PYC 2018 Yacht Haven Friday Evening Series 1 Race 8 8th June 2018
We had once more a fine sunny evening with a fairly light but variable breeze from the South West and the last of an outgoing neap tide for this, the 8 th race of our first series that attracted 13 boats out for a lovely evening sail.
The course set for this race would start by beating over to the Yachthaven buoy before running across the Sound to Duke Rock with what would be a shy spinnaker leg or a broad reach over quite a distance. Yachts would then return down towards the start through South Mallard to begin a second lap from West Mallard by beating over to St. Nicholas before running back across the Sound to F Buoy and then down again to the start line for lap 3, a beat to Asia and a run over to F Buoy once more, with the finish through South Mallard to the line at West Mallard.
8 boats contested in the A Fleet with Aquaessence contesting the lead with Curly Wurly and Mischief and The Italian Job hard on their heels.
Aquaessence and their team were first over the line after the first lap with Ian Luscombe’s Curly Wurly just 1 second later, so close were the first two, with Mischief and John Gorman’s Italian Job a couple of minutes behind. Curly Wurly then took over the lead in the second lap but not by much.
The B Fleet of 5 boats were following the same course five minutes after the A Group and Tim Burne in Poppin took the early lead ahead of Janie Smallridge in Duchess with Larrikin not too far behind.
Duchess passed Poppin to take the lead as the second lap progressed. This Fleet would only complete the first two laps with Race Officer Paddy O’Connor shortening the race as the second lap neared completion.
The A Fleet continued for the third lap with boats very close together after such a fine race where the wind had varied considerably throughout, at times reaching 15 knots or more during gusts and Curly Wurly was having to sail really well to retain her lead and with several boats challenging each other for top places.
The B Fleet meanwhile had finished with Duchess coming home first with Poppin not far behind. A fine evenings racing by all and surprisingly close over a wide and challenging course.
Final results of the A Fleet
IRC. 1st Italian Job, John Gorman. 2nd Mischief, Ashly Crawford. 3rd Curly Wurly, Ian Luscombe. 4th Aquaessence, Team Aqua.
ORC. 1st Marks And, Hugh Spencer. 2nd Rock Hopper, Ian Mills.
NHC. 1st Aquaessence, Team Aqua. 2nd Maverick, Team Maverick. 3rd Jos of Avon, Mike Nuttall.4th Marks And, Hugh Spencer.
Final Results of the B Fleet.
NHC. 1st Duchess, Janie Smallridge. 2nd Poppin Tim Burne. 3rd Larrikin, Teak Larrikin. 4th Summertime, Chris Tyrell.