Salcombe Yacht Club Bucket and Spade Series - Races 4 and 5

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea © Christine Sworder

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea © Christine Sworder

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea © Christine Sworder

Salcombe Yacht Club dinghy racers traditionally migrate to the open sea for the August Bank Holiday Weekend, which also marks the end of the Bucket and Spade Series. This initiative came about when the Harbour Master expressed concerns over a fleet of Salcombe Yawls plying their way through the beaches on the busiest weekend of the year.

David Greening the Race Officer ably assisted by Gail Bridger and a team of rescue crew set a Windward Leeward course between Gara Rock and Starehole Bay into a Westerly Force 3 breeze.

Full marks to the three Cadets who made it to the starting area and who completed both races; Gus Howells in the RS Quba showed the way around, however the Toppers of Louis Tollins and Dom Holt Wilson doggedly hung on.

Nineteen Handicap boats came to the line, with the fleet splitting between an inshore and an offshore route. With weeks of training for this event Graham and Fiona Cranford-Smith's Merlin Rocket was much to the fore, however the ever-keen Peter Ballantine held on to their coat-tails sufficiently to secure the handicap win, with the diminutive Adrian Griffin securing third place alongside the 505 of Peter Colclough and Pete Bennett.

For the second Handicap fleet race, the Cranford-Smiths were victorious, displacing Ballantine into second place, and the 505 of Colclough and Bennett was sufficiently clear to take third place.

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea - photo © Christine Sworder

Six Salcombe Yawls completed the starting sequence, with Dan Bridger and Andrew Stirling taking control of both races from the Whitehouses and the Classic Yawl of Dobson, who demonstrated that - despite the Race Officers attempts to protect the Salcombe Gin RIB - it was still possible to start on starboard in the second race!

Thanks go to Salcombe Gin, who kindly lent their magnificent RIB as a committee boat, sadly with none of the sponsor's products on board!

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea - photo © Christine Sworder

Cadet Handicap:

1st RS Quba 4 Gus Howells
2nd Topper 48171 Dom Holt Wilson
3rd Topper 48172 Louis Tollins

Handicap:

1st Laser 166501 Peter Ballantine
2nd Solo 5598 Billy Jago
3rd Solo 5601 Simon Yates

Salcombe Yawl:

1st Yawl 171 Mike and Karen Whitehouse
2nd Yawl 170 Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman
3rd Yawl 112 Simon Dobson and Indra Tasson

Salcombe YC's Bucket and Spade series goes out to sea - photo © Christine Sworder