Salcombe Yawl, Solo & Laser Open at Salcombe Yacht Club

24th - 26th May 2003

Over the Bank holiday weekend, Salcombe YC hosted its second major open meeting of the 2003 season when it hosted 19 Solos, 3 Lasers and 42 Salcombe Yawl the latter sailing in two fleets and sponsored again this year by The Salcombe Clothing Company.

In race 1 on Saturday afternoon the Solo's were led home Godfrey Clark in 4120 after long-time leader Chris Cleaves in 4409 got tangled up in Salcombe's notorious 'washing machine' wind effect and by the time he had been well and truly rinsed he was back in about sixth place, a masterful recovery saw him race back to third behind Harold Cranch in 4063. The Yawl Red fleet was won in style by Jon Alsop and Peter Howard in Yawl 160 with Paul and Susie Ellis (Y157) second and Ian and Sophie McCormick (Y178) third. The lasers were lead home by Sophie Cannon. Barney Greenhill (Y138) won the Yawl Blue fleet from David Townend (Y126).

Race 2 on Sunday morning saw Simon Gibbens in Y167 lead the Yawl red fleet home with Alsop snapping at his transom. In the Yawl Blue fleet David Townend did a horizon job on the fleet, finishing nearly five minutes ahead of second boat Mike Hicks (Y105) with class chairman Barney Greenhill a further three minutes away!

With a high tide and plenty of wind, a long distance race around all corners of the Estuary was set for race 3. Both the Solo and Yawl Red fleets were over eager on the starts and general recalls resulted with the race officer implementing a 20% penalty for the restarts, unsurprisingly this brought the fleets into line! With strong gusts hitting the fleets on the way out to Blackstone, the Yawl Blue fleet had an identity crisis and a number of boats lost their mizzen masts making the fleet look more like Dayboats than Yawls! Townend again lead into the distance only for his boom to explode in a particularly spiteful gust! The reach back through Widegates from the Kingsbridge end of the estuary was especially fast and the leading boats finished the race in under an hour and a half! Hicks, crewed by owner Martin Brett took the Blue Fleet race with Alsop the Red Fleet, Cleaves the Solo's and Daniel Jacobs the Lasers.

The final race on Monday morning started at low tide and a course to seaward at Blackstone then a loop at Gerston and Saltstone gave more enjoyable conditions for the competitors. The Lasers race was won by Jacobs with Cannon very close. The Solo's, all finishing within ten minutes, were shown 'how to do it' by Keri Harris sailing a borrowed boat, with Cleaves second and Cranch third. The Yawl red fleet was won on the water by Graham Pike in Y154, however realising an earlier infringement, he retired after finishing allowing Gibbens to take the race from Will and Mandy Henderson in Y168. In a similar fashion the Blue fleet's on the water victor retired after finishing handing the race and the meeting to Greenhill!

Overall Results: