Autumn Series, Race 6 - Solo Report

Published 12:04 on 11 Oct 2026

In anticipation of the forthcoming Solo open meeting, twelve sailors came to the starting line for the sixth race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series.  

Little of the twenty knot West North Westerly breeze reached the starting area and, in the run, up to the start, what little breeze that there was, came from many directions.

Race Officer Malcolm Squire wisely elected to start the fleet downwind, sending the competitors into the Bag on the flood spring tide to find the best wind.

David Greening was first to find the wind coming out of Batson to drive over the fleet to lead into the Bag, with Will Henderson and Simon Ballantine in close pursuit, with Greening leading Henderson followed by Ballantine around the Gerston mark.

The lighter sailors revelled in the fast broad reach back to the Bag, with Henderson and Ballantine planing past Greening, and Simon Dobson joining the back of the group, rounding Crossways in that order.

On a long beat back to Gerston, Greening ground over Ballantine, whilst Henderson led around the mark.  There followed a tighter reach along the windward shore.  As the leading bunch played cat and mouse through the moorings and pontoons along the western shore of the Bag, Simon Yates and Tim Fells led a splinter group to the eastern shore, these picked up the newer breeze in the harbour first, whilst the leaders were stacked up under Snapes Point searching for wind.

As expected, the hour of high speed sailing in the upper reaches were not to have any great impact on the final result.  On the penultimate led to the Millbay mark, the fleet compressed off Smalls Cove, with the backmarkers running down on breeze from the northern quadrant, whilst the front of the fleet grappled with finding breeze from the south, all against the escalator that was the now full flowing flood tide.

The Millbay mark proved tantalisingly close, the required tactic was to overstand the mark, then find enough breeze to cross the tide to the mark, then successfully complete a port rounding without being swept backwards away from the mark.  Will Henderson, Tim Fells and Simon Dobson proved most adept at this and were then swept down by the flood tide to complete the race in that order.

Meanwhile the rest of the fleet had many attempts to get around the final mark, arriving at the Boat park, long after the leaders were packed up and several pints down on the Yacht Club terrace. 

 By David Greening | Photos L. Burn