The Lymington Town Sailing Club Charity Pursuit Race was sailed on 16 November in light to medium conditions. A total of 27 keelboats and 25 dinghies and catamarans set out, a fleet somewhat depleted of rugby fanatics due to the concurrent England v France World Cup game.

The keelboat racing was held in a northerly wind; light at first but building to Force 3-4 by midday. First away at 1000 was the ‘slowest’ boat Alice II a glassfibre sailing classic fishing boat followed by the others ranging from Folkboats to 50ft racing yachts. The race was scheduled to last two and a half hours and for the first two the Folkboat ‘Bossa Nova’ of Michael White lead the fleet. With 15 minutes remaining Bossa Nova was overtaken by ‘Joe Black’ (J/80) sailed by Marcus Myers who held on to win but nearly caught by ‘Thisbe Beta’ right on the finishing line.

For the dinghies, Race Officer Paul French set a windward/leeward zig-zag course in the early north-west wind but as the first boats started the wind veered to north-east giving a combination of fetches and reaches. With these conditions for the fast handicap race there was great debate about which type of boat would be most favoured. Pre-race favourites were the RS400s, and they started well with Cooper and Wigley soon building a big lead over the Willis duo while managing to fly their spinnaker on virtually every leg of the course. However, the shape of the course favoured close reaching boats and soon the RS600s of Andy Heissig and Nigel King moved past, changing the lead between them for the next few laps. The RS700s had the biggest fleet, of these Toby Collyer and Jon Heissig broke away and eventually moved into the top two places with around half an hour to go.

The Nacra 18 of Paul Butler and Peter Bell from Highcliffe steamed through the fleet, but couldn’t quite get past third despite Heissig capsizing seconds from the finish.

In the slower dinghy fleet the lead was held for most of the race by a gaggle of Wayfarers lead by Jonnie Goldie, but the conditions favoured the reaching ability of visitors from Burghfield SC David Angwin and Paul Taylor in their Blazes who powered into the lead shortly before the finish.

BBC Children in Need and Regain, a local charity for disabled sportsmen, benefited by £3,000 from the entry fees, sponsorships and generous donations from the Dutch Auction which was held after the prizegiving.

Overall Results

Fast Handicap

1st Deep Heat, RS700, Toby Collyer

2nd Kylie’s RS, RS700, Jon Heissig

3rd Nacra 18, Paul Butler Peter Bell

4th Looney, RS700, Nigel Walbank

5th 3 Hand J, RS700, Peter Barton

6th Uncle Monkey, RS600, Andy Heissig

7th Buster G, RS600, Nigel King

Slow Handicap

1st Blaze, David Angwin

2nd Blaze, Paul Taylor

3rd Dream On, Wayfarer, Jonnie Goldie and N. Stuart

4th Wild Goose, Wayfarer, Jon Reynolds and Paul Grasham

5th Red Devil, Stratos, Mike Beggs and Simon Meadowcroft

Keelboats

1st Joe Black J/80 H. Mayers

2nd Thisbe Beta, 6 Metre, Don Wood

3rd Bossa Nova, Folkboat Michael White

4th Sallywag, Andrew Watson

5th Bacchante II, Marion Dockerill

6th Aurora, Mike Aitkins

7th Amadeus, David Frith