PYC 2018 Yacht Haven Friday Evening Series 1 Race 2 27th April 2018

The second race of this year’s first series was held on a clear evening with a strong but variable North Wind ranging between 6 to 18 knots and with an ebbing Spring Tide. What more could one wish for after a very mixed weather band during the previous day.

Race Officer Elaine O’Flaherty set two different courses for the A group of 10 yachts and the B Group of 4 smaller yachts.

For the larger group the course started with a reach over to Melampus followed by a run out to Duke Rock under spinnaker then returning north to South Mallard before passing West Mallard to start a second similar lap. A third lap would use F Buoy instead of Duke Rock.

All started well with I Say Ding Dong and Robert Fletcher taking a short lead ahead of Ashley Crawford’s Mischief with all the rest closely grouped together.  As they cleared Melampus and set off for the breakwater and Duke Rock we saw the start of the B Group taking the same course for the first lap with Keith Woodgate in Calvados just leading the other three.

Their second lap would include F Buoy instead of Duke Rock and a third lap would start reaching out to South Winter before heading for F Buoy.

With such a variable wind several changes occurred in both fleets on the different laps with boats tacking back to the Mallards.

The A Fleet was led through the finish line of lap 1 by I Say Ding Dong with Mischief still in second place but being caught by Sean Koehler’s Joyride and Pete Duffy in Xstatic. These two gradually overtook mischief through the second lap and on the finish line I Say Ding Dong took line honours ahead of Joyride and Xstatic.

The B Group were having a pretty close race early on but with Chris Tyrell’s Summertime taking the lead with Duchess just behind.  In their second lap both Calvados and Poppin rather lost ground and were some way behind the leaders at the finish.

All boats completed the full three rounds of their different courses but the final boats from both groups were very close together finishing well within the time limit.

Results.

A Fleet   IRC     1st I Say Ding Dong, Robert Fletcher.   2nd Mischief, Ashley Crawford.         3rd Joyride, Sean Koehler.

ORC.   1st Soundbite Robin Butterworth.          2nd Marks And, Hugh Spencer.          3rd Seascape 24 Demo, Peter Wanstall.

NHC   1st I Say Ding Dong, Robert Fletcher.    2nd Joyride, Sean Koehler.                  3rd Mischief, Ashley Crawford.

B Fleet  NHC    1st Summertime, Chris Tyrell.                2nd Calvados, Keith Woodgate.         3rd Duchess, Janie Smallridge.