 
Two boats from the Cowes Division and one each from Yarmouth and Lymington enjoyed fabulous sea-breeze sailing over the weekend with long navigational courses and ebbing tides.
X156 GLEAM pipped Saturday’s Household Division YC pin-end spinnaker start, closely followed by X161 MAYFLY, X178 BEATRIX with X140 LUCREZIA close behind. The long run against tide to Contessa 32 Class was close but as the wind dropped briefly GLEAM stretched the lead with her lightweight crew.
The wind filled in again and the race for the remaining places hotted up. LUCREZIA held second for a while before being sailed over by two Dragons, accompanied by a 180º wind shift, allowing BEATRIX to close the gap. At West Knoll BEATRIX’s blue spinnaker popped up before LUCREZIA’s red one and blue became second.
The racing not yet over with a last beat to Royal London where the infamous Naggers played its tricks. All four boats laid it, then didn’t, then did, then tacked… one boat needed four goes but I couldn’t see their sail number. After two hours finding our way around The Solent there’s something rather satisfactory hearing a Squadron canon on the finish line… followed by tea & cake on the RYS lawn.
Sunday’s more conventional start down tide to windward was about timing on the building tide. After the Daring’s were away, we had a combined start for both XODs and Dragons so a little less room. MAYFLY crept in between the OD and GLEAM on starboard getting both tide and tacking rights to the first mark, Gurnard.
The course took us over to Lepe Spit and along the beach where GLEAM and MAYFLY gybed each other but places remained unchanged. LUCREZIA saw an advantage gained by the Dragons straight-lining to Stanswood dolphins but initial gains waned along with the wind. As the SW’ly filled to F4 the course from TeamO, headed off for a circuit of the western end of the Bramble Bank.
Thereafter, a run to West Ryde Middle gave choices on the beat back to the RYS line via Snowden to starboard. MAYFLY held her lead as she and GLEAM opted for the northern side of the channel, and LUCREZIA lost ground trying something different on the Island side. The finishing order, the same as the start: X161, X156, X140.
A word of thanks to Abby Hire who helmed LUCREZIA on Sunday; she did an excellent job and gained some important knowledge ahead of Cowes Week when she will be helming the XOD Youth Bursary crew in X48 XL.
Well done to James Meaning X156 GLEAM for winning the Household Division Cup and weekend regatta overall. Thank you to X161 MAYFLY and X178 BEATRIX for joining us for some wonderful racing. The Cowes Division and HDYC look forward to seeing you again, and hopefully many others, next year.
Thom Board
Cowes Division Captain
July 2024
|
