Winter Series Solo - Race 1

Published 12:23 on 26 Oct 2025

The Solo sailors competing in the first race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Winter Series were greeted with a light North Westerly breeze in the harbour over a building ebb tide, with the prospect of higher winds in the Bag and beyond. 

Experienced Race Officer Malcolm Squire took this into account by setting a course that lapped the upper reaches of the harbour.

The Solo fleet benefited from seeing which side paid for the Handicap Fleet who had started ten minutes earlier, so all the Solos started in front of the Watch House, led away by Simon Dobson, with Chris Cleaves, Will Henderson and David Greening in pursuit.

Dobson was hauled in at Snapes where he ran out of breeze and his pursuers crossed the tide below him, with Greening taking the lead by a tidy rounding at Ox Point, which he held from Cleaves and Henderson for the lap to Gerston and Saltstone.

However, a chicken gybe by Greening allowed Henderson and Cleaves to close up, with Henderson taking the lead down the run back to Crossways and Cleaves pulling through to second on the final beat.

On the final run back from the last visit from Saltstone to the finish, Dobson, having recovered from an earlier capsize planed into third place followed by Graham Cranford Smith, who then overhauled Dobson within sniffing distance of the finishing line to secure third place.

By David Greening

Photos Lucy Burn