Keyhaven YC played hosts to an afternoon of short and sharp 15 minute races with a 5 race, no discard, mini series and an open invite to local Finns, RS Aeros and Lasers.

 

Seven Finns and seven RS Aero 7s ventured out and being reasonably evenly matched racing was off a simple ‘scratch’ basis – no stopwatch required!

 

Three RS Aeros opted to travel by sea from Lymington. Unfortunately Peter’s navigation of a short cut through the Lymington marshes was optimistic at half tide and Jim turned back due to the shallow passage (sorry Jim!). The breeze filled for a nice reach to Keyhaven meeting the 11 Keyhaven boats on the Solent off Keyhaven bang on time for a 16:15 kick off.

 

April was determined to go out with a vengeance and just as the fleet approached the line on the first start the second severe squall of the afternoon hit. The short beat was breezy, but as the fleet bore off onto the broad reach Armageddon was unleashed. After some extremely fast planning, ultimately the entire fleet was simply blown over at some stage with a peak of 39kn recorded at nearby Hurst weather station! The race was abandoned allowing the brief squall to pass through and the fleet to re-gather! Unfortunately another Lymington commuter had to head home with David Ellis suffering a ripped sail as boats were blown over together.

 

Some great nip and tuck racing followed with the Finns and RS Aero 7s reasonably well matched through the gusts and lulls of the variable offshore breeze. Consistency was the name of the game with a no discard series. The challenge proved great training with the nimble RS Aeros looking for space on the start line in between the Finn’s relatively large hulls. Clear wind on the course was hard sought with big wind shadows from the Finn’s larger mainsails.

 

With a good standard throughout, a large proportion of the fleet found the front at some stage and once there could often keep ahead to the finish with small speed differentials on the short course. Just a few tactics and strategies came to play through the busy traffic and variable breeze.

 

Ultimately Jim and David had the last laugh after Peter had led them out through the shallow creek. As Peter left to return to Lymington alone after racing the wind had shifted NE, producing a long beat home against the tide – it is all good practice though!