SYC Sailing Club Series, Race 1 ~ Fast Handicap Race
Published 22:06 on 21 Apr 2025
Easter brings the start of the Sailing Club Series. As it is no longer Spring but not yet summer.
The SYC fast handicap fleet is boosted by the attendance of Salcombe Yawls (some of which get a slower PY handicap than others hold on is this not the fast fleet?)
The Good Friday rain clouds are clearing and the optimistic are applying sun cream which turns out to be a good decision. Prawle Point is recording 20mph from the north-east, but we cant feel it whilst we are rigging. On the club line we find big gusts and lulls. Definitely got a lot of east in it today.
No 505 out today means the fastest boats are Merlin Rockets and they sheet in and John & Zoë Meadowcroft lead John & Frankie Burn around the first mark at Crossways with a pretty fast Albacore with AJ & Tris Squire hot on their heels.
There is not much time to look back, but the Yawls have made it around the mark too. Punching in to the tide we progress towards Saltstone. It looks like it is a NE today as there is a giant flat patch in the lee of Halwell Woods, The Merlins and Albacore raft up and we can see the Yawls trundling down behind us. The fast dinghies are too leeward of Tosnos Point and it is John & Frankie who decide high is the best route. The experience of AJ and Tris says to stay low. John and Zoë are clueless and split the middle. Its getting a bit traumatic now as the Yawls park up just a few lengths behind spread across the whole Estuary in a battle attack formation which Nelson would have been proud of.
Heroes of the moment are John and Frankie who get to the new wind coming out of Frogmore first. They lead round Saltstone first, followed by John and Zoë, with AJ and Tris buried.
It's a tight reach back to the harbour with big puffs too. Its kite up and down, and in the end it is John and Zoë who get the best of this at Snapes Point.
Gybing down the harbour looking for pressure and John & Frankie get the edge again and have a nice little lead planing into Blackstone.
Time to put some rake in and John and Zoë close the gap on the beat, take the lead but lose it on the final shift into Crossways.
Nip and tuck on the run back to Blackstone and John and Zoë get back into a lead. Still another trip to Crossways to do and positions remain unchanged. The final run sees pressure come in from behind and at the final Mill Bay mark there is a fight for an overlap. Both boats drop a little too late and this turns out to be race defining for John & Frankie who fail to drop and end up capsized.
There are no other fast boats in this fast handicap race and John & Zoë finish with what looks like a 10 minute lead over the leading group of Yawls. Might a slow boat win the fast handicap?
By John Meadowcroft.
Part Two: The Salcombe Yawls ~ By Mark Waterhouse
A decent ENE breeze with many shifts and gusts as well as an ebb tide made for an interesting and testing afternoons sailing.
This was Merlin Rocket weather and the two of them disappeared off into the distance only to be seen again as we passed on different legs of the course.
Meanwhile, in the slower boats, the Yawls were having some fun.
The course, 3,5,1,3,1,3,2 was just the right length and provided plenty of opportunities. Thank you to the RO, Phil King and his team. It was the two oldest boats Y15, Mike Knowles/Aaron Dornom, and Mark Waterhouse/Phil Magee in Y17 that went around the first windward mark in that order closely followed by Andy and Liz Savill in Y187. Meanwhile, Y150, Simon Dawes/Woody had breakages on board slowing them down somewhat.
The leg to buoy 5 was typically shifty and gusty. The ebb tide added another dimension making it tricky to decide where to go to get the best of tide and wind. Y187 ducked low and overtook the two blue flee boats leaving them to fight amongst themselves. At one point all three were nicely lined up across the bag.
Then we hit the convergence zone between Halwell and Tosnos point where the wind from Frogmore meets the wind from the Bag and it turns off, turns round, goes up and goes down allowing the whole fleet to bunch up again.
Hello Merlins; they were waiting patiently for the yawls in zero wind. Whatever decision you made on positioning it was probably wrong. AJ and Tris Squire in their Albacore were way ahead, went low and never seemed to get the wind until everyone else had got theirs. The Burns were high and in more tide but nudged their Merlin into a puff and headed off again closely followed by the Meadowcrofts. Dan and Gail Bridger in Y98, Graham Cranford-Smith and his daughter Tamar in Y172 as well as Y15 and Y187 picked up the puffs to help them through the zone chasing Y187 while Y17 waited.
The run to Blackstone was uneventful but the beat back up was decision time. Which side to go against the tide, town or beach? There was a split. Y187 lead up the beach side. Y98 seemed to have a problem at Blackstone but then headed for the town side. Y15, Y172 and, chasing hard, Y17 having rounded close on the heels of Y172, all followed Y187 on the beach side. A tacking duel ensued between Y17 and Y172, Y17 passed. Y15 had a problem in a tack or two allowing Y17 to pass them too.
Meanwhile, Y98 was looking good on the town side and the beach fleet crossed to cover led by Y187 with Y17 again chasing hard.
These two pulled out a good lead over the remaining yawls who battled it out with each other up the town side. Y161, Andrew Stirling/Stephen Galvin, were never out of the fray and joined the ensuing battle with Y98 eventually prevailing. Y17 couldnt pass Y187, despite them going aground off snapes, but was close enough at the finish to win on handicap with the Merlin of John and Zoe Meadowcroft splitting them for 2nd overall.
