The weather for the start of the Lymington Spring Series has been fantastic so far (maybe famous last words?). Bright sunshine and a steady force three was the order of the day for the folkboat class at day two of the Lymington Spring Series.

More boats added to the thirteen boat fleet for the second weekend of racing, with ‘Madelaine’ (Edward Donald) and ‘Padfoot’ (The Derrick family) joining for an excellent day’s racing.

The race committee sent the fleet across the last of the flood tide from the mainland shore to the island shore. Due to the Northerly wind direction, this made the first leg a run, which added variety to the racing. Yet again a pattern emerged with the lead boats round the first mark being, ‘Gap Year’ (this time being driven by the Jardine brothers) and ‘Rio’ (Mike Shepherd) these were closely followed by ‘Milly’ (Richard Webb) ‘So’ (Simon Osgood/Stewart Becker) and ‘Madelaine’ (Edward Donald).

The next mark took the fleet to a moveable mark close to the mainland shore across tide again. It was a more tactical mark than first envisaged with the fleet splitting in two, some opting to go down tide and the remainder beating mid channel on the right hand side of the course.

‘Rio’ judged the mark and conditions perfectly having opted for the downtide left hand side of course, rounding the mark and going on to the finish to add another bullet to their scorecard. The left paid as ‘Milly’ had followed suit as did ‘Madelaine’ only to be split by the first boat taking the right hand side, ‘Gap Year’.

Race Three Results:

1st ‘Rio’ (Mike Shepherd)

2nd ‘Milly’ (Richard Webb) 3rd ‘Gap Year’ (Steve Proffitt)

Race four and the wind had picked up to a steady four and the course was pretty much similar to the previous race without the island shore as the initial target, more the centre Solent or to be more precise a moveable mark south of Berthon. ‘Gap Year’ and ‘Rio’ maintained their form at the first mark closely followed by ‘Crackerjack’ (Stuart Watson/Matthew Jones), ‘Box Clever’ (John Bence), ‘Madelaine’ and ‘Good Shepherd’ (Keith Whitelaw). Racing was extremely close throughout the short triangular course, with the tide now ebbing and getting stronger.

‘Gap Year’ overhauled ‘Rio’ who subsequently saw their good position slip away, leaving ‘Crackerjack’ and ‘Madelaine’ to take the final two podium positions. Yet again the class had an excellent weekend’s racing. With another four races in the series to be completed the competition is extremely close as well as being the largest one design fleet in the series.

Race Four Results:

1st ‘Gap Year’ (Steve Proffitt)

2nd ‘Crackerjack’ (Stuart Watson/Matthew Jones) 3rd ‘Madelaine’ (Edward Donald)

Overall after four races with one discard:

1st ‘Gap Year’ (Steve Proffitt) 4 points

2nd ‘Crackerjack’ (Stuart Watson/Matthew Jones) 7 points 3rd ‘Rio’ (Mike Shepherd) 8 points 4th ‘Good Shepherd’ (Keith Whitelaw) 13 points