Salcombe Yacht Club Spring Series - Race 4
by Graham Cranford-Smith 31 Mar 06:16 PDT
29 March 2025
Teams were confronted with a briskly flooding tide and a solid but gusty 15 knot breeze on this fine day. Much like handicap racing across the UK, Salcombe relies on trusty club stalwarts for weekly handicap attendance.
Guesting on the front of a Merlin for the first time in two years we had Fiona Cranford Smith with Graham Cranford Smith at the back. This team faced off John and Katy Meadowcroft, who made up the Merlin contingent.
Ownership of a Merlin, Solo and Salcombe Yawl is known locally as The Golden Triumvirate since these are the most widely raced classes on the Ria. Several hopeless cases, with a profound boat habit, qualify for The Golden Triumvirate, including AJ Squire.
AJ, having never knowingly sold a boat in his long sailing career, owns several examples of each of the above, plus a coterie of National 12s. He also has a very nice Albacore which he chose to deploy on this day, crewed by his son-in-law, Simon Evans.
We were also blessed with multiple world 505 champion, Peter Colclough ably crewed by Alister Morley. Peter was sighted the preceding Friday dangling his 505 from a boat hoist; something to do with the centreboard apparently. Not for him turning the boat on its side.
As a first harbinger of Spring, Simon Dawes had cracked out his Yawl now resplendent with a new paint job and a patent jib stick thingy.
I digress. The race. This day we were tasked with rounding Blackstone and thence to Gerston followed by two laps of the harbour. The start was brisk and the Merlin pair battled up the beach side, with Meds just edging the Cranford Smiths by Blackstone. Of Peter C on the start line, there was no sign. Centreboard trouble probably.
We all enjoyed a fabulous planning run/reach to Gerston with Team Meds building a handy lead. This they compromised by running aground thrice, when close tacking back to Blackstone. On the ensuing run the Cranford Smiths picked up a largish gust, gaining nicely. On the second beat to Smalls, Meds chose the Town side. Enough of this running aground malarkey. Though deeper, this was definitely not faster and the Cranford Smiths edged into a small lead.
Meds then found that a 4mm control line wedged into his mainsheet jammer is an ongoing sub-optimal style scenario and capsized. Simply appalling bad luck.
On corrected, the CSs, won from AJ and Simon. Team Meds 3rd. Peter and Alister in the Five-oh, fourth. Simon Dawes in the Yawl, probably won on corrected, but had transgressed the fairway pre-start. He wont do that again.
Greg Hoar won the Short race handicap of a quartet of Lasers from Christian Day and Emily Hoar.