Salcombe Yacht Club Spring Series - Race 4

Salcombe Spring Series race 4 © Margaret Mackley

The Easter weekend saw a bumper turnout of thirty seven boats on the water, with more Yawls and Merlin Rockets emerging from hibernation.

With a Spring low tide and a Force 3 North Easterly breeze, Race Officer Simon Ballantine had little option but to set a course to Gerston, followed by a couple of circuits of Salcombe Harbour. This placed a lot of emphasis on competitor's execution of the start, since once past Snapes Point the race was essentially a two reach drag race.

The Solo Start saw twenty one starters. Malcolm Bell and Chris Cleaves led around Snapes Point, but Bell had to relinquish his leading position to Cleaves since such an elevated position was so unexpected that he had not taken the trouble to note the course.

Peter Hammond managed to find more breeze at Widegates, that he could drive out of the chasing pack to take on Cleaves, a duel that carried on to the finish line.

The pursuing pack comprised Nick Jackson, Phil King, Bell and David Greening, and after close racing and much place changing, Nick secured third place from Phil.

Sixteen boats made the starting line for the Handicap Race, with the Salcombe Yawls of Dan Bridger and David Jayne and Mike and Karen Whitehouse getting the better of the ubiquitous Merlin Rocket of Peter Cook and Janet Exelby followed by the newly acquired Phantom of Alistair Morley.

Race 4 Results:

Solo
1st 5573, Chris Cleaves
2nd 5271, Peter Hammond
3rd 5361, Nick Jackson

Handicap
1st Yawl 159, Dan Bridger and David Jayne
2nd Yawl 171, Mike and Karen Whitehouse
3rd Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby