Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Rocket Week at Salcombe Yacht Club - Day 6

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 6 © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 6 © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

The final day brought cloud and a gradient WSW force 2 but with the hope of more later in the day.

Red v Black flights. Course 1,3,1,7,1,3

With only a 2.1 metre Neap Tide, the main challenge was reading where the pressure was. On the town side there was more pressure but dead on the nose, whereas on the Portlemouth side there was a big left hander but less wind. Ultimately, it proved a dead heat with Paul and Ben Hollis coming in from the right to round just ahead of Christian and Rob who had played the left.

On the run down to Crossways, Chris Martin and Ben Hendon came through to take the lead which they held all the way up to Blackstone to just lose out to William Warren (who had recruited, heavily hung over, champion crew, son Alex for the day).

On the long run down to Gerston, Simon and Ali held a lower line in pressure to get inside the leaders at Snapes Point and took the lead. However they were passed by Jenn and Chris Dodds, who led coming out of the Bag.They took the Batson side to keep ahead of Will and Alex, but Simon and Ali crossed to Ditch End and took a comfortable lead to take the bullett. Christian and Rob secured another solid fourth. Chris and Ben held on for a top result in fifth ahead of Jon Gorringe and Ben George.

In the overall battle for the top three, Simon and Ali have eleven points. Chris Gould and Chris Kilsby will go head to head with Will and Mary Henderson, both needed top two placings to beat Simon and Ali.

Blue v Green flights. Course 1,4,1,6,5,7

With the sun coming out and a building WSW breeze, sailed over the top of the tide, this was probably the best conditions of the week. The fleet got away cleanly spread across the width of the harbour. After a tight first beat, the leading bunch down the long run to Yalton included Oli Turner and Sam Mottershead, Chris Jennings and Pete Horn, Roger and Jane Gilbert, and Si Blake and Pippa Taylor.

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 6 - photo © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

Oli and Sam led the race for most of the tour of the harbour, enjoying the great racing but the chasing pack were never far behind. As often happens at Salcombe the final beat to the line had enough going on to juggle the results. Roger and Jane called the shots perfectly to come through and beat Chris and Pete by a nose from Si and Pippa. Oli and Sam fell to fourth in a week which has been very tough to them. Phil Dalby and Fran Gifford matched their first race fifth with a strong finish. Of the contenders for second overall, Will and Mary in sixth and the Chrises in seventh fell out of the overall podium positions.

Sharps Doom Bar Merlin Week day 6 - photo © John Murrell / Moor2Sea Event Photography

So ended another great week. A very big thanks to all the SYC members who gave of their personal time to organize the racing and keep us fed and watered.

Overall Results: