The opening races of the Royal Southampton Double Handed Series were sailed in “goldilocks” conditions – not too breezy and not too light – and sunny as well, but nonetheless distinctly chilly for April. The first race was a two lap, windward-leeward course in minimal tide. The second was designed be rather longer, essentially a large triangular course, involving a long beat in a strong flood tide that resulted in a lot of relatively short tacks up the Hampshire shore between Browndown and Hill Head.
We arrived at the first windward mark in Race 1 in the middle of the fleet but were quick off wind and had pulled through to second by the leeward mark, consolidated our position on the second beat to finish behind Farr 30, Akarana 4 whose crew came home first in both races.
We did not cover ourselves in glory at the start of Race 2 and had a recovery job ahead of us on the long beat up past Lee on the Solent. However, hugging the shore paid dividends and we worked our way past Azygos, Bombardino and Brenda’s J to finish second on the water but unable insufficiently far ahead of Brenda’s J to beat her on handicap.
