Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series - Race 6
by David Greening 11 Dec 2016 15:11 GMT
10 December 2016
Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series Race 6 © Margaret Mackley
The competitors in the Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series were grateful that this year they able to get all six races in without losing a race to bad weather, unlike 2015 when only one race was completed; with a forecast South Westerly with gusts into the 30's it was going to be a tough call on the race officer as to whether racing would happen, however the fleets were in the hands of Race Officer Simon Ballantine, known for baking muffins during six days sailing to windward in gale force winds on his way to climb mountains in Greenland, so three trips to Blackstone were a bagatelle.
First away was the Handicap fleet, spiced up by the arrival of Peter Colclough and Robin Hodges in the 505, and Alistair Morley in the Musto Skiff, obviously concerned that his Phantom was not dangerous enough for the conditions. The Merlin Rocket of Peter Cook and Janet Exelby and the Yawl returned to the safe hands of owner Dan Bridger with David Jayne returning to the pointy end, made steady progress, aided by the 505 dismasting on Biddle Head rocks and the Musto Skiff leaving a fair amount of carbon fibre on Woodcot Rocks. On the final, shortened beat, Peter and Janet attempted to grab defeat from the jaws of victory, but managed to right their capsized boat in time to take the corrected time win by 18 seconds, though Dan and David's second place was sufficient to win them the series.
Twelve Solos came to the line, including the six contenders for the podium series places. From the start Chris "Chubby" Cleaves powered across the tide from the Portlemouth shore to establish an early lead that he was never to relinquish, however there was plenty of interest in the chasing pack, with Julian Meek, Bill Jago, David Greening and Simon Dobson in pursuit. Meek gave up second place following a capsize on the second beat, allowing Greening through with Dobson close on his heels. This remained the order at the finish, which gave Dobson the series, from Cleaves.
It is a credit to the strength of the Salcombe Solo fleet that sixteen boats completed the qualifying number of races out of twenty eight competitors in the Winter Series.
Race 6 Results:
Handicap
1st Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd Salcombe Yawl 159, David Jayne and Dan Bridger
Solo
1st 5573, Chris Cleaves
2nd 5617, David Greening
3rd 5676, Simon Dobson