PYC 2018 Yacht Haven Friday Evening Series 1 Race 7 1st June 2018
This Friday we had another fine evening with plenty of sunshine and a South West Wind that varied between about 8 to 12 knots with a nice light swell on the water a couple of hours before high water just coming off springs.
All together we had 17 boats out 11 of which would start with the A Fleet and 6 slightly later in the B Fleet. Race Officer Paddy O’Connor set two quite demanding courses for both fleets, each starting with a beat out from West Mallard to Kildare with the return running down to Dunstone Rock then continuing on down to South Mallard before returning to West Mallard ready for the second lap. The A Fleet would repeat that round before a shorter third lap reaching over to Melampus instead of Kildare but finishing through Dunstone Rock and to the finish line at West Mallard.
The B Fleet completing the first lap with the beat out to Kildare the same as their faster brethren but would use the same shorter route for both second and third laps.
The first start at 1830 hrs set the A Fleet off with boats in pretty close order beating out and we saw Ian Luscombe’s Curly Wurly rounding Kildare first with Sean Koehler in Joyride and Ashley Crawford’s Mischief quickly after. All 11 boats were strung out in fairly close contention throughout both first and second laps but gradually the gaps were increasing as the race continued,
The B Fleet made their start on time with Tim Burne’s Poppin leading Duchess through West Mallard after the first lap but with the first five all pretty close together but we were to see Janie Smallridge in Duchess moving into the lead as the second lap continued.
First of all boats to complete their full three laps was Curly Wurly but with Joyride only a minute behind with Mischief still in third place just ahead of Jon Harris in Jamala.
Actually the second boat to make the finish line was the first of the B Fleet, Duchess, 4 seconds ahead of Joyride but of course off a much shorter course. The last boat apart from one retirement was only just over a quarter of an hour after the first home and it shows that racing was close and exciting with really good courses and much pleasure enjoyed by all.
Results
A Fleet IRC 1st Mischief, Ashley Crawford. 2nd Curly Wurly, Ian Luscombe. 3rd Joyride, Sean Koehler.
ORC 1st Marks And, Hugh Spencer. 2nd Ian Mills, Rock Hopper.
NHC. 1st Jos of Avon, Mike Nuttall. 2nd Jamala, Jon Harris. 3rd Marks And, Hugh Spencer.
B Fleet. NHC 1st Poppin, Tim Burne. 2nd Larrikin, Team Larrikin. 3rd Duchess, Janie Smallridge.