Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series - Race 5
by Lucy Burn & David Greening 18 Dec 2022 19:34 GMT
17 December 2022
Handicap Race (by Lucy Burn)
Probably the best conditions all series presented themselves to the sailors for the final race of the Fast Handicap Winter Series.
John Burn in his Laser had a flying start but soon had Will and Rob Henderson in their Lark for company as they made their way up the first beat.
The Hendersons reached the Blackstone mark first but the small fleet of mixed boats remained pretty much together for the long downwind leg all the way to Mark 7.
The lead on the water changed multiple times on the beat back from 7 between Olly Alexander in his Phantom, AJ and Tris Squire in the Albacore and the Henderson Lark.
Olly managed to cross the line first but with the fleet all finishing with in around 2 minutes of each other he was regulated to 5th on corrected time.
Will and Rob finished 1st in the Lark just two seconds ahead of John in the Laser with Mike Hoyle and Edward Alexander claiming third in the N12.
Notching up another 1st place meant that in the end Will and Rob took the overall series win with some ease.
Thank you to Dan Bridger and the team for running Saturday's race.
Solo Race (by David Greening)
A shifty breeze out of the southern quadrant over a flooding neap tide gave twelve Solo sailors some strategic decisions in the final race of the Winder series.
Tim Fells picked up some useful breeze and good shifts on the less popular East Portlemouth end of the starting line to lead from Tim Law at the Blackstone mark.
The rest of the fleet arrived at much the same time allowing Fells to slip away sailing an optimum course while the pursuers fought amongst themselves, with Chris Cleaves securing inside berth at the leeward mark at Gerston.
Graham Cranford-Smith, having found wind on the right hand bank on the downwind leg, found more of the same on the beat back to sail through to leeward of the pack, whilst those who tacked over to the windward bank lost out.
Upon returning to the harbour, Tim Fells cruised to a comfortable win over a shortened course. There was a fight for the remaining podium places, with Tim Law driving out from under the pack to secure a very close second from Simon Dobson, following Graham Cranford Smith's slide from the podium.
Chris Cleaves had an unusually inauspicious race, however it didn't really matter since he had already won the series.