Royal Southampton Yacht Club

For the first time in 99 years, XODs were seen racing off Hythe in Southampton Water at the weekend.

Heads turned on the decks of the Red Funnel ferry as 17 XODs from Yarmouth, Cowes, Hamble and Itchenor sailed from a start line on the Netley shore and raced to the northernmost Hythe buoy near Hythe jetty.

The third race of the XOD Central Solent Championships had a course to commemorate the first XOD race held in June 1911 by the Motor Yacht Club that had its headquarters aboard the old ex-Admiralty paddle steamer “Enchantress” moored off Netley.

The two-day five-race series was organised by the Royal Southampton Yacht Club, whose race management team gave the fleet excellent courses, clear comprehensive communications and a quick efficient turnaround between races, despite the 35 degree windshift after the attention signal for Race 2 which required a postponement to reconfigure the course.

Race 1 saw the fleet sailing across Southampton Water to the Royal Southampton buoy and back to the ODM twice round in a brisk westerly breeze of 16 knots and was won by Tim Harding’s newly restored X47 Vanity helmed by Peter Baines, with Peter Taylor’s X192 Felix in second place.

Race 2 was started after a short postponement when the wind veered to the north-west and increased gusting to 22 knots. The start was very close with the Line Officer’s eyes widening when James Meaning’s X72 Venus approached from course side and ducked behind the line at the last minute. The call was “All Clear” - just. The race was won by X2 Palassie helmed by Lisa Childerley and crewed by her husband Stuart and their two young children, with Neil Payne’s X172 LizzWhizz in second place.

Race 3 saw the wind easing and backing slightly, making it possible to set the commemorative race to Hythe, which saw Mark Palmer helming X177 Relaxation first round the windward and leeward marks only to be passed up the last beat by the Childerley’s in X2 Palassie hugging the Woolston shore and playing the wind shifts to finish ahead of the rest of the fleet at the finish line at Moorhead, closely followed by Peter Taylor’s X192 Felix scoring another second place.
At the end of the first day, a prizegiving at the Royal Southampton YC’s clubhouse followed the racing with prizes being presented to Day One’s race winners.

Sunday morning saw a cracking good sailing breeze of 15-20 knots of wind from the south-west and the fleet was joined by Alan Perry’s X55 Falconet and Jasper Bardon’s X151 Xanadu from Itchenor.
From a start off Netley Dome, CRO Mike Garvey sent the fleet across Southampton water to marks on the Fawley shore, timing the racing to miss a huge outbound car transporter which passed just after the finish. The course of 3 windward and leeward legs saw X2 Palassie pull ahead decisively to score her third win, with Alan Perry’s X55 Falconet in second place.

Race 5 saw another close fleet start with Peter Baines in X47 Vanity subject to an Individual Recall as the fleet pulled away across Southampton Water.

At the end of the first downwind leg, X124 Kathleen dropped their spinnaker in the water and crew John Roberts followed into the water while attempting to retrieve it. Helm MOS FitzGerald and remaining crew managed to pull him aboard again promptly and they joined the tailenders of the fleet, who had to gybe to avoid a Red Funnel ferry on the last downwind leg.
The race was won comfortably by X2 Palassie scoring her fourth win, while second place went to X188 Princess Jalina, sailed by new owner David Palmer, in his first season in XODs and in his fourth Princess Jalina, following his Sigma 33 and two Dragons. With his results improving impressively during the series, this could be the XOD to watch for the future.

As the fleet sailed away from the finish bound for home ports, the radio crackled with thanks to the Royal Southampton’s race management team for a superbly well organized and enjoyable series, to replies of “See you next year”.