Fareastsails.com Spring Series Third Race - April 26, 2009


Liverpool Yacht Club held the third race of the Fareastsails.com Spring Series on Sunday April 26th.  A good spring tide giving almost 5 knots and a southerly wind nearer 20 knots rather than the forecast 6 gave Race Officer Nick Ogden and interesting problem.  He set courses for the fleets that saw them beat up river with the tide under their skirts.  With strong winds and tides even the smaller yachts has a start line ground speed of 10 knots.  This took many of the fleet by surprise with the result that there was a mass recall after the first start with a couple of yachts struggling to make it back against the tide.  The second start was clean and everyone beat towards the Eastham channel before crossing back to the Garston channel on a spinnaker run.  At this stage the lead class I yacht tried an innovative spinnaker set sending the clew to the masthead but they obviously didn’t like this and after recovering it hoisted another one conventionally!  The strong wind and almost dead run gave several boats problems.  After various circuits in the upper river both fleets ran downriver on the increasing ebb tide to dukes buoy and then had to beat back to the finish line against an increasingly strong tide and simultaneously weakening wind.  This resulted in the majority of yachts having to retire.  Even after retirement the strong current made it difficult to get back to the marina with many boats needing to hug the wall.  

Neil Thomas in his Prima 38 Mighty Max II was the only finisher in class 1.  In class 2 only the three highest handicap boats managed to finish with Steve Harrison’s Sigma 33 Quattro fresh from a Spring overhaul on the shore winning ahead of Michael Inman’s Sigma 33 Musketeer with Adam Kyffin third in his Formula 28 Flash II.  There were a total of 9 retirements in the two classes.

Time corrected results

Class 1
1st.  Neil Thomas’s Prima 38 Mighty Max II 6578

Class 2:
1st.   Steve Harrison’s Sigma 33 Quattro 5697
2nd.   Michael Inman’s Sigma 33 Musketeer 6032
3rd.   Adam Kyffin’s Formula 28 Flash II 6298

         
Richard Baldwin

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