Salcombe Yacht Club Sailing Club Series - Race 1
by Simon Dobson 23 Apr 2018 13:12 BST
21 April 2018
Blue skies and a force 3 to 4 easterly breeze made for glorious sailing conditions for the 32 boats competing in the first race of Salcombe Yacht Club's Sailing Club Series.
Race Officer Dan Bridger set a beat to the Crossways mark then a reach to Gerston and back followed by a couple of laps of the main Estuary. The reach to Gerston meant the fleets had to negotiate a tricky no wind zone in the lee of Halwell Woods and getting through this would prove to be a decisive factor in a number of races.
First away was the Cadet fleet with Ben Meek ploughing a lone furrow in his Tera. In the Medium Handicap fleet Esther McLarty made an excellent start and crossed to the Batson side to dodge the ebbing tide, rounding Crossways with a healthy lead. In the lee of Halwell Woods the rest of the fleet caught up with the Firefly of Peter Cook ad Janet Exelby emerging to take the win from the Laser Radials of McLarty and Andrew Groves.
In the Fast Handicap fleet, Alistair Morley made his traditional start a minute behind everyone else but again, he was able to profit when the leaders got becalmed off Hallwell Woods. He established a lead and was chased home by the Phantoms of Paul Ellis and Ian Stewart.
The Solo fleet had 10 starters, with the fleet splitting between those short tacking up the Portlemouth shore and those crossing over to Batson. In the end there was little to choose from between the two with the lead Batson side boat of Simon Dobson rounding Crossways just ahead of Billy Jago who had tacked up the Portlemouth side. These two were closely followed by Ed Stephens and Julian Meek.
Positions were turned inside out in the calm patch with Geoff Allen gliding through to take the lead, albeit briefly, before Stephens, Meek and Dobson broke away whilst the luckless Jago remained becalmed and could only watch as the leaders disappeared towards Gerston. Stephens showed some excellent downwind speed to sail away to victory whilst Dobson made an error at the final mark to hand second place to Meek.
In the Salcombe Yawls the Modern boat of Andy and Liz Savell lead the fleet home but on corrected time the Classic fleet boats of Jon and Clare Lewis and Stephen Galvin and Andrew Wood did just enough to prevail in what was an extremely tight race. The first four Yawls finished within 20 seconds of each other on corrected time after over an hour and a half of racing!
Race 1 Results:
Cadets
1st Tera Pro, Ben Meek
Medium Handicap
1st Firefly, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd Laser Radial, Esther McLarty
3rd Laser Radial, Andrew Groves
Fast Handicap
1st Phantom, Alistair Morley
2nd Phantom, Paul Ellis
3rd Phantom, Ian Stewart
Solo
1st Ed Stephens
2nd Julian Meek
3rd Simon Dobson
Yawl
1st Jon and Clare Lewis
2nd Stephen Galvin and Andrew Wood
3rd Andy and Liz Savell