Spring Series, R7 - Fast Handicap.

Published 13:55 on 19 Apr 2026

Spring is in the air in Salcombe and that means different things for sailors in the fast handicap fleet as they pursue different goals and aspirations.  Its been a barren few weeks with the last three club races all cancelled due to strong winds.  In fact this was the first club race held in April 

For Peter Colclough he is only looking at the 5o5 world championships in Hayling Island this summer.  The 4 time World Champion is campaigning with Alister Morley and they have recently returned from the La Rochelle Euro Cup the scene of his most recent win in 1986.  Dreams are made in Salcombe harbour and Peter and Alister led the fleet round in style.

But the battle for the series was being played out behind.  John Burn and Ross Borne in the Salcombe Yawl needed to score well and beat Fran Gifford and Frankie Burn in the Merlin Rocket, Frankie acutely aware of his conflicts of interest.  And young hotshots Ollie Meadowcroft and Becky Caiger in a Merlin, kindly sponsored by his father, Sheila and AJ Squire, were also planning to disrupt the scores.

But it being spring also meant the emergence of Yawls from the pontoon in the Bag to join the fray.  Six Yawls made their first appearance of the season.  The range of preparedness of these Yawl campaigns is simply stunning.  Graham and Fiona Cranford Smith had launched the immaculate Y172, Chicken Run, that morning, pimped to within an inch of its life in Grahams workshop.   Chris Skelhorns Battlecry, Y186, new on the water last year still glistening with pride after a winter of TLC and resplendent with helm Oliver Turner.  Phil Magee is not sleeping.  With the first Yawl open meeting of the year just two weeks away and the first Mini Series race next Saturday he recalled Tim Fells from his warm weather training programme to take the helm of Y17 and make sure everything was tip top after spending a few weeks in the Stones Boatyard shed over the winter.  

The second Yawl open meeting is not any Open meeting. The prizes are sponsored by Yeti and this is why Phil cant sleep.  He has promised his wife, Roz, one of these aforementioned deluxe cool boxes and as such she was not selected as his crew for the day.   John and Katy Meadowcroft were still screwing things back on to Y175 and showing the hallmark preparedness of the Royal Navy failed to make the start.  Greg and Clare Hoar took a different winter approach tucking Y145 into the garage and forgetting about it.  This was looking good until the boat maintenance list reappeared after an hour of the race and they limped home with a broken rudder downhaul.  Y99 and Y84 seemed to have got the preparation correct and raced round without incident, Y99 no doubt benefiting from sneaky practice the previous weekend.

Back to the race.  Almost.  Burn and Borne are taking a casual approach to the forthcoming Yeti meeting when Borne will step off and no doubt find other duties and chief Yeti Tris Stone will come on board Y170.  Tris has been letting the team work on mast selection and has been watching eagle eyed from the shore.  They will be well prepared when it matters.

After a glorious low tide harbour tour, around 1,7,1,3,2,3, the race team recorded Peter and Alister as did not finish.  It's unclear what happened.  They were so far ahead no one can be sure.  Ollie and Becky won the battle of the Merlins and took first overall on handicap.  They often say that a bad tack can cost you much on handicap sailing and Y170 and Y17 will be reflecting on this as they finished level on adjusted time after 100 minutes, the older Y17 benefiting from a small time advantage.  This clearly will not help Phil and his sleep patterns and will unlikely save Tim from the prospect of further training sessions.  Fran and Frankie took 4th, Frankie unable to please everyone. 

This meant that Y170 was the winner of the spring series and somehow the Meadowcroft Merlin snatched second from Fran and Frankie.  if the rest of the season is as much fun as the spring series has been then its going to be a stunner.

By John Meadowcroft | Photos L.Burn