Lymington town sailing club played host to the 5^th RS 600 sailing event of the 2009 circuit. 12 boats travelled from as far as Grafam and Mount Batten sailing clubs to find a dreary and windless morning.

With the wind displaying a meagre 4 knots for most of the morning it was with some hesitation that the fleet launched into the Solent. As the fleet approached the racing area the wind began to build to a nice 12 knots and the 1^st race began.

The fleet all hit the left side of the course with only Dave Annan choosing to stray to the right. As the fleet neared the windward mark it was discovered that the buoys were out of position with mark 2 having drifted far to the right of mark 1. With the exception of Dave Annan and Jon Bradbury the entire fleet decided that they had to put in an extra sausage to ensure that they had left both of these marks to port. This handed Dave a rather decisive lead upon which he duly capitalized taking the 1^st race followed by Jon.

Whilst the RS 700s and ourselves were racing the RS 800s had decided to test the Race Officers patience with the number of general recalls. This tom foolery delayed the start of our second race somewhat allowing the wind to drop down to marginal trapezing conditions.

The occasional local Andy Heissig took the second race followed by Ian Marshall both capitalizing on the shifts to pull out a significant margin in the ripping tide.

The third and final race of day was won by Ian Marshall showing the fleet a rather clean pair of heels in what was now a very light if not dying breeze. With three races and 3 different winners the weekend was well and truly still open.

The evening consisted of much drinking and ogling of a group of hens who had inadvertently turned up at the sailing club bar close to 11pm.

Day two dawned and there was distinctly more breeze. The wind display showed a consistently building wind on the racecourse, averaging around 22 knots. It was with far greater excitement that the fleet launched into the Solent.

Race four was won by Andy Heissig who having not attended the drinking the night before [ha, ha - Ed] was showing us all how a clear head really is useful downwind in the 600 in a blow. Ian Marshall despite carrying a slight weight disadvantage held on to take a close second whilst carnage ensued behind.

Andy Heissig didn’t have it all is own way in race five with Ian Marshall leading for most of the race only to drop it in on the final gybe allowing Andy to take his second victory of the day. Ian was not the only person to suffer this fate as a battle had raged all race between Richard Broughton and Jon Bradbury, decided every lap by who fell in. The first three laps Richard fell in on the gybe mark leaving Jon with a reasonable lead only for Jon to drop it on the final lap handing Richard the place by a small margin.

The final race was once again won by Andy Heissig with Guy Lonsdale and Richard Broughton close behind. By this time the race had become a race of attrition with most of the fleet choosing to weir round rather than gybe at the leeward mark on the final lap. This timid sailing allowed Jon Bradbury, who having had a poor start was well buried in the fleet, to capitalize sailing low and gybing to gain four places on the final Run.

Thanks must go to Lymington sailing Club for providing us with a fantastic weekend, and also to the sponsors for this event only WWW.MURCIATASTIC.CO.UK  who provided 5 free holidays for the 5 fleet winners and 10 other half price vouchers for various competitors throughout the fleets.