Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series - Race 2
by David Greening 12 Sep 2017 13:23 BST
9 September 2017
A small but select fleet of Salcombe Yawls gathered for the Sabre Insurance Services sponsored September Open Meeting; many of the regulars were put off by the gales forecast to arrive on Sunday so in anticipation the Race Committee revised the Notice of Race to run two races on Saturday, both to count.
A unified fleet of modern and classic Salcombe Yawls took to the start line, and despite the North Westerly gradient wind, race officer Peter Hammond succeeded in setting a beat to Blackstone, on the spring ebb tide.
Paul Ellis and Peter Cook got inside of the bend at Woodcott to take a decisive lead from Graham and Tessa Pike, while the pursuing fleet fought for the remaining podium spot. The trip to Yalton was uneventful, whilst the spit at Frogmore caught many unawares and required some precision sailing to keep afloat. David Greening and Steve Galvin secured third place on the water, but on the return to the harbour, were not far enough ahead of the classic yawl of Andrew Woods and Tim Pettit who took third place on handicap.
Whilst the competitors ate their lunch, the wind in the harbour all but disappeared, so the fleet was sent to the less sheltered upper reaches of the harbour, which by this time consisted mainly of mud flats, followed by a short leg around the Millbay mark to provide a windward finish.
Greening and Galvin were first into the Bag, and consolidated a hundred yard lead on the fast reaches across Widegates, with the Pikes and the Brummies' in pursuit; but racing in Salcombe on a North Westerly is never over until the Fat Lady sings or in this case a Piper playing a lament standing on the bow of the Lifeboat leading a Wedding Party of powerboats through the finish line; Greening and Galvin having had to tack to keep clear, allowed the Pikes through to take the win and the open.
Club racing started early, on Saturday afternoon, and given the at there is precedent, the laggards in the Solo fleet should have known better than to have turned up on time, so nine starters, were joined by a chasing pack of the three who had started at the advertised time.
Graham Cranford-Smith led the pack around Crossways and drew out an impressive lead from Simon Dobson and Chris Cleaves. Simon uncharacteristically hit the Gerston mark and dropped to sixth whilst completing his turn, but recovered to second in the melee of the Harbour, with Julian Meek taking third place.
Race 2 Results:
Junior Handicap
1st RS Tera Sport 2741, James Alexander
Medium Handicap
1st Laser Radial 181676, Ester McLarty
2nd Aero 7 1809, Paul Ingham
3rd RS Feva XL 4186, Andrew Groves and Lewis Groves
Fast Handicap
1st Phantom 1452, Ian Stewart
2nd National 12 3480, Norman and Karen Brown
Solo
1st 5755, Graham Cranford Smith
2nd 5676, Simon Dobson
3rd 5757, Julian Meek
Salcombe Yawl
1st 154, Graham and Tessa Pike
2nd 181, Paul Ellis and Peter Cook
3rd 97, Andrew Wood and Tim Petit