Sharps Doom Bar Salcombe Merlin Rocket Week - Day 3

Same old, same old... glorious summer morning, another light sea breeze

Race 4 – Green v Blue flights. SW Force 2. HW 11.51. Course 1,5,4,2,3,2,3

With a bit of flood tide in their faces the key decision was town side or Portlemouth side – a decision that no Merlin sailor had to make before this week. The old money went with the traditional Portlemouth side where Dave Winder, Frank Rowsell and William Warren started, while Stu Bithell launched out of the race box end with great pace. It was immediately evident that the town side was the winner with the boats on the Portlemouth side struggling for breeze off Smalls beach.

Stu and Imogen took the lead up the town side and then consolidated their advantage to cross earlier than the Salcombe rule book says and take a good lead into Mill Bay and up the rocks to Blackstone, leading by a good distance from Olly Turner and Alex Warren who had taken a similar route. Rich Adams and Katie Wright rounded third. Second and Third placed overall Simon Blake and Chris Dodds and Dave and Pippa rounded together in sixth and seventh.

Simon and Dave as expected slowly worked their way up the field but it was Olly and Alex who made the big move by catching and taking the lead from Stu and Imogen as they came up through the harbour. Ominously, Simon and Chris were closing fast in their truly Superfast Jellyfish and had the lead by the run back through the town.

They then covered Olly and Alex to take their second win of the week with Dave and Pippa getting the better of Stu and Imogen for third. Maintaining an excellent fifth place all the way round were Dan Willet and Pete Nicholson ahead of the recovering William Warren and Chris Robinson.

Race 5 – Red v Black fleets, SW Force 2-3, Course 1,5,1,3,1,3

At last, a general recall! It has taken 6 races but finally the class has reverted to type. There were many squeaky bottoms waiting for the board of death to appear and much surprise to see only three numbers, none of which were leading contenders.

At the second taking, the fleet got off cleanly from the now old style shortened line. Richard Whitworth and Sarah Bines, overall leaders with two bullets pulled off a good start by the edge of the Fairway together with Tim Fells and Chris Downham and these two led around Blackstone with Jon Gorringe and Toby Lewis close on their heels. As often happens, the leaders ran out of breeze off Mill Bay with the pack bearing down on new pressure behind. Richard and Sarah displayed great composure to escape and gybe across to the town side followed by Matt Biggs and John Hackett. Tim and Chris also escaped to hold third just ahead of Simon Potts and Holly Scott, Alex Jackson and Fran Gifford and Jon and Toby as they ran down through the Bag to Saltstone.

On the return beat with the ebb underneath them Richard and Sarah extended a healthy lead. Meanwhile Tim and Chris were starting to put pressure on Matt and John and got past just before Blackstone for the final time.

However, being Salcombe the race was not over. As Richard and Sarah ran down to Crossways they sat in a hole and the chasing pack came up on new pressure. They just got round in the lead with all four leading boats bow to stern. The short final beat had a lot going on but Richard and Sarah kept their cool to win from Tim and Chris, Simon and Holly in third and Matt and John fourth. Alex and Fran had another good result in fifth.

Full results so far can be found here.