Results / Lymington Town SC Open Lymington Town SC - 16/08/2003

With just a couple of weeks until the nationals championships, Lymington Town open meeting (16/17 August) made for a suitable, Fat Face sponsored, tuning up event for many RS700 sailors. With the wind forecast to do it's stuff, and spring tides to play with, it was all set for a great weekends racing. As it turned out, the sail to the start on Saturday was the most hair raising, with gusts up to 23 knots, and wind over tide, the Solent was a bouncy place to be! So much so, that those who didn't capsize down the first run, and those who didn't go AWOL looking for the course (OK it was a tad on the short side...) were having difficulty in counting the number of laps. Local hero Nigel Walbank laid down his challenge for the weekend with an emphatic win, followed by Keith Willis, also from the home club. Eddie Gatehouse, Dave Gorringe and Dave Geal, took the runners up positions. Race two and the wind had backed of and so had the tide, making things easier for all concerned. Paul Bayliss kept the rig out of the water and was never headed, whist Andy White, Steve Tylecote and Andy Irons finished in that order behind. Race 3 and the tide had turned, with the wind now down to 10 knots. Bayliss stunned the opposition after a crap start, and headed out into the tide, only to lead at the top mark. "Something to do with more wind", he claimed after the finish, but Andy White had a better story of trying to take on the Wightlink ferry head on, and nearly coming off seriously second best. The same ferry also sat on the rest of the fleet and left Bayliss on his own to sail to the finish, with Walbank second, Geal taking third and Tim Dickinson fourth. Sunday was sunny with moderate winds, but still a ripping tide. Bayliss started off where he left off with an emphatic win following a port tack flyer on the start. Andy Irons engaged Nigel Walbank in a nail biting match race, with Irons getting the upper hand by the finish. Tim Dickinson took another fourth, and another home grown 700, Toby Collier in fifth. The fifth race, started off much the same, but the sea breeze had other ideas, and half the fleet sailed into a hole in the middle of the Solent, bemused as to what to do next. Newcomer to the fleet, Ben Cooper in his brand new boat, read the situation perfectly and sailed around the fleet to win by a country mile. Andy Peake was in second, and sailing for his life - following a collision early on Saturday, he stood to gain from every place made with 3 average points races to be awarded from his Sunday results. Having read the shifts all wrong, Bayliss battled with Nigel Walbank for third, finishing in that order, and White pulled a rabbit out of the hat to snatch back 5th. The meeting was therefore all down to the last race, with Bayliss having to stay in the top 4, and Walbank and Peake needing race wins. However race 6 was again affected by a Wightlink ferry, with Nigel Walbank leading by a mile from Bayliss, only for these two to be set free from the rest of the very frustrated fleet by the ferry, making it impossible for Walbank to sail Bayliss down the fleet. Insult was added to injury however, when a damaged U-bolt on Walbanks boat gave way, and his rig fell over the side. It was now all down to whether Andy Peake and his three redress positions could get the points down to take second. In the end he could only finish 7th in the final race, with Steve Stubbs, Ben Cooper, "Demo Dave" Merchant, Andy Irons and Leigh Albrecht getting in his way.