Salcombe Yacht Club Summer Series Race 4
by Malcolm Mackley 14 Jul 2014 08:39 BST
12 July 2014
Whilst the Salcombe Yacht Club and town itself were recovering from an amazing Merlin Rocket week, fifty club boats competed for the Summer series race 4. Race officer Roger Tushingham set a classic estuary course maintaining the previous week precedent for Solos and faster boats of going big with yet another monster length race. A force 2 wind was coming down the estuary and this, combined with an incoming tide resulted in a challenging shore hugging windward first leg to mark 1, Blackstone.
In the junior handicap Evie Booth showed the fleet how it should be done in one of the smallest boats in the club. Evie is now sailing the RS Tera with great panache and was a deserved overall winner of her fleet.
In the medium handicap there was a Laser class sandwich 1st and 3rd with the Streaker of Chris Booth in the middle. The fast handicap was once again won by the white hulled Merlin Rocket of Peter Cook and Jenat Exelby with Peter Colclough in his RS400 providing the sandwich between another Merlin of Fiona and Graham Cranford Smith.
In the Solo fleet Malcolm Mackley in Mr Blue Sky made a blinding start but after that; instant weeding, a capsize and disastrous course decisions took him to the back of the fleet. Simon Gibbons established early control of the race only to make a mid race mistake by tacking up the Salcombe side of the shore on the second round to Blackstone. This allowed Ed Stephens to lead for a short time, however Simon finally worked his way back to his now customary first place.
In the Yawl Fleet, Dan Bridger, who was one of the race officers for the previous Merlin Week, lost his bearings at the start and was well over the line and had to return to restart correctly. This left Frank and Charlotte Rowsell to lead away; however subsequently with Dan's radar now fully operational, he worked his way through the fleet to take the winning position.
Results
Junior Handicap:
1st RS Tera Pro, 2147 Evie Booth
2nd Topper 46711, Ali Hattersley
3rd Topper 46704, Max Pearce
Medium Handicap:
1st Laser 154646, Tom Morris
2nd Streaker 1869, Chris Booth
3rd Laser Radial 176294, Sam Lloyd
Fast Handicap:
1st Merlin Rocket 3616, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby
2nd RS400 1329, Peter Colclough and anon
3rd Merlin Rocket 3698, Graham and Fiona Cranford Smith
Solo:
1st 5428, Simon Gibbons
2nd 5295, Chris Cleaves
3rd 5194, Ed Stevens
Salcombe Yawls:
1st 159, Dan Bridger and David Jayne
2nd 184, Frank and Charlotte Rowsell
3rd 98, Hywell Bowen-Perkins and Richard Morris
www.salcombeyc.org.uk