Neyland Yacht Club

Spring Series 2025 Race 2

Tuesday 22^nd April 2025

Spring Series 2025
Race2 – 23rd April 2025.

The second race in the so far soggy Spring Series was sailed by 7 crews in a punchy breeze of 10kts to 21kts from the south to east south east; the forecast of rain and higher winds deterring a handful from removing their boat covers.
For the second week, the juniors in Division 2 outnumbered the faster fleet in Division 1, 4 Teras to 3 ILCA’s.
The junior fleet took the first start on the 4 sided triangular course:
Start – Club Line
Red Buoy in club moorings (P)
Dropped buoy (between Neyland Spit and DB4) (P)
Bathhouse (P)
TTL (P)
Liam F and Anwen S in the larger sailed Tera Pro’s leading Isabelle N and Iolo S in the smaller sailed Tera Sports. Throughout the race, it became two against two, the faster Pro’s pulling ahead of the Sport rigged boats. All 4 stayed right on the first beat, judging of the layline to the windward mark was all that separated the leader in each pair, Anwen leading Liam by 10 secs after lap 1 and Isabelle the same ahead of Iolo, both a further 40s back. Liam lost distance to Anwen on the second beat after breaking left earlier, likewise between Isabelle and Iolo, a little further back. An unforced error from both of the girls let the boys through around the end of lap 2; Anwen thought she had finished and eased off whilst Isabelle capsized in big pressure at the gybe mark. 2 laps to go and both girls were within a boat length of the boys. Liam covered Anwen closely up the 3rd beat, Anwen sailing to attempt to get clear air rather than focusing on the shifts, to no avail until a right-hand shift at the final tack close to the windward mark allowed her to get the inside lane on the round to Bathhouse. Liam remained close until the next beat, choosing to tack off first to gain clear air, Anwen kept hard right – when they converged at the windward mark, Anwen was clear ahead, the right side was more favourable. Less than a minute behind the two Sport rigged Teras were in a similar tit for tat battle – Isabelle having a little more pace upwind would pull out a small lead by the windward mark with Iolo closing the gap on the legs to the line through with his confident downwind sailing. By the finish in the wet, grey and gusty conditions, Isabelle crossed 3rd and Iolo 4th.
On corrected time the rig sizes were split, Anwen 1st, Isabelle 2nd, Liam 3rd and Iolo 4th.
Division 1 sailed a slightly longer course, going to the Llanion cardinal marker as their windward mark. All were clear at the start, Simon G in the clubs ILCA 6 leading Amelia and Jon N around the first mark. Amelia managed to sail through Simons lee on the long leg to the right corner with Jon in the larger rigged ILCA 7 sailing a noticeably higher angle upwind pulling clear away by the tack at the lay line and further ahead on each following laps as he sailed in clear air allowing him to focus on boat speed.
Meanwhile, the two ILCA 6’s had close boat-on-boat racing, slowing each other down perhaps. Amelia held the inside line at the leeward gybe mark with aggressive steering, not allowing Simon the overlap for the gybe. Amelia kept cover on the second beat, with both taking a middle-right route this time. Simon pulled ahead (just) on the run to Bathhouse after sailing to the left of the rhumb line to hook into a gust. But a dropped mainsheet on the reaching leg through the line allowed Amelia through… just. They started the final beat less than a boat length apart, heading to the right hand side. This time Simon sailed through to leeward, forcing Amelia to split off to avoid falling into Simons lee. They converged shortly after, still neck and neck, splitting back, Amelia to the left, Simon to the right. When they crossed again close to the windward mark it was the right that had paid. Simon finishing ahead of Amelia. On corrected time, the finishing order was the same as the placed order, Jon N in 1st, Simon G 2nd, Amelia N 3rd.
Division 1
1st ILCA 7 Jon Nuttall 221330 1104 29:03 26:19
2nd ILCA6 Simon Goodwin NYC ILCA 6 1154 31:08 26:59
3rd ILCA 6 Amelia Nuttall 513 1154 31:36 27:23

Division 2
1st RS Tera Pro Anwen Sims 2442 1370 30:04 21:57
2nd RS Tera Sport Isabelle Nuttal 3230 1445 32:23 22:25
3rd RS Tera Pro Liam Franz NYC 1370 30:50 22:30
4th RS Tera Sport Iolo Sims 3933 1445 33:03 22:52

Thank you to the sailors for venturing out in very grey conditions and providing entertaining racing for those sheltering ashore, and a great thank you to the volunteers for making the racing happen, too:
RO – Sledge assisted by Ian Elwell
Safety – Robert Barlow, David Horne, Will Horne, Gavin Sims