Lymington Swimmington

Now that’s what I call rain! The fourth round of the 2012 Gul RS700 Grand Prix joined Lymington Town Sailing Club’s annual summer regatta and, boy, we got it. It hammered down as eight 700 stalwarts made the pilgrimage and were rewarded with a very brisk and breezy Saturday, a more pacific Sunday and plenty of close racing at both the front and back of the fleet.

Jerry “Federer” Wales took the weekend with 6 points, continuing his reign as King of the Fleet. Who is going to step up to the baseline and make the challenge at Garda next week?

There were a few anxious faces before we launched into a frisky F5/6 southeaster (well just mine actually) on the first day and one way and another only 5 punters made it to the start of the first race which Jerry led from start to finish. The outer loop course was short at 600m but the spreader mark was a 500m exciting beam reach from the first windward mark. Go to www.hamishgriffiths.com to see the GPS tracks of some RS700s topping 15kt, single sail reaching for the mark - I swear it feels like 100 miles an hour! Matt Conner righted from a capsize at the last leeward mark in less than 60 seconds to hold off Eddie Gatehouse for a nice 4^th.

The wind dropped a notch or two for the start of the second and, what with the tide turning, the sea state calmed so that the next two races enjoyed near perfect F5 conditions. Of course “Roger” took first place in both of those albeit closely attended by Tony Dencher and Colin Dacey. Steve Powell doesn’t appear to be able to tell the time (which is a bit of a worry for an Actuary) so started the second race 4 minute late. The great news of the weekend was - HE DIDN’T CATCH ME.

Griffiths (for it is I) trailed around at the back in the third race and chose to differ from the leaders in choosing a “one gybe strategy” (actually he always only gybes once, if at all). He was surprised to find himself right back in the middle of the pack at the leeward mark – what a leg, eh? He only discovered later in the bar that everyone else had first gone round the 29ers gate mark by mistake. What was Mother on about though? It seems that slow but sure doesn’t always win the race.

Jon Heissig missed out on the day’s racing having broken his boom-end fitting (I had been shouting “too much kicker Jon!” - but would he listen?)[1] ; a poor reward for his long trek down from Wales.

We had a full team out on Sunday and were blessed with a lovely day and a F3 from the northwest. Steve Powell finally woke from his slumbers in race 4 and started giving Jerry a run for his money, grabbing his chance on the last run when the Champ had a quick swim. Steve followed this up leading from start to finish in the 5^th in the most tactical race of the weekend with Tony, Jerry and Jon fighting it out a good 500m ahead of the rest of the fleet by the end.

The last race saw the old firm of Heissig and Wales neck and neck most of the way round but there’s no stopping Jerry Wales and anyway, he’d already taken the weekend. A good second for Steve Powell, third for Tony Dencher and a nice fourth for Colin Dacey, those three separated by a point each.

Thank you to Lymington Town Sailing Club for a very well organized regatta, to PRO, Nigel Walbank, for getting us round so efficiently and, of course, to GUL our generous sponsors for continuing support.

Hamish Griffiths

[1] For the uninitiated, this is something never, ever heard in RS700 circles and can be counted as “one of my little jokes”.