High tide, sun and a force four south-westerly, and race officer Nigel Blazeby making most of the conditions by setting a course round all of Sal­combe's creeks, brought big smiles on the competitors' faces.

First away was the junior handicap fleet, which looked like they were having great fun as they ran back through the harbour on a planing breeze. Evie Booth in her RS Tera Pro and Max Pearce in an RS Quba had a close tussle, with four seconds separating them at the finish, and Ben Meek, close behind on corrected time.

There was some attrition in the medium handicap fleet, but Claire Booth got to grips with her RS Aero 7 to take the boat's maiden win from the Laser Radial of Jackie Humphries.

The stronger wind and the tough first beat against the tide fav­oured the Merlin Rock­et duo of Jon Gorringe and Nikki Bass over the Merlin of Peter Cook and Janet Exelby.

Being at the start line on time was not sufficient to give Alistair Morley the edge over the Merlins in the fast handicap fleet.

Twenty-two Solos headed for the leeward pin position off Smalls Cove, and it was Tim Law who initially appeared to exercise the plan perfectly. However, a big wind shift to starboard saw Ed Stephens and Chris Cleaves drive over Tim.

Tim, Ed, Chris and Bill Jago made the initial running, with Peter Ballantine having to make a recovery job after an uncharacteristic capsize after the start.

Tim worked his way back into the lead following a competitive beat out of Yalton, followed by Ed Stephens and Chris Cleaves.

Meanwhile Peter Ballantine was working his way through the fleet to fourth place by the final lap of the harbour.

With Tim Law in control of the final beat, the interest was whe­ther Ed would hold his nerve against Cleaves' onslaught, which was achieved by seven seconds after one-and-a-half hours of racing.

With one modern fleet yawl and four classic yawls, it may have appeared to be a shoo-in for David Greening and Stephen Galvin, given conditions that would favour the power of the modern boats, however Peter Stratton and Andrew Woods would not let the red boat get away, until the stronger winds across Wide­gates.

Peter and An­drew eventually were ground down by David Jayne and Dan Bridger.

After nearly two hours of racing Green­ing and Galvin held onto the corrected time victory by 22 seconds from David Jayne and Dan Bridger.

Results

Junior Handicap

1 RS Tera Pro 2146 Evie Booth,

2 RS Quba 4 Max Pearce,

3 RS Tera Sport 1881 Ben Meek

Medium Handicap

1 RS Aero 7 1517 Claire Booth

2 Laser Radial 144336 Jackie Humphries

Fast Handicap

1 Merlin Rocket 3754 Jon Gorringe and Nikki Bass

2 Merlin Rocket 3616 Peter Cook and Janet Exelby

3 Phantom 1357 Alistair Morley

Solo

1 Solo 5599 Tim Law,

2 Solo 5194

Ed Stephens,

3 Solo 5573

Chris Cleaves

1 Yawl 177 David Greening and Stephen Galvin

2 Yawl 28 David Jayne and Fenella Goldsworthy

3 Yawl 161 Peter Stratton and Nigel Hannaford