Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Rocket Week at Salcombe Yacht Club - Day 5

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 5 © Malcolm Mackley

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 5 © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

Thursday dawned bright and sunny with clouds starting to build up and the suggestion a sea breeze would arrive.

Green v Black flights. Course 1,7,3,7,1,3

Like Ian Stewart the day before, PRO Simon Dobson had an unenviable challenge with how to start and finish the race. With the NW gradient still blowing to the north of the line and the first signs of a SW sea breeze to the south, the start was delayed 10 mins in the hope the sea breeze would come in.

At the start, Jon Gorringe, clearly not fancying the conditions, spectacularly positioned himself above the line so as to be OCS. Alex Jackson and Chris Downham also jumped the gun to damage their series.

Up a very light airs first beat, the Portlemouth side was the winner with the town side being horrendous. Local hero Will Henderson demonstrated his experience of the conditions to round Blackstone clear ahead. However, the sea breeze front had moved south and progress back up the harbour was more due to the tide than the wind.

Will and Mary, together with Chris Gould and Chris Kilsby were first to reach the NW gradient and take off for a lap of the Kingsbridge arm of the estuary. Although conditions remained very fickle these two kept their order, with the Chrises making big gains on the town side for an exciting finish.

In the final stages, Roger and Jane Gilbert just got their noses ahead of Simon Potts and Ali Martin to take third, with Caroline Croft and Beka Jones fifth and Paul Rayson and Christian Hill sixth.

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 5 - photo © Malcolm Mackley

Blue v Red flights. Course 1,4,1,Y,1,3

The afternoon race pitted the overall leaders, Taxi and Alex Warren against their nearest competitors, dad William and Mark Oakey, both having 1,1,2 after discard.

On arriving on the race track the conditions looked superb with the sea breeze in and some gusts already causing the odd capsize. However, as the start sequence counted down the breeze began to break up and the first beat became a minefield of gusts with massive shifts.

Navigating this best were Jenn and Chris Dodds who led around Blackstone followed by a tight pack. The long run to Yalton had at least ten boats vying for the lead with the classic Salcombe challenge when running against the tide of when to hug the beach but risk being blanketed and when to head out into the adverse stream to catch new pressure. Demonstrating superlative skills in mastering this test better than anyone else, Taxi and Alex Warren sailed through the fleet to take the lead.

Si Blake and Pippa Taylor picked up the chase and briefly took the lead but Taxi and Alex were not to be beaten and pulled back through to take the gun in what was a long race for the leaders. Behind them there was a ding dong battle between a group of six boats. Tim and Oli managed to get up into third on the final beat to Blackstone but it was Mike and Jane Calvert who kept it together to take the final podium place. Matt Biggs and John Hackett took fourth from Christian Birrell and Rob Gullan, with William Warren and Mark Oakey sixth which was the end of their challenge for the title.

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 5 - photo © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

Overall, Taxi and Alex have done enough to win with a day to spare. Their scorecard of 1,1,1,2,2 is exceptional in such a talented fleet with such variable and challenging conditions.

Results after Day 5: