The third race of Lymington Town Sailing Club’s Sunday Points Series A was sailed in fair winds on Sunday 5 May, a contrast to the previous week when the race was abandoned due to gales.

A steady north-easterly gave the race officers a problem in setting a beat so, as an experiment, they moved the start boat out into mid-Solent to achieve a good beat in clear winds.

In the fast handicap fleet 11 dinghies had a hard fought race. Richard Russell and Tig Williams in their 470 revelled in the conditions showing a clear transom to many boats who should have been faster and won on handicap.

John Heissig in his RS600 seemed to get faster as the race progressed and left Russell well behind but failed to catch him on handicap by 20 seconds. Dave Gorringe in the faster RS 700 also powered through well but some capsizes put him into third. Bill Smith in his Contender also showed well latterly, but a capsize caused by a boat in irons on the start line gave him too much time to catch up.

In the medium handicap fleet Tony Christopher and John Sims in their Wayfarer made light of the heavy chop to take first from the Wayfarer of Frank Wenman and John Freshwater by over a minute. Tim Blackwell showed good boat speed in his Vareo but capsizing kept him back to third.

Results

Fast Handicap

1st Wave Rider IV 470 721 R. Russell and T. Williams

2nd RS 600 954 John Heissig

3rd Bob RS700 748 Dave Gorringe

4th Free Spirit Contender 527 Bill Smith

5th Forepeaks 29er 313 L.Todd & J.Wild

6th RS 600 740 Giles Chipperfield

Medium Handicap 1st Gandalf W3733, T. Christopher and J. Sims

2nd Whisper W1210, F. Wenman and J. Freshwater

3rd RS Vareo 190, Tim Blackwell

4th Louisa Solo 4079, John Metzner

5th Limax W 9996, P. and P. Wells