Salcombe Yacht Club Sailing Club Series - Race 7
by Simon Dobson 5 Jun 2017 11:03 BST
3 June 2017
Sunshine - momentarily interrupted by a brief rain squall - and a fresh sea breeze provided excellent conditions for the final, and in several cases deciding, race in the Salcombe Yacht Club Sailing Club Series.
A full tide allowed the Race Officer to send the fleet down Yalton and Frogmore Creeks after the first windward leg to Blackstone, to be followed by a lap of the main estuary up to Blackstone again and back to the Crossways mark. With the wind strengthening to 20 knots in some of the gusts, conditions became quite demanding with thrills, spills and retirements a feature of the afternoon.
With Evie Booth and Ben Meek away competing in a regional event elsewhere, 4 cadets started the race but only the Topper of Thomas Lawson managed to finish in the breezy conditions. In the Sailing Club Series overall, Evie had already secured first place with Ben second. Half term saw students swell the Medium Handicap fleet to 12 boats, 9 of which were Lasers. Charlie Blazeby continued his recent form to take the victory ahead of Toby Rew and his brother Torrin Blazeby. In the Series overall however, the consistency of the Wayfarer of Alex Janzen prevailed as Charlie had not competed in enough races. The Fast Handicap fleet saw 5 starters but only 2 finishers with Alistair Morley winning from the Merlin Rocket of Tristram Squire. Despite retiring from the race, the Merlin Rocket of Peter Cook and Janet Exelby had done enough to win the Series from the Merlin of the Squires.
There were 11 starters in the Solo fleet. David Greening established an early lead which he was to extend and hold to the finish. Behind him Billy Jago and Chris Cleaves fought a close battle all the way round the course which was only finally resolved when Cleaves capsized whilst gybing around the final mark. This dropped Cleaves back to 5th which, combined with Greening's win, promoted Greening to second in the Series behind Simon Dobson with Cleaves in third. 6 Yawls, 4 Classic and 2 Modern, took part in their race. Frank Rowsell sailing the Modern Yawl Spruce Goose was first across the finish line but Saraband, the Classic Yawl of Andrew Wood, finished close enough to take the win on corrected time. Peter Stratton and Carolyn Adcock finished third which was enough to secure victory the Series overall as Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman could only manage 5th in the final race.
Race 7 Results:
Cadets
1st Topper 48170, Thomas Lawson
Medium Handicap
1st Laser Radial 203307, Charlie Blazeby
2nd Laser Radial 180706, Toby Rew
3rd Laser Radial 161391, Torrin Blazeby
Fast Handicap
1st Phantom 1357, Alistair Morley
2nd Merlin Rocket 3621, Tristram and Laura Squire
Solo fleet
1st 5617, David Greening
2nd 5598, Billy Jago
3rd 5601, Simon Yates
Yawl
1st Y97, Andrew Wood
2nd Y177, Frank Rowsell
3rd Y161, Peter Stratton and Carolyn Adcock