Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series - Race 5

With low water Spring tides and a shifty light westerly breeze to contend with, Race Officer Simon Ballantine set the familiar course of Blackstone to Gerston and back into the harbour for a couple of laps, these extra laps proved unnecessary since the wind died when the fleet emerged from the Bag, resulting in a welcome shortening of the race.

In the Solo fleet, the early pace setters were Simon Dobson and Julian Meek, with Malcolm Mackley following, and Chris Cleaves and David Greening, trying to recover from taking what proved to be the wrong route to Blackstone.

Chris Cleaves managed at one stage to overhaul all of the leaders, but when the fleet returned to the harbour, he failed to cover Simon Dobson on the way to the finishing line, allowing the series leader back through to secure another race win.

Ex World Champion, Peter Colclough and Nations Cup winner Alistair Morley showed their intent by being first off the slipway for some pre-race practice, which was rewarded by a dominant performance of the Handicap Fleet in their 505 Brigantes, despite Alistair having to apologise for leaving Peter with a bloodied nose following some over enthusiastic spinnaker handling.

John and Annie McLaren were next to finish in their new RS400 followed by Graham and Fiona Cranford-Smith in their Merlin Rocket, neither of whom were close enough to make any impression on the Colclough-Morley combo.

Race 5 Results:

Solo
1st 5313, Simon Dobson
2nd 5295, Chris Cleaves
3rd 5317, Julian Meek

Handicap
1st 505 8050, Peter Colclough and Alistair Morley
2nd RS400 1421, John and Annie McLaren
3rd Merlin Rocket 3698, Graham and Fiona Cranford-Smith