Saturday had an autumnal feel, with bright skies, an empty estuary and a slightly chilly east-north-easterly force three to four breeze.

Salcombe Yacht Club race officer Malcolm Mackley did his best with the conditions to set a beat to Crossways followed by Blackstone and a circuit of the harbour to the finish in race eight fo the autumn series.

First away was the cadet handicap, with James Alexander completing the course in his RS Tera Sport, while other cadets attended a training event at Paignton.

In the medium handicap fleet the Laser Radials of Esther Mc­Larty and Elodie Gren­en prevailed, with George Alexander and Ruari McColl once again sailing their RS Feva XL efficiently into the remaining podium place.

All eyes were on the fast handicap start, as Alistair Morley in his Phantom chose to start on the Portlemouth shore, and Peter Cook and Janet Exelby’s Merlin Rocket started on the Salcombe side.

Would Morley’s single-tack approach feed him in ahead of the Merlin, which required more tacks but had less work against the tide?

Cook and Exelby chose the faster route, but were later to retire, gifting Alistair the race from the Lloyds’ Nat­ional 12.

Learning from the earlier Fast Handicap start, saw the majority of the 18-strong Solo fleet to favour the Watch House end of the line, with a lonely Graham Cranford-Smith trying to achieve what Morley had not.

Bill Jago prevailed, leading past the Ferry landing, and despite being chased hard, was always to be in charge of the race.

A tidal gate at Tos­nos; saw seven boats make a clear break, with some fast planing reaches across Wide­gates. Upon the return to the harbour, the leaders closed up on the final beat against the tide along the Salcombe seawall.

In the end Bill took the win from Simon Dobson, who secured second place on the final tack from Chris Cleaves.

Six Yawls continued their second wind into the late autumn series, with David Jayne helming for Dan Bridger working their way into a lead, with the Classic Yawl of Andrew Wood and Tim Petit sailing above their handicap to lead the modern Yawl of Geoff Gilson and Chris Spencer-Chapman.