Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series Race 3
by David Greening 29 Sep 2014 19:23 BST
28 September 2014
An almost calm estuary presented mentally challenging conditions for the sailors of the forty boats that came to the start line for the third race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn series.
Race Officer Bruce Hattersley stuck to his guns and sent competitors into the Bag on the end of an ebb tide and a fitfull Easterly wind.
For once Evie Booth, sailing in the Junior Handicap Class handed the advantage to the Mirror of Martin and Tom Ley, by starting off the Portlemouth shore, an advantage that they held to the finish.
No such mistake for Evie's mother, Clare, who led the Medium Handicap fleet to Saltstone and although overhauled by the Laser of Esther McLarty, still managed to secure the win by a couple of minutes on corrected time.
Peter Cook and Janet Exelby once again secured a comfortable victory in the Fast Handicap Fleet, sailing their Merlin Rocket "The Muppet Show", this was assisted by Keri and Gilli Harris' tardy start having been caught in the no-wind zone off Mill Bay.
Once again the Solo class was the most numerous, with seventeen starters. Simon Yates and Rob Hyde led off the start line, making the most of less tide, as some of the pundits started in the middle of the estuary having seen some wind come in from the seaward direction.
They gradually got hauled in, and major place changing took place at the Mill Bay turning mark. When the fleet arrived the flood tide had set in, and many of the leaders from the later starts bunched up in the foul tide in the main stream, which allowed the boats that worked the Portlemouth shore and laid the mark on a starboard reach to make big gains, with stalwart Chris Cleaves rounding ahead of Greening, Dobson and Hodges.
Eventually, Cleaves covered Simon Dobson to the finish line, whilst David Greening snicked ahead of Robin Hodges, Liz Stephens and the early leader Simon Yates.
A small but select group of Salcombe Yawls made the start, with the boats of Andrew Wood and Jon Lewis once again demonstrating that their Classic boats do not always require any handicapping advantage to beat the Modern boats, at least on light wind days!
Race 3 Results:
Junior Handicap
1st Mirror, Martin and Tom Ley
2nd RS Tera Pro, Evie Booth
Medium Handicap
1st Streaker 1845, Clare Booth
2nd Laser 181676, Esther McLarty
3rd Laser Radial 161391, Torrin Blazeby
Fast Handicap
1st Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd National 12 3501, Keri and Gilli Harris
3rd National 12 3534, Charlie Lloyd and Helen Lloyd
Solo
1st 5295, Chris Cleaves
2nd 5313, Simon Dobson
3rd 5301, David Greening
Salcombe Yawl
1st 97, Andrew Wood and Crew
2nd 150, Jon and Clare Lewis
3rd 161, Peter Stratton and Nigel Hannaford
The full results are on the club website.