Bartons Salcombe Yacht Club National 12 and Solo Open Weekend
by David Greening 20 Oct 2014 17:44 BST
19-20 October 2013
A breezy forecast with Southerly winds gusting into the thirties drew over thirty boats to compete in the Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Solo and National 12 Open Meeting, which was kindly sponsored by Bartons Solicitors.
Andrew Wood was the Race Officer on Saturday, and set a course around the creeks, with an extra set of reaches at Widegates.
Solo fleet
In a 26 strong Solo fleet, Roger Lumby and Iain McGregor were first to spot the port tack starting opportunity and emerged with a comfortable lead at the Millbay mark. Their lead was eroded on the run by the pursuing fleet working the Salcombe shore, and by Yalton Tim Law was leading with Chris Cleaves in pursuit.
Cleaves broke through Law on the exit from Yalton, and had built a good lead, however an uncharacteristic bottling of the gybe at Saltstone by Cleaves, allowed Law the advantage that he maintained to take his first win of the weekend. Simon Dobson followed them home chased by David Greening who had worked through following taking a penalty at Yalton.
Sunday dawned, with a stronger West South West breeze at the start line. Race officer Dan Bridger set a course to Blackstone then Gerston followed by a loop of the harbour.
Although the tide was flooding, it paid to play the huge wind shifts and changes in velocity all over the harbour, Nick Jackson fed in as leader at Blackstone by going the "wrong way" much to the consternation of the regulars, followed by the ubiquitous Tim Law and Bill Jago. At this point the wind turned off, which left the rest of the fleet chasing for fourth place.
Eventually Law ground down Jackson on the beat through the harbour, and Jago seized second place while the other two were preoccupied.
With two wins, Law had won the weekend, and he chose to sit out the last race, and all of the minor placing's were to be fought between Dobson, Jago, Jackson or Greening.
In a tough two laps of the harbour race in a building breeze Greening found the Portlemouth start position unoccupied, which allowed him to win the start, with Jago in pursuit. Jago seized the lead after a poor tack by Greening; however Jago returned the favour at the final mark, which allowed Greening to take first place followed by Jago and Graham Cranford-Smith in third place.
National 12 fleet
A small but select National 12 fleet comprising of locals and "regulars" from as far afield as Leigh and Lowton and Upper Thames, came to the compete in the Open Meeting.
The foilers came to the fore, with John and Oliver Meadowcroft taking the first bullet of the weekend, followed by Christian and Sophie Day.
John and Ollie took Sunday morning off, however Ollie's mum; Katie kept the Meadowcroft name at the fore, while crewing for Mike Hoyle, who took the win from the Days.
However John and Ollie emerged at the start line for the final race, and despite a wobble off Biddle Head, won the race and the Chewyn Shield, from Mike and Katy.