Page 30 - Masthead - Salcombe Yacht Club 2019 Yearbook

28 Fleet Reports
Guess posted good results with a win
at Bristol Corinthians and a third place
at the Western Area Championships. These Championships had been hosted as a two-day event at Salcombe for the preceding three years and had attracted entries in the mid-thirties. This year the Association opted for a one-day format
at Chew Valley, but only managed 24 entries. We hope to be able to host this event again in 2020. Iain McGregor picked up 2nd and 9th places at the Chichester
& Dell Quay meetings respectively. Mark Sanken flew the flag for Salcombe in the Thames Valley series but was unable to take part in sufficient number of events to qualify as a finisher. Elsewhere, Tim Law put in some impressive performances around the world in his Laser, competing against and out-classing some who weren’t even born when he secured his first Laser national title. Tim’s results in his Solo at
the Nations Cup on Lake Garda and the National Championships at Hayling Island are worthy of special mention, with 3rd places on both occasions, just behind top professionals like Charlie Cumbley, who Tim beat across the line in individual races at both events. Equally noteworthy were the results posted by Mike Hicks at these two events, finishing 6th at Lake Garda and 9th at Hayling Island, well ahead of many well-known names, in fleets of 48 and 104 boats respectively.
For the seven Salcombe boats, c/w WAGs that made the trip, Lake Garda was classic ‘Salcombe on Tour’. The winds for all four days were fierce, as was the post- race craic, as they say in Cork. Just one
of many memorable, post-race highlights was our table of fifteen in a waterfront restaurant, rounding off an Italian feast with obscenely large sundaes and cheering
on the England team as they knocked Colombia out of the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out. The glum German faces on the table next to us, serving only to heighten the pleasure. Celebrating a significant
birthday for Iain McGregor was yet another highlight. This was hardly dampened by Iain’s discovery that the cheaper, all-steel launching trolleys not only don’t float like the aluminium ones but that Lake Garda
is very deep and you need the services of a scuba diver to retrieve your trolley if it is allowed to roll off the end of the slipway.
On the Club racing scene, the traditional season opener was the Commissioning Race. A poor turn-out for this year’s race was nevertheless proportionately, best attended by the five Solos who took
part and it was the Solos which took the first three places in with David Greening leading Graham Cranford-Smith and Bruce Hattersley over the line. Bruce has kept hold of his Solo, despite his imminent defection to the fledgling Phantom class.
Ed Stephens missed the Commissioning
race but after Race 1 was blown out, Ed immediately stamped his authority over the Spring Series two weeks later by winning all three of the races in which he took part, to take the series from a hard-charging Simon Dobson with David Greening and Roger Guess never far behind them.
The Dobson / Stephens battle for supremacy carried over into the Sailing Club Series from April through to June, this time with Simon Dobson scraping through on count-back after they drew level on two wins and a net score of 5.3 points apiece. Only Julian Meek and Simon Yotter Yates succeeding in taking the other two race wins in this series.
An entry of 28 took part in our May bank holiday Open meeting and the locals were shown how to get around the estuary quickly in tricky, light winds by three of
THE WINDS FOR ALL FOUR DAYS WERE FIERCE, AS WAS THE POST-RACE CRAIC, AS THEY SAY IN CORK