Merlin Rocket Salcombe Week - Day 4
by Tim Fells 12 Jul 2012 08:04 BST
8-13 July 2012
So far this week Salcombe is doing its normal trick of confounding the weather forecasters. The morning saw broken cloud and a very gusty 15-20 knots while the afternoon was a glorious sunny sail in similar westerly breeze.
Day 4 Morning – Red versus Green flights
Fresh from their win the previous afternoon, Jon Gorringe/Toby Lewis nailed the start and first beat up the Portlemouth shore to Blackstone to take a good lead. Taxi/Ellie Bremmer gave chase and by the bottom of the second run were vying for the lead. On the next beat disaster struck Jon and Toby as their main halyard broke putting them out of the race.
The race team had again set a tour of the harbour (1,3,1,4,1,6,5,8) and while Taxi/Ellie were never seriously challenged, David Hayes/Jonnie Radcliffe came through for a strong second ahead of the very consistent Mike Calvert/Ian Garwood. Will Rainey won the battle of the senior teams to take fourth ahead of Dan Alsop/Jennie King.
Overnight leaders Tim Fells/Chris Downham had a disaster, capsizing while running third and with a catalogue of breakages struggled home in tenth.
Day 4 Afternoon – Blue versus Black flights
Sailed in glamorous conditions with some exciting gusts through the town the race officer set another spectator friendly course (1,3,1,3,1,7,5,7).
Dave Winder/Pippa Taylor sailed an excellent first beat to take the lead on the run down the Portlemouth shore with some fast planing conditions. Behind them Simon Potts/Holly Scott, Tom Stewart/Steve Hall and Matt Biggs/Ben Hollis exchanged jybes as the gusts came through.
Missing in action on the first run were Simon Blake/Alex Jackson who broke a pole on the Superfast Jellyfish during a capsize and returned to the beach.
Dave/Pippa continued to dominate and came home comfortably in the lead for their second bullet of the week. Tom/Steve got the better of the battle for second and were followed in by Matt/Ben and Simon/Holly.
The forecast for Thursday is wet and windy, particularly in the afternoon.
Overall, Dave and Pippa have taken the lead with 1,1,2,5, putting them a point ahead of Taxi and Ellie with 1,1,3,5. Tom and Steve are third with 1,2,3.5,4 and Mike and Ian fourth with 1,2,3,5. So with only 2 points covering the top four, Big Thursday could be a key turning point in the week.
Results so far