Salcombe Yacht Club Summer Series Race 2
by David Greening 29 Jun 2014 17:53 BST
28 June 2014
The Salcombe estuary provided superb sailing conditions for the second race in the Yacht Club Summer Series. Before the racing started there was a presentation at the Venus café, East Portlemouth of a T-shirt to Alec Stone who is now 87 and regularly watches the Salcombe Yacht Club races from this excellent vantage point. In the past Alec has won several Solo class National Championships and at his Goodshelter boatyard he built many of the wooden Yawls sailing at Salcombe. He also built championship winning wooden Solos, however most Solos sailing at Salcombe today are made by hitech polymer composite construction.
Race officer Andrew (AJ) Squire set a Classic dinghy course in the estuary with Number 1 mark, Blackstone the first port of call. This involved an initial full windward leg into a sparkling Force two wind against an incoming tide that progressively gained strength throughout the race. In these conditions the starting position is always critical and in the large Solo fleet Peter Ballentine quickly established command of the favoured East Portlemouth side of the estuary and went on to secure a comfortable leading position throughout the race. Tim Law and Simon Gibbons had an exciting race for second and third position whilst Billy Jago held off a very close and competitive pack of following Solos.
Both Medium and fast handicap fleets have been steadily growing throughout the season and it was youth at the forefront in the medium fleet with Torrin Blazeby and Tom Morris securing first and second in their single handed Lasers.
The fast handicap was a battle between the Merlin Rocket, RS400s and National Twelves classes. The long run to race mark number 7 Gerston, suited the spinnaker carrying Merlin Rockets and Peter Cook and Janet Exelby took the winning gun from Graham and Fiona Cranford Smith.
Five Salcombe Yawls came out to play and Dan Bridger once again showed impressive form to win from the purple coloured Salcombe Chandlery boat of Ian Stewart with guest crew appearance of Peter Colclough. Another guest crew, Chris Spenser Chapman would have come third sailing with Jon Lewis however he crucially missed a toe strap whilst hiking at Widegates and disappeared overboard. Fortunately he was able to recover into the boat but not before Andrew Wood had secured third place.
Finally the club RS Feva secured first place in the competitive junior fleet followed by a trio of Toppers.
Next week, 6-11th July sees the Annual Merlin Rocket Week at Salcombe and this year there will be a record 128 boats competing from throughout the country. This event provides a spectacular sight for competitors and spectators alike. Race starts are at 10.30am and 2.30pm each day.
Race 2 Results:
Junior Handicap
1st RS Feva 4165, Anon
2nd Topper 46706, George Alexander
3rd Topper 1, Max Pearce
Medium Handicap
1st Laser 161391, Torrin Blazeby
2nd Laser 154646, Tom Morris
3rd Laser radial 7, Anon
Fast Handicap
1st Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd Merlin Rocket 3698, Graham and Fiona Cranford Smith
3rd RS400 1421, John and Annie Maclaren
Solo
1st 5317, Peter Ballentine
2nd 5315, Tim Law
3rd 5428, Simon Gibbons
Salcombe Yawls
1st 159, Dan and Gail Bridger
2nd 169, Ian Stewart and Peter Colclough
3rd 97, Andrew Wood and anon
http://www.salcombeyc.org.uk