Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series Race 3 - High winds and rain
by John Burn & David Greening 23 Sep 10:03 PDT
12 September 2026
Fast Handicap Fleet
An afternoon of high winds and rain didn't stop four hardy teams from taking to the water on Saturday for the third instalment of the Autumn Series.
Fran Gifford and Frankie Burn in the Merlin opted to return to Batson, but not before enjoying a few blasts across the Estuary as the powerful gusts funnelled down the harbour.
This left Peter Colclough and Alistair Morley sailing the 505, Ross Borne and John Burn in the RS400, and Team Meadowcroft in Y175 to battle it out on the water.
The race got under way, with the teams working their way up the short first beat, meaning there was very little separation at the first mark rounding.
The high-speed downwind leg that followed quickly split the fleet into order, until Ross and John tipped the RS400 in at Salstone, allowing John and Katy in Y175 to sail back through.
The second lap through the bag was much the same — gusty, shifty and certainly not for the faint-hearted. This time, however, Ross and John managed to keep the mast pointing skywards... just!
A quick lap of the harbour and the race was done, with John and Katy claiming victory on corrected time, ahead of the 505 and RS400 respectively.
Solo Fleet
Seven Solos turned up in the starting area with trepidation for the third race of the Salcombe Yacht Club Autumn Series. With forecast West South Westerly gusts in excess of 30mph on a flood tide, conditions appeared marginal.
Race Officer Simon Dawes set a course that kept the fleet protected by the hills to windward, using the Millbay mark as the windward limit.
First to reach the windward mark were Tim Fells, Paul Rayson and Adrian Griffin, who made good starts, but the remainder of the fleet reconvened at Snapes Point minus Rayson, who took an early swim down the run.
By the Saltstone mark Simon Ballantine and Simon Yates had joined Tim Fells to form the leading group for the fetch and beat back to Millbay.
The second lap was to prove attritional, with Ballantine, in what was his best race of the season, taking a roll after the Ferry landing, to come upright with a badly bent mast, forcing his retirement.
Fells took the high wind, high speed, option to run down the town side only to capsize at the forced gybe in front of the Watch House.
While Rayson survived the high-speed route down the town side to emerge within fighting distance of Yates. These two fought out the beat back and the subsequent Millbay to Crossways to take first and second, with David Greening plugging on to take an uneventful third place.