Summer Series at Salcombe Yacht Club - Day 2
by Malcolm Mackley 20 Jun 2016 08:54 BST
18 June 2016
Salcombe Summer Series day 2 © Margaret Mackley
A Westerly wind is a tricky wind direction for Salcombe sailors, particularly in the region of the start line where the wind can come from the opposite directions of Batson Creek or South Sands with the inevitable confused and sometimes windless spot right in the starting region. Race Officer John Wyllie elected to send most of the fleet to mark number one, Blackstone, at the mouth of the estuary which meant a beat against a strong flooding tide in a fitful breeze where in some parts of the estuary there was no wind whilst in other parts, such as the trip to Gerston, planing was possible.
Nine juniors did battle and in the end it was Evie Booth's turn to beat a very competitive group of George Alexander and Will Meek, all in Teras. The Medium Handicap was rather depleted with four boats and unusually, was won by a very well sailed visiting blue sail Enterprise. The fast handicap was better subscribed with ten entrants, five of which were National Twelves and the winning boat was a National Twelve not sailed by its owner Chris Winzer, the coxwain of the Salcombe Lifeboat, but expertly sailed by Peter Cook and Janet Exelby demonstrating that they had not lost any of the past Twelve sailing skills.
Some of the hot shot Solo Salcombe sailors were racing elsewhere, however Billy Jago controlled the seventeen competitor Solo race right from the start. Billy has been sailing particularly well this year and at the moment is a very hard man to beat. A new face to the Solo fleet was "Barman" Peter Bennett who arrived at the windward mark in third place and then went on to beat another "Salcombe great", Chris Cleaves to take second place.
The Yawls had good racing and there was a close finish with Dan and Gail Bridger leading Paul Ellis and Stephen Page over the line.
On Sunday the 19th of June there was a special "Fathers Day" pursuit race expertly run by Barnie Greenhill. A pleasant South Westerly breeze and continual rain filled the estuary; however the sailing was good and after the one hundred minute elapsed time, the race was won within a "a fag paper" by Dan Bridger in his Aero 9 from Peter Cook in his Foxer. A prize giving followed in the Club House where Dan was presented with a specially formulated bottle of gin for low alcohol drinkers and all the twelve competitors were awarded a prize.
Race 2 Results:
Juniors
1st Tera 2146, Evie Booth
2nd Tera 2136, George Alexander
3rd Tera 1131, Will Meek
Medium Handicap
1st Enterprise 22698, An Enterprising pair
2rd Laser 161391, Henry Bright
3rd Laser Radial 201476, Coleen Pope
Fast Handicap
1st National 12 3524, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2st RS400 1421, John and Annie Mclaren
3rd National 12 3548, Norman and Karen Brown
Solo
1st 5598 Billy Jago
2nd 5361 Peter Bennett
3rd 5573 Chris Cleaves
Yawls
1st 159 Dan and Gail Bridger
2nd 181 Paul Ellis and Stephen Page
3rd 170 Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman
Fathers Day Pursuit Race
1st Dan Bridger, Aero 9
2nd Peter Cook, Foxer
3rd Malcolm Mackley, Solo