Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series Race 3

The Yawl fleet convened in numbers for their final open meeting of the year. Unfortunately this coincided with a complex high pressure system over the UK centred on Salcombe. This forced a postponement of their racing for the Saturday morning start owing to lack of wind.

However by 14:00 enough hot air had been expended by the assembled sailors for a southerly breeze to appear in the main estuary in time for the Solo race. Upper reaches remained calm so Tim Law race officer set a three lap race between Snapes and Blackstone: effectively a windward leeward course in a fairly decent force 2. ‎Rather nice.

Turned out there was West in the breeze so those who started on the Salcombe side fared well. However there existed enough shifts on the way up to Blackstone on the ebbing tide for those who had made a hash of the start, to redeem them.

Chubby Cleaves is lately returned from the Yawl fleet from which he has been expelled. None of us is surprised as he is not very welcome in the Solo fleet either. Even so ordinarily his midas touch would see him in the top two or three at the windward mark. But this day he was edged by Malcolm Bell. Bell is also expelled from the Yawl fleet but is suffering less from the experience.

For the long run to Snapes most of us chose the Portlemouth side while Cleaves and Yates chose the town side to stem the ebb tide. This did not pay.

Heading the fleet was Ed Stephens followed by Graham Cranford Smith and Nigel Blazeby. In the hunt too, James Hannaford the youngest sailor in this demographic by at least forty years.

By the leeward mark Stephens had extended a handy lead which began to look invincible. Looking for a ladder in this world of snakes remained ‎Hannaford and Cranford Smith.

In this kind of light breeze, upwind, the Solo rig deserves attention. Slight over sheeting will lead to a stalled sail. The attentive Solo helm will ensure the sail is never over sheeted to make sure the boat stays in the groove. By the same token, ‎maybe two clicks of the main sheet ratchet is the difference between hero and zero if a puff hits. ‎One of life's great satisfactions is getting this right.

By the second lap Cranford Smith engaged both brain and shifts to take a fairly decent lead at the second rounding. ‎Weed robbed Stephens of a much needed edge, or so we are told.

And all the time Hannaford remained in play sailing like a pro.

‎The long run back was less than exciting. Adrenalin still flows but outlet for it, there is none. Hannaford prevailed. He sailed high above the Yawl racing the same course. By the bottom mark he had claimed a thirty metre lead which was enough to obtain victory from Cranford Smith and Stephens.

Race 3 Results:

Junior Handicap
1st RS Tera Sport, Ben Meek
2nd RS Feva XL
3rd RS Tera Pro 2146, Evie Booth

Medium Handicap
1st Laser Radial 203307, Charlie Blazeby
2nd RS Aero 7 1517, Claire Booth

Fast Handicap
1st Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd National 12 3526, Christian and Sophie Day
3rd National 12 3534, Charlie and Helen Lloyd

Solo
1st 5316, James Hannaford
2nd 5444, Graham Cranford-Smith
3rd 5194, Ed Stephens

Bart's Bash Race

Sunday afternoon saw thirty seven boats assemble for the Salcombe Yacht Club leg of Bart's Bash a now annual fund raising event in memory of the late Andrew "Bart" Simpson. There was a plethora of boats on a crowded start, notable for an excellent turn out from the Junior section of the club, some interesting helm and crew swaps, and was packed out with Salcombe Yawls where the first two laps formed part of their Open Meeting.

Graham and Fiona Cranford-Smith made a fast getaway from the start line, and benefited from a surfeit of sail area to get away from the Salcombe Yawls. Notable was the performance of Freddie Smithers sailing with his father John, who led for most of the race, only to be pipped by a bowsprit by the Modern Yawl of Michael Webster and Peter Brewer.

In the final counting, Freddie and John took the Handicap win from the Cranford-Smiths, with the much slower Mirror of Martin and Tom Ley securing third place.

Bart's Bash Race Results:

1st Salcombe Yawl 19 Freddie and John Smithers
2nd Merlin Rocket 3769 Graham and Fiona Cranford-Smith
3rd Mirror 70390 Martin and Tom Ley