Salcombe Estuary Rowing Club held their annual regatta on Sunday, July 15, a day which was blessed with sunshine.

Last year's regatta was cancelled due to terrible weather conditions, so club members were overjoyed to once again play host to boats from all over the South West.

Ten clubs participated, with visitors coming from as far afield as Bristol and Ilfracombe.

Races start from the yacht club line and the course takes competitors out past Blackstone and around marks in the mouth of the estuary before returning to finish in front of the yacht club again.

Visiting crews and spectators gathered in Cliff House Gardens, where the club provided refreshment and full commentary of the racing.

Very few other clubs have such a spectacular setting as Salcombe at their disposal, which makes this one of the most popular venues on the circuit, and in the sunshine there is no better view of gig racing to be had anywhere.

The day started with the ladies' A race which was won by the Salcombe crew, beating the current holders Teignmouth into second place.

The men's A crew didn't do quite as well, finishing in third, but with the top three crews far ahead of the rest of the field.

Next was the juniors, with under 14s and under 16s racing together round a slightly shortened but still tough course.

Despite the warm sunshine, there was a lot of wind and chop to cope with throughout the day.

The Salcombe U16s were beaten into second place by Caradon and the U14s also finished second to Tamar and Tavy.

Not a bad performance as they were mixed crews beaten by a strong all boys crew from Caradon.

For some of the Salcombe juniors, this was the first time they had raced so hopefully they are now hooked on the adrenalin rush of competitive racing.

The ladies' and men's B races both turned up good results with the Salcombe ladies B crew taking first place, followed in third place by an elated Salcombe C crew, also racing in the B race.

The men also won their B race, meaning that Salcombe were on their way to winning the whole regatta.

The ladies vets crew finished third in their race, finishing behind Ilfracombe, who they had beaten by one place in the World Championships, and to Teignmouth.

A similar result befell the men's vets. They finished second behind Ilfracombe who, despite the fact that they are a relatively new club, are moving up the ranks quickly and have become a regular adversary of Salcombe.

Salcombe has racers of all ages and so there was also a combined super vets race for over 50s and within this race a 'super super vets' category for over 60s.

This race proved popular, as there is rarely a separate race on the gig circuit for older rowers, so it was well subscribed and fiercely competed.

The 'super supers' was won by Tamar and Tavy, with Teignmouth willing the supers' trophy. Dartmouth took the ladies place in the same race.

The last race of the day was a 'Barbarians' race, with mixed crews combining all clubs with names drawn from a hat.

This is always an entertaining and popular race for which the Salcombe regatta has become renowned.

The day ended with the presentation of trophies and the sun still shining.

Salcombe were the overall winner of the regatta with 82 points, in second place were Ilfracombe with 60 points.

Next week Salcombe have two races to attend, some of the club will be going to Paignton to compete in the Tribute series and also two crews will be travelling all the way to Pembrokeshire to compete in the Ramsay Island race, an hour-long endurance race in which rough tidal conditions are expected.