Photos: Cassie Pollock & Richard Russell
18 RS400’s arrived to bright sunshine on Saturday morning. The fleet was greeted by an army of helpers who arranged boat parking and then made sure that everyone got afloat smoothly.
With the breeze coming from the north there were huge shifts and pressure differentials across the course. However, the race team managed to set a tight course, out of the tide, which was spot on the mean wind. The 400’s were the first fleet away, sailing the outer loop of a trapezoid, with the D1’s following and the 800’s on the inner loop.
The tight course and unpredictable wind, at one point there was 18 knots on the inner loop and just 8 knots on the outer loop, lead to a lot of place changing with some very busy mark roundings. Howard Farbrother, crewed by Dan Martin, led overnight having managed a very consistent 1,2,1 in difficult conditions. The army of helpers got the fleet ashore in super slick fashion and the fleet then retired to the bar for a pasta dinner and live music.
On Sunday morning the fleet, some feeling a little worse for wear, awoke to a glassy calm Solent. The fleet bobbed out to the start area on the tide and the breeze filled in from the South West just after the scheduled 11:00 start time.
Another 3 races were run in the building breeze that lead to fantastic hard plaining runs by the final race. With yet more tight racing on a slightly bigger course it was Paul and Mark Oakey who had a good day to post 1,4,1 to go with a 1st and 3rd carried over from the Saturday to win the event from Howard Farbrother sailing with wife Louise on Sunday. Locals John Cooper and Becci Wigley finished 3rd.
Massive thanks must go to Lymington Town Sailing Club for hosting such a wonderful event with troops of helpers and amazing race management, which went without a hitch despite almost 40 boats and 3 different classes on the water. A fantastic weekend was had by all competitors and the weather really delivered despite a slightly dodgy forecast!
Mark Oakey
Full results at http://uk.rs400.org/indexdetail.asp?selection=ResultsDetail&evid=2550
Next stops -
Bolle Grand Prix and Northern Tour at Notts County SC on 21/22 September
Gul Inland Championships, Grafham Water SC on 12/13 October
Read about these events at http://uk.rs400.org/index.asp?selection=Events&Fleet=RS400
