Salcombe Town Regatta Dinghy Racing 2025

Published 14:31 on 18 Aug 2025

The dinghy racing in Town Regatta Week emphasises the fun side of racing with four days of fleet races followed by a fancy dress Pursuit Race. For those not familiar with the format, starting times in a Pursuit race are staggered to take account of the speed of different types of boat and the boat that is leading when the finishing canon is fired after 100 minutes is declared the winner!

Although the Salcombe Yacht Club lends its facilities and race management volunteers to organise the event, all proceeds from entry fees go directly to the Salcombe Town Regatta and the local charities it supports. Generous sponsorship from headline sponsors Salcombe Rigging, as well as Yeoward Boatyards and Salcombe Brewery means that the costs of running the event are fully met by them, allowing more funds to flow through to the Town Regatta.

70 boats enjoyed a varied week of sailing conditions, great sailing breezes at the beginning and end of the week with some light and variable winds accompanied by strong spring tides to test the mettle of competitors in the middle of the week.

In the single hander fleets, Mike Hodges hit a rich vein of form to win the Solos with 3 firsts, Mark Fryer proved unbeatable in the ILCA 6s (formerly known as Laser Radials) whilst Ivy Hart was similarly impressive with a clean sweep in the ICLA 4s (formerly Laser 4.7s).

The Fast Handicap fleet saw different winners in each of the 4 races, but the Wayfarer of Geoffrey and Louise Ball were the most consistent across the series, never finishing outside the top two.

Salcombe Yawls provided the largest class, 35 boats in total divided between Red (modern) and Blue (classic) fleets. The Red fleet came down to a final day showdown between John and Frankie Burn in Guillemot and Robin Hodges and Fran Gifford in Pas Encore. Penalty turns on the final leg by John and Frankie looked to have gifted victory to Robin and Fran but, as they say of sailing in Salcombe, its never over until its over and with less than 100 yards to go, John and Frankie just managed to sneak through to take a final day race win and with it the title.

The Blue fleet was a four-way battle between Will and Mandy Henderson in Bantam, Paul Ellis and Stephen Page in Black Betty, Mike Knowles and Nicola Bass in Kingfisher and Dan and Gail Bridger in Sandpiper. These four shared a race win each over the four days but it was the Hendersons who proved most consistent, winning by a single point from Black Betty with Kingfisher in third and Sandpiper fourth.

In the Junior fleets, Henry Gage and Josh Brewer in their RS Feva XL edged out Lexi Wilson in her Topper whilst the Family Fleet of parents/grandparents sailing with kids/grandkids was won by Phil, Charlie and Sammy Dalby in a Comet Versa.

And so to the final day and the Pursuit Races. In the Adult Race, Paul Ellis and Stephen Page took victory and gained some measure of revenge on the Hendersons whilst in the Junior Race, a couple of bananas, numerous pirates, a shark and a musketeer went into battle. The Mirror of Tim Fells and Theo Peacock just edged out the RS Feva of Henry and Josh in the final few metres.