Liverpool Yacht Club and Tranmere Sailing Club Early Autumn Series - Day 5

The final day of the Liverpool Yacht Club Early Autumn Series © Sam Kitteringham

Thank goodness the clocks had gone back ahead of an early 8am start on Sunday 27th of October as 13 yachts of the club gathered for the final race of the Early Autumn Series. A series which had seen a total of twenty yachts compete across three separate classes.

Tensions were high amongst the leaders as the top spots in all three classes would be decided on the day's final places and perhaps countback.

The Venture Fleet (NHC) set off down river with the wind behind them. Only 2 boats had taken to the water meaning that May Bee (GK24) sailed by Laura Fitzgerald, gained her 1st place in the series despite finishing just over a minute behind Mike Croxall's Grand Slam (Westerly Typhoon).

IRC Classes 1 and 2 were given their start against the 9.63m tide to Dukes Buoy by the Historic Royal Albert Dock Complex. Skukusa (Impalla28) and Trajan (Seawolf 30) got flying starts but were called back by Race Officer Paul Pratt. Fortunately, with the strong tide flowing at nearly 4 knots it took no time to re-cross the line.

The course to Dukes Buoy was a fetch which became a beat favouring the bigger faster boats.

The three Class 1 boats with a chance of winning the series kept close together, rounding the downwind leg to G1 in procession. G1 is an infrequently used mark which caught out the race favourite Daydream Believer (Beneteau 34.7), who did not initially pass it on the correct side and had to drop their kite and beat back to the Buoy. With such a big tide this was time costly. Having started the day only needing to be ahead of Mojo (J105) and Eazi Tiger (Corby 29), this error earned them a final 6th place in the race and putting them down to 3rd place in the series.

As the race continued Max Too (Prima 38) and Finally (Elan 350) continued to pull out in front, with Eazi Tiger and Mojo fighting it out together before Hullabuloo Encore (Beneteau 30) enjoying her maiden race of the series following her recent return to the Mersey, ahead of Daydream Believer.

This order continued to the finish line meaning that Finally had her 1st bullet of the series, line honours went to Max Too in second place followed by Eazi Tiger, Mojo, Hullabaloo Encore and bringing in the rear Daydream Believer.

Compared to this final race, the Class 1 series result was a little more complicated. Daydream Believer drew with Max Too, but took 3rd place on countback, Eazi Tiger came 2nd having failed to get a 2nd place in the final race leaving Paul Hampson's Mojo to take 1st place with a discard in the final race.

In IRC Class 2, Skukusa (Impala 28) were first with a perfect 4 points from five races, followed by Jondo (Sigma33) and Lady Dorothy (Hunter Horizon) in 3rd place.