Salcombe Yacht Club Sailing Club Series - Race 5
by Simon Dobson 22 May 2017 11:26 BST
20 May 2017
A fresh and gusty south westerly, sunny skies and a full tide saw plenty take part in Race 5 of the Salcombe Yacht Club Sailing Club Series. Over 30 boats competed across the 5 classes with more than half of these in the ever-popular Solo class.
Race Officer Andrew Squire sent the fleets 'around the creeks' first of all, followed by two windward/leeward laps of the main estuary. With the breeze strengthening steadily, topping well over 20 knots by the end of the race, there were plenty of tired limbs and aching muscles by the time the sailors came ashore after nigh on two hours of hard racing.
In the Solo fleet, Chris Cleaves made the best of the wind shifts on the first leg to windward to establish a clear lead rounding Blackstone with Billy Jago second and the rest of the chasing pack closely bunched. On the downwind leg to Yalton Simon Dobson and Graham Cranford Smith took advantage of one of the many gusts to break clear of the rest and close on Jago. The next leg to Gerston saw Dobson sail through to second behind Cleaves, who was maintaining a comfortable lead. On the way back to the harbour some blustery and shifty squalls caused several to go swimming, amongst them Jago and Cranford Smith, allowing David Greening and Bruce Hattersley to emerge from the pack. Both showed good upwind speed to overtake Dobson by the time they rounded Blackstone only for the positions to be reversed on the downwind leg to Crossways. With Hattersley suffering a broken mainsheet, Greening and Dobson swapped places again before Greening finally secured second behind Cleaves.
In the Cadet fleet, the Toppers of Evie Booth and George Alexander duked it out in a close head to head until Evie got stuck head to wind, allowing George to take a hard-fought victory. In the Medium Handicap fleet, four Aeros and the Laser Radial of Charlie Blazeby took part and it quickly developed in to a battle between the Laser and the Aero of Tim Fells. By the finish, Fells had established enough of a lead on the water to win on corrected time with the Aero of Paul Ingham taking third. In the Fast Handicap fleet, John McLaren in his Phantom pulled away from the Merlin Rocket of Simon and Laura Evans to take a comfortable win. In the Yawl fleet, Geoff Gilson lead in his modern fleet yawl but Andrew Wood and Andrew Savell chased him hard in their classic fleet boats and finished close enough to beat Gilson on corrected time.
Race 5 Results:
Cadets
1st Topper 48171, George Alexander
2nd Topper 48169, Evie Booth
Medium Handicap
1st Aero 1505, Tim Fells
2nd Laser Radial 203307, Charlie Blazeby
3rd Aero 1809, Paul Ingham
Fast Handicap
1st Phantom 1437, John McLaren
2nd Merlin Rocket 3621, Simon and Laura Evans
Solo fleet
1st 5573, Chris Cleaves
2nd 5617, David Greening
3rd 5676, Simon Dobson
Yawl
1st Y97, Andrew Wood
2nd Y140, Andrew and Elisabeth Savell
3rd Y170, Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman