The first race of the season for the Lymington X One Design Division was held last Saturday.

Twelve boats made it to the starting line despite one or two last-minute panics getting boats launched, rigged and ready to race.

The weather, although sunny and mild, did not look terribly promising from the perspective of wind strength, although luckily a steady sea breeze settled in and racing started after a brief postponement.

A heavily-biased start line enabled Robert Young and Roy Froud, sailing Red Coral, to pull off a port tack flyer, immediately pointing them in the right direction to get out of the tide on the first beat.

The early advantage showed with them rounding the first mark ahead of Stuart Jardine sailing Lone Star.

Towards the end of a long run, Jardine gybed early and sailed a slightly better course to the leeward mark, just pulling ahead of Red Coral.

A beat against the tide and a rare over standing of the lay-line by Jardine enabled a fast-looking Red Coral to pull back into the lead, which she deservedly held for the rest of the race.

Results: 1 Red Coral (Robert Young /Roy Froud), 2 Lone Star (Stuart Jardine), 3 Lucrezia (Adrian Jardine).