Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series - Race 1

Salcombe YC Winter Series race 1 © Malcolm Mackley

Salcombe YC Winter Series race 1 © Malcolm Mackley

A Force 4 South Westerly breeze greeted the hardier sailors in the first of the Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series races. Race Officer Julian Hereward set a cautious course, in the inclement conditions, by keeping the racing within the confines of the harbour, with three laps of Blackstone to Crossways.

With an increasing spring flood tide, the more experienced sailors realised that this was going to prove to be tough, with plenty of short tacking up the banks of the estuary as the race progressed.

First to start were the more numerous Solo fleet, with David Greening making the early running, however an encounter with some floating weed, allowed Simon Dobson to round the Blackstone mark in first place chased by Greening and Chris Cleaves.

Despite Cleaves generous proportions, he slipped through to take the lead by the next beat, and after this point there were few overtaking opportunities as the increasing tide spread the contenders apart on the off-wind legs, whilst the short tacking allowed the leaders to cover on the beats.

It was good to see the Merlin Rocket of Paul and Julie Rayson join the Handicap Fleet, who were the next starters, though it was unclear whether he had arrived a week late for the Silver Tiller Open Meeting.

The Laser Radial of Peter Ballantine and the Salcombe Yawl of Dan Bridger and David Jayne never let the Merlin get far enough away, so the indefatigable Peter Ballantine took the Handicap win from the Yawl.

Race 1 Results:

Solo
1st 5295, Chris Cleaves
2nd 5313, Simon Dobson
3rd 5301, David Greening

Handicap
1st Laser Radial 7, Peter Ballantine
2nd Salcombe Yawl 159, Dan Bridger and David Jayne
3rd Merlin Rocket 3715, Paul and Julie Rayson