A total of 65 boats gathered in the central Solent on Saturday 10th April for the start of the 30th year of RSYC Double Handed racing with the Coors Light Spring Solent Double. Although we had a ninety minute wait for the wind to make a steady appearance, the five classes, 2 IRC, 2 Club and 1 multihull began their starts at around 1130 in a light SE wind and a west-going tide.
The fleet beat their way east up the northern shore to stay out of the tide before making for Ryde Middle, then running back down to Flying Fish. With the tide under the boats, there was barely enough wind to fill symmetric spinnackers; asymmetrics appeared to fare better by gybeing down to the mark. The plan was to beat back to the first mark before a finish at 'RORC' but the wind had other ideas and by around 2PM, just on the turn of the tide, it became patchy and the Race Committee made a great job of shortening class 4 at Mackley Construction and all other classes at SE Ryde Middle.
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