Salcombe Yacht Club

With a light easterly breeze blowing off the Portlemouth shore, race officer Julian Meek was pulling his hair out in consideration of the best course to set, given that there was little water in any of the creeks, which might have offered any semblance of a beat.

The cadets were first away, with Ben Meek acting as pathfinder in his Terra Pro to a fleet of five Toppers, with Dom Holt-Wilson leading the Toppers home.

Next away was the medium handicap fleet. Peter Cook and Janet Exelby found their Firefly to be suited well to the conditions and led the Laser Radial of Esther McLarty home by some 15 minutes.

With some of the burgeoning fleet of Phantoms away at the POSH regatta, Chris Cleaves led a fleet of Phantoms, National 12s and Merlin Rockets home, with some retiring as the clock clicked through two hours.

Eleven Solos reached away from the starting line, with two miles to consider the first tack at the Saltstone mark, to set themselves up for the fetch back for Crossways.

Simon Dobson led the fleet, with some place-changing over the infamous Dendridge Ledge, which allowed Robin Hodges and David Greening to recover to second and third.

Simon Yates leapfrogged the pair by crossing to Ox, picking up more pressure, which did not work out so well for Hodges on the ­following lap.

Upon their return to the harbour, the race officer, a firm believer in the two-hour race, chose not to let the fleet out of their misery early and sent the Solos on for a final circuit of Millbay and Crossways.

Dobson, with a considerable lead, chose a conservative route by overstanding to take into account the tidal gate that the Mill Bay mark sat in.

However, a more opportunistic Yates found some personal breeze to round in the first, which he maintained to the finish.

In the Salcombe Yawl fleet, Andrew and Liz Savell built up a sufficient lead in their Red Fleet Yawl to be untroubled by the Blue Fleet boats of Stephen Galvin, Barney Greenhill and Andrew Wood.

Wood led this bunch for much of the race. However, Galvin grabbed the lead at the Millbay mark to secure the Blue Fleet Yawl lead.

Results

Cadet Handicap: 1. RS Tera Pro 2852, Ben Meek; 2. Topper 172, Dom Holt-Wilson.

Medium Handicap: 1. Firefly 3127, Peter Cook and Janet Exelby; 2. Laser Radial 181676, Esther McLarty;

3. Aero 7 1416, Claire Booth.

Fast Handicap: 1. Phantom 1306, Chris Cleaves;

2. National 12 3534, Charlie and Helen Lloyd; 3. Merlin Rocket 3621, Andrew and Tristram Squire.

Solo: 1. Solo 5601, Simon Yates; 2. Solo 5676, Simon Dobson; 3. Solo 5793, David Greening.

Salcombe Yawl: 1. Yawl 187, Andrew and Liz Savell;

2. Yawl 99, Stephen Galvin and James Smith; 3. Yawl

138, Barney and Juanita Greenhill.