Results / Salcombe Week (Day 3)

Day 3 at the Doom Bar Salcombe Merlin Week greeted competitors with wall to wall sunshine and a 10 knot NW. Unfortunately for the morning flights this is a bad wind direction as it comes over the town, making the harbour a very messy race track.

Race 5 – Green v Blue flights. NW Force 3. Course 1,7,1,3,1,3

With the flood tide in their faces and little or no breeze on the start line, just getting across the line was a challenge. The majority of the fleet opted for the Portlemouth shore where Dave Winder and Pippa Taylor executed a perfect start, clear ahead of the fleet, to lead away close tacking up to Mill Bay. Simon Blake and Chris Dodds, and Sam Pascoe with Alex Adams managed to play the shifts best to round ahead or Dave and Pippa. Getting the biggest cheer of the day for rounding in the top 5 were Dave and Abigail Croft in their classic Smokers Satisfaction, 3165 'Panatella', while many of the top teams struggled back in the pack. On the trip through The Bag and back, Dave and Pippa retook the lead to extend for a comfortable win from Simon and Chris and Sam and Alex. Dave Hayes and Oli Wells came through very well from their unfavoured town side start to take fourth from the very consistent Dan Alsop and Jenny King. Other front runners struggled to recover from poor starts; Taxi and Ellie Bremmer were 11th and Jon Gorringe with Nicki Bass 13th.

Race 6 – Red v Black fleets, SW Force 2-3, Course 1,7,4,2,3

The fleet rigged on the beach in high expectation of a classic Salcombe race. The sky was clear, the wind was up and it looked like we were in for a blast. Then with 10 minutes to go to the start the clouds came in, the rain poured down the wind went round in circles and disappeared. No-one knew what would happen next. The PRO rolled the dice and selected Blackstone as the first mark and the fleet, rather shambolicly, prepared for battle. On the gun, well in fact two seconds before the gun, Day 2 winners Tim Fells and Chris Downham got over-excited and headed up the track for an early bath. The rest of the fleet ambled up the harbour with the river boat racers faring best. Most of the leaders round the first mark were from Hampton! On the run(ish) back through the town it was anyone's guess what to do. However, Day 1 winners Olly Naked Guns Turner and Alex Warren found a great track to sail around the majority of the leading bunch, jumping from the twenties to take the lead into The Bag. As they had done on Sunday, once in the lead there was no looking back and they extended to take a comfortable win. Following their lead, it was a race for young heads to enjoy their moments of glory. Ben Hollis and Caroline Croft had a great race to take second, narrowly ahead of local youth star Peter 'the next Ben Ainslie' Ballantine and Sandy Ramus, who were closely followed by Neale Jones and Jam Adam. Steve Crook and Jo Marlow continued their strong week with fifth ahead of front runners Mike Calvert and Ian Garwood, and Tom Stewart and Phil Dalby.

Overnight, Dave and Pippa have strengthened their grip on the title they have won for the last two years, holding a wonderfully strong 1,2,3. Tom Stewart has slipped back a bit with 2,3,7 and is being challenged by Dave Hayes and Oli Wells with 2,4,6. However, Olly Turner and Alex Warren are right in the mix with two firsts and will be pleased to discard their 13th.