Salcombe Gin Merlin Rocket Week 2024 at Salcombe Yacht Club - Day 5

A beautiful sunny morning and a solid westerly greeted the tired competitors for the fifth morning of Merlin Week with Tom Gillard and Ollie Meadowcroft leading overall.

Craftinsure are the generous sponsors of the Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets providing lots of goodies for the daily prize-giving. Leading these fleets are in Gold, Tom Ballantine and Maddy Anderson in 11th; in Silver, Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston in 16th; in Bronze, Mark Mckeever and Oliver McLean in 29th.

Salcombe Gin Merlin Week 2024 Day 5 Morning Race - photo © Lucy Burn

RACE 9: GREEN v BLACK Flights, COURSE 1,7,1,3,1,3

At the start, the pin end was again favoured with most of the fleet soon onto port. Arran Holman and Faye Chatterton were best away and leading up past Mill Bay while Tom and Ollie who had started at the Watch House end were not looking too great.

However, the North Sands elevator was working giving Tom and Ollie the big right handed which lifted them into Blackstone in the lead just ahead of Jon Gorringe and Matt Currell. James Goss and Chris White came across to the town side to hook into big pressure and come through into the lead going into the Bag.

After the blast down to Gerston and back, Jon and Matt had taken the lead and were keeping Tom and Ollie under control until the third beat when they let them get over to Woodcote rocks and into the elevator while they were pinned down on Biddle Rocks. Tom and Ollie took the lead and survived a screaming run to come home just ahead after a tacking battle with Jon and Matt.

Tom Morris and Chris Kilsby came through again for third, further strengthening their series ahead of Simon Potts and the evergreen Richard Parslow. James and Chris recovered back up to fifth ahead of Mike and Jane who had been lured into going round two by Alex and Pippa while running in third and fourth.

This result put Tom and Ollie on 11 points with only Chris Gould and Sophie Mackley able to beat them if the could win their next two races and Tom and Ollie be outside the top six tomorrow.

Salcombe Gin Merlin Week 2024 Day 5 Morning Race - photo © Lucy Burn

RACE 10: RED v BLUE Flights, Course 1,7,1,3,2,3

Conditions for the afternoon race were absolutely superb with a WSW Force 4-5 and clear skies. The fleet were away first time again with the strong flood tide and a shifty gusty breeze making it hard to hold position in the line-up. George Yeoman and Mark Oakey again showed their starting prowess to lead the scrum up the Portlemouth shore to lead around Blackstone ahead of a tightly packed chasing pack.

With some big gusts on the run, the town side paid and it was Tom Stewart and Rob Allen who came screaming through to take up the chase on what turned into a maxed out two sailer down to Gerston and back. On exiting the Bag, Christian Birrell and Sam Brearey had smoked through after an early mishap to be challenging for the lead along with Chris Gould and Sophie Mackley.

George and Mark still held a good lead on the second rounding of Blackstone, but with big gusts and some big holes on the run, Christian and Sam joined up the pressure to come through to lead onto the final circuit up to Mill Bay. Tom and Rob suffered spinnaker problems and dropped out of the fight at the front.

Salcombe Gin Merlin Week 2024 Day 5 Afternoon Race - photo © Lucy Burn

There was no stopping Christian and Sam who took their first bullet of the week ahead of George and Mark. Both these teams will be in the running for second overall when the discard comes in tomorrow.

Tom Ballentine and Maddy Anderson had a superb last lap, finding all the pressure on the run to come through in third ahead of family Gould. This time it was Caroline with Livvy Bell getting the better of husband Chris and Sophie. Will Henderson kept the OAP flag flying in sixth ably assisted by son Arthur.

The forecast for Friday is for a strong SW, so it will be a big day to finish off this highly competitive week.

Salcombe Gin Merlin Week 2024 Day 5 Afternoon Race - photo © Lucy Burn

Results after Day 5: