Results / Lymington Town SC Open Lymington Town SC - 16/08/2003

For the final event of the 2003 RS Fat Face Racing Circuit the fleet headed back to the Solent again for an excellent event hosted by Lymington Town Sailing Club. With only three weeks before the Nationals, the event was to be a good indicator of current form with many of the likely contenders putting in some practice. There were of course some notable absences with more than a few trying their hand at 200 sailing at the 200 Nationals in Falmouth. The clubs excellent hospitality and faultless planning also extended to the weather as the fleet arrived on Saturday morning to blue skies and a force 4. With the addition of spring tides the day was to be sailed on a typical confused Solent swell with corner banging the order of the day. Special mention must go to Nick Holt who after travelling for 5 hours arrived to find his crew, Mike Bloor, had gotten lucky the night before and was still shacked up 2hrs away. As the rest of the fleet launched for race 1 Nick certainly wasn�t amused by his crew�s good fortune. In race 1 Stuart Hudson and Adam Heely made no mistakes with a good start and first beat to arrive at the windward mark first. The chasing pack of Roger Gilbert/Richard Brown and Nick Craig/Keith Bedborough were not far behind though. A tight tactical battle ensued until on the last run Gilbert managed to pass Hudson to take the first bullet of the weekend. Hudson held onto second with Craig and Bedborough in third. Race 2 and Roger Gilbert�s speed continued, although this time it was during pre-start and into the side of someone. This left Gilbert spinning and seemingly down the pan. Hudson again sailed well to take the lead but this time made no mistakes and went onto take the bullet with Neal and Paul Freeman second. Gilbert showed excellent speed to recover from his early manoeuvres and work his way up to third. Craig/Bedorough took fourth despite Keith�s modifications to their kite, which ended their day early. In race 3 Roger Gilbert shot out of the Starboard end of the start line and arrived a the windward mark first closely followed by Hal Roberts and Melissa Storey. Gilbert sailed on to take his second win of the day. A mistake by Roberts and Storey on the last beat allowed Freeman and Hudson through to take second and third respectively with Roberts coming home forth. For the evenings entertainment the fleet enjoyed an excellent barbeque laid on by LTSC and with Stella at �2 a pint the usual antics soon ensued. A large proportion of the fleet was camping at the local scout hut and after yet another awesome RS social all soon retired for some entertainment �ging gang gooly� style. We now know not to mess with Melissa Storey as she demonstrated witch like qualities when it came to summoning fire. Eventually the scout�s stockpile of winter firewood was run dry and as avid followers of the countryside code the Grimms set about extinguishing the flames in the only natural way after 10 pints. I only feel sorry for the poor people who relit the fire in the morning to cook breakfast. The blurry-eyed fleet awoke on Sunday morning to find yet more blue skies and a force 2-3. In Race 4 Hal Roberts and Melissa Storey popped well out of the start and arrived at the windward mark first. They showed awesome boat speed to sail on and build a considerable lead. Unfortunately they made a minor lap counting error as when they started to head up the beat the rest of the fleet sailed to the finish line. After some cool and calm discussions they decided to head for the finish line in a mid fleet position. Their only saving grace was that they were later found to be OCS so I didn�t matter anyway. This left the Freeman�s to take the bullet from Gilbert in second. Local boys John Cooper and Becci Wigley put in an excellent performance and christened their new boat with a well-deserved third. Race 4 and the Freemans had the bit between their teeth. After a close battle with Hudson they pulled out to lead the fleet home and take their second bullet of the day. Hudson took second with Craig Burlton finally showing his face at the front of the fleet in third. Going in to the final race Gilbert and Freeman were tied on points and with Feeman�s discard a 5th and Gilbert�s a 4th there was certain to be a close tactical battle. Just before the start a large wind shift caused a very starboard biased line and a one sided course. It was Gilbert who came out of the ensuing chaos in the lead with Hudson struggling. On the one sided course all passing lanes were closed and Gilbert sailed on to take the win and the event. Hudson struggled on to finish 7th. John Cooper and Becci Wigley finished off an excellent day coming in second with lardy boys, Phil Jackson and Gerrard Barron coming in third despite the calming wind. Roger Gilbert took the event with Neal and Paul Freeman second and Stuart Hudson and Adam Heely third. An early finish this year to the RS Fat Face Racing Circuit leaves most wanting for more but with the Nationals only a few weeks away and the legendary Irish Nationals still to come there aren�t too many sad faces.