Folkboat class - 'Eager to get the season started' was the consensus of opinion from the folkboat class, with the largest one design class entry at this years Royal Lymington Spring series.

The class is evolving as one of the fastest growing fleets within the Solent, and the series saw three new boats entered with more to follow.

The spring series comprised of only six races, with the final weekend cancelled due to excessive wind. During the series there were three different boats claiming first places for the duration, Hanchen - Colin Dobner.

'So' - Simon Osgood and 'Crackerjack' - Stuart Watson. The racing was close with some excellent courses laid by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club. 'Hanchen' showed the early pace with two firsts in their first three outings, being closely pursued by 'Box Clever' - John Bence and 'Riot' - Nick Burgin.

Race two saw extremely strong winds and gave the first a taste of 'Crackerjack's' boatspeed in all conditions comfortably winning, followed by 'Good Shepherd' - Keith Whitelaw.

Race three saw near perfect conditions with a South West force, 3-4 ideal folkboat weather. Race three went to 'Hanchen' with only a couple of minutes separating the leading few boats and minutes again only separating the fleet again in Race 4, with 'So' coming to the front of the fleet on the penultimate mark and maintaining this to the finish.

Leading to Race 5 of 6, the series was wide open with any boat able to lead overall. 'Crackerjack' took both races despite being 'shut out' at the start on both occasions, demonstrating their recover ability.

Despite races 7 & 8 being cancelled all agreed that it had been a good start to the season. 'Hanchen' maintained the series lead and was placed first overall from a consistent series of results by 'Box Clever' in second and 'So' in third.

All bodes well for an extremely competitive folkboat class in their 60th Anniversary year.

Overall Results

1st Teacher - C Dobner 13 points

2nd Box Clever - J Dence 14 points

3rd So-S Osgood 18 points

4th Good Shepherd - K Whitelow 19 points

5th Crackerjack - S Watson 22 points

6th Riot - N Burgin 28 points