving it so late that you were in the stronger tide and larger chop. Karen and a Lorna figured this as they led the fleet, with Matt and Bethan leading the chase behind followed closely by Mark and Jess.

Race 3 of the day came with an important decision early on - a port flyer executed well by a 400 certainly looked attractive 3 mins before our start... Mark and Jess took the risk, launching them into an early lead which they then held to the finish. A slight parade occurred with a mostly 1 tack and 1 gybe per leg, but the planing conditions allowed some place changes behind with well executed downwinds, which Graham and Fin demonstrated putting them in 2nd.

RS200s at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta - photo © Tristan Jones / www.nautipics.co.uk

The post racing tea and doughnut after around 4 hours afloat was welcomed by all and a very nice touch from the Lymington clubs, with the sun shining and leaving some time for any boat tweaks required before the Sunday.

A 10:30 start for day 2 seemed keen, but upon arrival at the club there was little action in the boat park, with dark skies and a popular pair of binoculars in the clubhouse to gauge how windy it was. Some took this sensible postponement from the race officer to do some boat work in between the showers, whilst others used this as prime nationals social outfit planning time!

Once the D flag was raised around 12, our slightly depleted fleet made their way to the course ready for the wind to moderate as promised. The first beat proved again to be a right hand track, but was mostly a case of who's least filled up from the Solent chop. With the fleet tight at the windward and Ryan and Kathryn popping round the mark in first, the full send downwind was showing no signs of this 'moderation'. A crucial gybe point proved to be a make or break, but Karen and Lorna showed their wind and wave experience to take the lead. The second lap became a bit of a beasting with mains flogging and trying to avoid upturned hulls sprinkled about. A shortened course flag was welcomed on the second downwind and those of us that were still out there were sent home, with some quite impressive tales of the day from some of the other fleets we'd been sharing the course with.

Lymington Dinghy Regatta - photo © Tristan Jones / www.nautipics.co.uk

The event was wrapped up at RLYC with the combined regatta prize-giving and friendly reception from the clubs. Overall a great weekend with a lovely opportunity to catchup with those in all the fleets, as well as getting some fab pre nationals wind and wave practise in. A huge thanks to both clubs for hosting such a great event.

Next up in the calendar is the nationals in Abersoch (it's not too late to be there!), followed by Lee on Solent (13/14 Sep) for the EaSEA tour, and Exe (27/28 Sep) for the SW tour.

Overall Results: