Page 4 - Masthead - Salcombe Yacht Club 2019 Yearbook

2 Fleet Reports
CRUISER REPORT
2018 possibly has to go down in the annals of SYC as amongst the sunniest ever leading to many
boats cruising far, wide and absent from Salcombe for large parts of the summer...
The season started with our traditional opening rally to Plymouth, this year superbly organised by team O’Malley.
The combination of Doug’s organisational skills and Martine’s excellence in the galley meant we had a great, if a little cold, pontoon party in Sutton Marina. Dinner in the Sanctuary for 40 revealed the start of a common problem this year, too many SYC sailors for the venues, meaning some crews had to find a second restaurant.
Mid-May brought the inevitable diary clash between SYC’s cruiser programme and the Royal Western Yacht Club’s racing programme. The big boat racers of SYC headed to Plymouth for the South West Commodores Cup, a great fun interclub event for three boat teams, where the distinct lack of wind prevented team SYC from being much of a threat... so its back to Plymouth again next year!
The majority of SYC’s cruisers headed west to Fowey, where Peter Waring once again organised an excellent evening at
the Royal Fowey Yacht Club, with as is becoming usual an overflowing dining room. Sunday’s weather was a little challenging
for the race back, with an upwind slog that favoured the long legs of our Commodore’s Oyster, giving Martin and Pam a 100% record of first places in the races they competed in – yes this was the only one!
Peter Sandover just made it back from his latest Atlantic crossing in time to finalize arrangements for the Dittisham
and Brixham Rally, where we once again overfilled the Ferry Inn in Dittisham on the Friday night. Peter also set an interesting new challenge for the Saturday race to Brixham – mooring to mooring using the minimum no of engine hours. As there was
SUNDAY’S WEATHER WAS A LITTLE CHALLENGING FOR THE RACE BACK, WITH AN UPWIND SLOG
virtually no wind this was a real adventure with Basic Instinct leaving early to take the tide down the Dart, just managing to dodge various ferries before being disqualified for not using her engine in Brixham harbour, in contravention of the harbour bye-laws, after a great challenge and sail in a freshening sea breeze, with the engine only started to charge the batteries upon arrival.
Saturday night’s dinner in Brixham Sailing Club was a lively evening and possibly explained some poor performances on Sunday. The race back was an interesting affair with 12 boats starting and only two making it to the finish at Skerries. Our erstwhile Lifeboat Coxswain, who really should know better, among those having to start their engines to avoid the cliffs of Berry Head, under the influence of wind shadow and strong tide.
The end of Merlin Week in July saw
12 boats and 40 sailors head off to the Channel Islands and France for a week’s cruising, eating and pontoon partying. The weather was stunning, leading to several of
us crossing the channel both ways under
a diesel topsail, but once over we had a fantastic week of sailing, partying, eating and drinking. Possibly the highlight of the week was the dinner at St Helier Yacht Club where we were treated to the outstanding Bennet-Perkins brothers’ Welsh choir!
Particular congratulations go to Doug and Martine O’Malley in Aquamarine and Mike and Sue Davis in Moonraker for not only crossing the channel for the first time under their own steam but extending on to Brittany.
The final rally of the season took us back to the Newton Ferrers and the Yealm Yacht Club, organised again by Peter and Sarah Freedman. As has been the pattern this year we were short of dining spaces which somewhat curtailed numbers, but we still sat 43 people down for dinner. Sunday provided an excellent end to the season with a gentle race back to Salcombe in a light breeze.
Johnny Hearth
Rear Commodore Cruising
THE RACE BACK WAS AN INTERESTING AFFAIR WITH 12 BOATS STARTING AND ONLY TWO MAKING IT TO THE FINISH AT SKERRIES