Salcombe Yacht Club 2021 Summer Series - Race 4
by Graham Cranford Smith 20 Jul 06:56 BST
17 July 2021
Buckets and spades abounded on the beaches plus many large rafted yachts in the Ria.
There were no takers for the juniors this weekend so first away were the Medium handicap where somehow, possibly by ingesting an elixir of youth Andrew Groves saw off the young pretenders of George Alexander and Charles Evans. Their course dictated a long beat to Yalton and a tour of the Ria.
There are good sailors and in the Fast Handicap fleet, very good sailors. Mike Hoyle with various crews proved particularly hard to shake off. He like Tim Fells took the long way round to mark Y en route to Yalton, in slacker tide. That really would have been that but for an inversion of gradient breeze being overtaken by a gathering sea breeze, which never mustered enough guts to get much past the fuel barge. Opportunities existed but your correspondent certainly failed to grasp them.
In the Solos, here again those that favoured a crossing to Snapes and then to Bungalow point faired the best. Billy Jago aced this along with Simon Dobson, and Ed Stephens. This pretty much was the story of the race. Cleaves, known around these parts for his wit and charm, followed Greening home to a well-earned ale or two, shooting what remained of the breeze on the Yacht Club terrace in very relaxed surroundings.
The Yawls raced as part of a training event and enjoyed a simple windward leeward course between Blackstone and Bungalow Point. There is life in the old dogs of Geof Gilson and Chris Spencer-Chapman who won this race in front of prodigious talents like Will Henderson. James and Barney Greenhill were a very respectable third.
Race 4 Results:
Medium Handicap
1st Laser, Andrew Groves
2nd Laser, George Alexander
3rd Charles Evans
Fast Handicap
1st RS Aero 7, Tim Fells
2nd National 12, Mike Hoyle and crew
Solo
1st Billy Jago
2nd Simon Dobson
3rd Ed Stephens