Lymington XOD Autumn Series - Race 6

 

A brilliant sunny afternoon in Lymington began with the XOD fleet leaving their pontoons before a passing rain cloud descended over the early departures entering the starting area off the club platform (could this be a warning sign for things to come?).

With a light south westerly force 3 and gentle flood tide, 14 boats from the Lymington fleet were ready for Race Officer Chris Knox to set out the course for the afternoons racing.

The race committee were on top form with a great understanding of the forecast ahead and set a downwind start from the platform to mark 5 off the Isle of Wight coastline.

The next leg was a long tough beat, dominated on starboard tack to + with the breeze building to 18knts and continuing to veer towards the north. X33 (helmed by Simon McCarthy) tacked early at the leeward mark to get out to the middle of the Solent and reaped the rewards as they sailed inside the building right shift and took the lead with X161, X117, X178 (helmed by Eddie Warden Owen), X8 (Martin Sellars) and X78 (Andy Odie) in close pursuit.

It was a nervy downwind leg down to U with everyone jostling for position, apart from X33 who had built a comfortable lead up front after their exceptional beat previously.

It was evident at this stage in the race that the tide had turned earlier than expected as X33 controlled the fleet, finishing at the shortened course at C to take a brilliant win.

It was a fantastic day on the water and Eddie Warden Owen's comments while sailing in summarised the afternoons sail brilliantly: "A huge congratulations to the race team, that was a superb course and boy, these XOD boats are hard work to sail, but so much fun!"

Results:

1st X33 Simon McCarthy, Mike Crowe and Jeremy Baker

2nd X117 James Markby, David Bedford and Ben Paton

3rd X161 Rory and Amanda Paton and David King

4th X178 Eddie Warden Owen, David Russel Jones and Chris Sanders

5th X78 Andy Oddie, Kev Lindsay and David Duffin

Full results subject to protest can be found at:-  rlymyc.org.uk/afloat/results/XOD-results