Autumn Series, Race 7. Solo Report.

Published 19:14 on 16 Oct 2023

Saturday saw the seventh and final race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series with yet another bumper turnout of eighteen Solo sailors coming to the start line.  Race officer Simon Ballantine set a course with two laps between Crossways and Gerston providing solid beating and running in the upper reaches of the harbour, followed by the nerve wracking possibility of the leaders throwing away their hard earns positions when returning to the finish in the harbour in a north westerly.

The building flood tide saw most of the fleet bearing down at the start to get back behind the line, with early starters including Tim Law and Will Henderson having to restart under the individual recall signal.

David Greening and James Greenhill were first to get away from the starting area, but by Snapes had been overhauled by Chris Cleaves, Simon Yates and Simon Dobson, this group forming the leading cohort on the windy beat to Gerston, where Cleaves pulled out into a comfortable lead.

On the downwind legs, Tim Law, having made a remarkable recovery, and Tim Fells worked their way into the leading pack.

Returning to the harbour the wind became increasingly unstable, and with the Race Officer delaying shortening until after the leaders had rounded the Mill Bay mark, required careful navigation around anglers lines in order to escape the tide.

On the very shifty beat back to the finish Cleaves should have had the race in the bag, however a hole in the wind and and a loss of traction, allowed Law to pull through from below him to take the win from Cleaves, followed by Dobson and Fells.

This gave Cleaves the Autumn series from Fells and Dobson.  Worth noting that eighteen competitors did enough races to qualify for the series, with a total of twenty nine boats racing.

~ By David Greening.