Salcombe Yacht Club Spring Series - Race 5

With forty Merlin Rockets arriving for an open meeting, twenty five local Solos and a sixteen strong Handicap fleet, there was plenty to keep the race team busy.

The Solos included four new boats, and made for a most competitive start on Saturday afternoon, with the usual suspects getting away first. Tim Law sailing his new Winder boat benefited from a useful starboard lift to round the Blackstone Mark in the lead, and may well have been able to build on this, had he not found that there was no longer a gap in the pontoons off Tosnos Point. This allowed Bill Jago, in another new Winder, to round Gerston ahead of the new Beer boat of Chris Cleaves.

However Tim managed to make a good recovery, playing the shifts better than Cleaves to secure second spot.

In the Handicap Fleet, the course and conditions played into the hands of Alistair Morley, having swapped his Musto Skiff for a Phantom, and despite being theoretically slower than the Merlin Rocket of Peter Cook and Janet Exelby, managed to take line honours, following a speedy tight reach through the Bag. Third place went to Charlie Blazeby in his Laser Radial, having returned from the recent Youth Nationals at Weymouth.

Solo results:

1st 5598, Bill Jago
2nd 5315, Tim Law
3rd 5573, Chris Cleaves

Handicap results:

1st Phantom, 1357, Alistair Morley
2nd Merlin Rocket, 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
3rd Laser Radial, 203307, Charlie Blazeby