Salcombe Yacht Club May Bank Holiday Racing
by David Greening 6 May 2014 12:06 BST
3-5 May 2014
The May bank holiday was a busy one for Salcombe Yacht Club with three days of very competitive racing for three classes, in addition to the usual club racing. A prevailing South Easterly wind presented conditions where the tactics of Snakes and Ladders applied, with the winners being those who avoided the snakes and found a few ladders.
Salcombe Yawl Open Meeting
Twenty eight Salcombe Yawls took to the water, with 11 boats in the Classic and 17 Modern boats racing.
Racing in the Modern fleet was extremely close with consistency proving the name of the game. Exmouth Sailmaker Frankie Rowsell sailing with his wife Charlotte in his dad's boat Red Rooster opened the series with a first place from Simon Gibbens and Andrew Reed.
Sunday morning saw a highly competitive race, with the key move being made by class stalwart Charles Thompson sailing with Alistair Morley who took the west side of Widegates to emerge in the lead, which they held to the finish line to score their maiden open meeting victory.
In the afternoon Will and Rob Henderson returned to business as usual, by taking Black Tern from last to first in a challenging race out to the Gammon mark, some two miles out of the harbour, against a strong tidal stream, which was to test the patience of many of the competitors.
By Monday morning there was all to play for, with five possible winners should Frankie and Charlotte slip up. Early leaders were Richard Fulford-Smith and Molly Pike, hotly pursued by the Red Rooster. With an early shortening of the course it looked as though Fulford-Smith would take the win, however Rowsell slid past in the closing stages to take the win.
Salcombe Yawl Results:
1st 184, Frankie and Charlotte Rowsell
2nd 179, Richard Fulford-Smith and Molly Pike
3rd 163, Michael Webster and Sue Proudfoot
In the Classic Yawls, there was close racing with John Smithers and Peter Hughes dominating in Heron. Anthony and Allyson Lofts took the Saturday afternoon race, whilst David Jayne sailing with Dan Bridger brought out a beautifully restored Turn to win on Monday, which was enough to secure them third place overall after Anthony and Allyson.
Classic Salcombe Yawl Results:
1st 19, John Smithers and Peter Hughes
2nd 132, Anthony Lofts and Allyson Lofts
3rd 28, David Jayne and Dan Bridger
Gul National 12 Open Meeting
It was great to see 17 National 12's turn out for their Gul sponsored open meeting, an increase on the previous year's turnout. Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne dominated the early racing in the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" taking three races from Tom Stewart and Andrea Ralph, before Tom and Andrea redressed the balance by taking the last race win in what was the windiest race of the weekend.
Special mention should go to Ollie Meadowcroft who, sailing with Sophie Mackley, won the crew's race.
Gul National 12 Open Results:
1st 3530, Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne (Burghfield)
2nd 3544, Tom Stewart and Andrea Ralph (Northampton)
3rd 3540, Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart (Ranelagh)
Laser Grand Prix Open Meeting
The Spring Laser open meeting has been building in numbers and this year 21 Laser sailors of various denominations were competing. The main competition was in the Standard Fleet, which was dominated by two Salcombe Cadet section Alumni Peter Ballantine and Tom Morris who shared the three race wins between them in the light and variable conditions.
Laser Grand Prix Results:
Standard Rig
1st 166501, Peter Ballantine (Salcombe)
2nd 154646, Tom Morris (Salcombe)
3rd 195867, Tim Law (Salcombe)
Radial Rig
1st 202204, Greg Bartlett (Starcross)
4.7 Rig
1st 166592, Brian Tucker (Teign Corinthian)