Races six and seven, the final two races in the Royal Lymington YC spring series, were held on Sunday 29 April on a bright sunny day, with a strong flooding tide making the courses for both races extremely testing for the Folkboat fleet.

The first race saw Svenja (R. Berwick) have an inch perfect start and lead the fleet off the line. The course allowed the fleet to experience the full force of the tide as it gathered strength around the furthest southerly mark – Jackson’s. This proved testing for the remainder of the fleet as Svenja had built a commanding lead, it was left to Aquavit (S. Osgood/T .Howard), Box Clever (J. Bence), Good Shepherd and Faoileag (H. Macafferty) to fight for the second place. Faoileag having taken a risk headed straight for the the penultimate mark in the strongest tide, managed to overhaul Good Shepherd and Box Clever however, was unable to maintain their advantage to the finishing line just allowing both boats through on the final leg. The first race proved to be a tidal nightmare which Svenja had judged to perfection leading from start to finish with Aquavit second and Box Clever third.

Race two was a straight beat to the west and easterly run, allowing all the competitors time to get back to the prizegiving. This time the start saw Aquavit and Svenja get away to windward of the remainder of the fleet, Svenja rounded first and maintained the advantage to the finish securing a good day’s racing with two firsts followed by Aquavit, two seconds and the overall series.

Overall Results

1st Aquavit (Simon Osgood and Tom Howard) – 6 points

2nd Box Clever (John Bence) – 9 points

3rd equal Rio – (Mike Shepherd) – 23 points

3rd equal Svenja – (Rob Berwick) – 23 points

5th Faoileag (H McCafferty) – 27 points

6th Good Shepherd (Keith Whitelaw) – 29 points