Salcombe Yacht Club Summer Series - Race 4

With light breezes emerging from most aspects of the southerly quadrant, Race Officer Tim Fells set a conservative course within Salcombe Harbour for the dinghy racers participating in the fourth race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Summer Series on 29th June.

With a flood tide, and wind shadow beneath the Salcombe shore, all of the racers chose to start and beat up the Salcombe shore to Blackstone, followed by a shortened course between Crossways and Millbay.

In the Junior Handicap it was great to see Issy Wood produce a very competent performance to finish over ten minutes ahead of the Tera Sport of Edward Alexander, who did well to finish second in the smallest boat and in challenging conditions.

Simon Ballantine continued his domination of the Medium Handicap fleet in his Aero 7, leading off the start line, on the water and on corrected time, with the Laser Radial of George Alexander just beating the Feva of the Groves into second place.

In the Fast Handicap, and in the absence of Alistair Morley, Phantom sailor Chris Cleaves led off the starting line, though was eventually overtaken on the water by the Merlin Rocket of AJ and Tris Squire, however Cleaves prevailed on corrected time.

In the twelve strong Solo fleet, David Greening led off the line on the Portlemouth shore, only to sail himself out of wind in Millbay, allowing Simon Gibbens to build up a healthy lead on the beat out to Blackstone. After some tight racing between Greening, Simon Dobson and Peter Sturgess for the minor places, Dobson prevailed on the beat back from Crossways moving into second place at Ditch End, with Greening just holding off Sturgess to the finish.

With summer approaching, nine Salcombe Yawls took to the water, a testament to the skills of orthopaedic surgery. The Modern Yawls of Geoff Gilson sailing with Chris Spencer Chapman and Graham and Tessa Pike led the beats, but neither of these boats built up a sufficient lead to prevent the Classic Yawls of Barney and Juanita Greenhill taking the win from Andrew Wood and Richard Morris.

Race 4 Results:

Cadet Handicap
1st Topper 48168, Issy Wood
2nd RS Tera Sport 2136, Edward Alexander
3rd Topper 48170, James Redman

Medium Handicap
1st RS Aero 7 1746, Simon Ballantine
2nd Laser Radial 181454, George Alexander
3rd RS Feva XL 4640, Andrew and Lewis Groves

Fast Handicap
1st Phantom 1306, Chris Cleaves
2nd Merlin Rocket 3725, AJ and Tris Squire
3rd National 12 3524, Charlie and Helen Lloyd

Solo
1st 5428, Simon Gibbens
2nd 5676, Simon Dobson
3rd 5792, David Greening

Yawl
1st 138, Barney and Juanita Greenhill
2nd 140, Andrew Wood and Richard Morris
3rd 170, Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer Chapman