Salcombe Yacht Club Spring Series - Race 2
by David Greening 26 Mar 2018 10:53 BST
24 March 2018
With a false start when Race 1 of the Salcombe Yacht Club Spring Series was cancelled due to the arctic spring in the South West coupled with an easterly gale, the fleets reconvened on Saturday 24th with a light north easterly breeze and a neap ebb tide.
Race Officer Chris Cleaves set a course that circuited the harbour four times, leaving himself several opportunities to shorten the course, an option that he was never to exorcise.
First away were the Solos, all of whom chose to start at the Watch House end of the line, providing spectator opportunities as they short tacked up the Cliff House Gardens seawall, had anyone turned up. Simon Dobson, resuming where he left off last year and was leading Ed Stephens to the Ferry Landing, with David Greening and Roger Guess in pursuit.
Following a verbose interaction with the fishermen off Biddle Head, the fleet became spread out, with Dobson appearing to have the race in the bag, however on the third lap with the tide easing, and the wind backing to the North, Ed Stephens picked up some pressure to punch the tide and ease past Dobson, who struggled to escape the no wind zone off Ditch End.
Ed held onto the lead to take the win from Simon, followed home by David Greening.
With the favourites for the Handicap Race, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby, having been felled before leaving the slipway with fatigue... their mast having fallen down, a diverse Handicap fleet set off behind the Solos.
The fleet was split between the Salcombe and East Portlemouth shores, with Pete Colclough and Robin Hodges in the 505 "Brigantes" being recalled for a premature start on the beach side.
A depilated Ian Stewart led the fleet into the Harbour with the 505 and Merlin Rocket of AJ and Tristan Squire in pursuit, however the 505 was never able to make use of its downwind potential, with the tide collapsing its large spinnaker; Alistair Morley in his brand new Phantom worked his way through the fleet to finish sufficiently ahead of the rest of the fleet to take a comfortable victory from the Salcombe Yawl of Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman, followed by the Aero 9 of Dan Bridger.
Whilst the old guard bemoan the de rigeur length of sailing races being reduced to thirty minutes, it is reassuring that the two hour race is alive and well at Salcombe; special mention should be made of Andrew and Lewis Groves sailing an RS Feva XL, who kept going to finish after two and a half hours of sailing, and only finished 12 minutes behind the winning boat on corrected time.
Race 2 Results:
Solo
1st 5769, Ed Stephens
2nd 5676, Simon Dobson
3rd 5792, David Greening
Handicap
1st Phantom 1459, Alistair Morley
2nd Yawl 170, Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman
3rd Aero 9 1752, Dan Bridger