10-11-12 JUNE Salcombe Festival is organised and managed by The Salcombe Festival Community Interest Company Registered Number 7268492, a company limited by guarantee.

A Message from the Harbour Authority


On behalf of the Harbour Authority, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to The Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary for the annual Salcombe Festival.


The Salcombe and Kingsbridge estuary is, without doubt, one of the most attractive sailing and leisure destinations in England.   Set in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the Estuary offers something for everyone.  Whether you have arrived by sea or road, we hope you enjoy your visit and make the most of the exciting and varied entertainment the Festival Committee have arranged for the weekend.


The Estuary is getting busier and busier each year with more and more visitors taking to the water in an array of craft ranging from ocean going yachts to canoes.  As the Harbour Authority’s main concern is safety, can I request that you take care whilst afloat or in close proximity to the water.  The Harbour Staff will be afloat throughout the weekend, contactable on VHF#14 or via the Harbour Office at Whitestrand, available to help and advise wherever necessary.  Please observe the speed limit and be aware of other harbour users and people on pontoons and the foreshore.  Wash causes lots of problems and although the speed limit is 6 knots, this is a limit not a target.  I would like to take the opportunity to remind mariners of the concept of a safe speed, dependent on traffic density, water depth and prevailing conditions of wind, tide and visibility.  Finally, if you are going afloat, please wear a buoyancy aid; it may save your life.


Enjoy the festival and we hope to see you again in the future.


Ian Gibson

Harbour Master

Under the Estuary Surface


Welcome to the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary - not!

Don’t get us wrong – we welcome you with open arms, tentacles, fins, flippers and even toothy grins from the bottom of our seabed … it’s just that it isn’t quite your usual estuary! Technically, to be an estuary we should have a freshwater river flowing in to meet the saltwater of the sea but the Avon estuary is thought to have pinched that during the last ice age – although, thankfully not before the river or rivers had done a great erosion job at carving out our steep sided valleys or combes. These valleys later flooded when much of the ice melted and the sea level rose by over 100 metres!

Without this usual amount of freshwater from a river, the Salcombe-Kingsbridge ‘estuary’ is really more of an inlet of the sea – heavily influenced by our large tides but very much sheltered from the open coast waves. This all gives rise to some unusual conditions that support some rather special sea life communities of plants, seaweeds and animals, where even our slugs and worms turn out to be beautifully exotic and colourful!

Unfortunately, the corals, sponge gardens, giant mussels and seahorses remain hidden from view for the most part but as you enjoy the beauty of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty from the surface remember that it isn’t just skin deep.

We do love and cherish our area and ask that you help us to conserve it as a healthy, living and thriving area for all … and not just those on two legs! It’s the little things that will make the big difference here;



Nigel Mortimer

Estuaries Officer - South Devon AONB

National Twelve 33

“Two Horses”


“Two Horses” is one of the earliest National 12’s, built in 1936 by Richard Wade of Twickenham to the original “Uffa King” design by Uffa Fox. Wade was principally a builder of rowing skiffs and built few sailing dinghies. “Two Horses” was built in traditional clinker style with closely-spaced ash ribs, eleven strakes per side and, rather unusually, was completely undecked. Her curious name is thought to have referred to the physiques of her first joint owners!


At some stage, thought to have been during the Second World War, the boat was transferred to the Midlands by rail, suffering considerable damage to the transom caused by  the original heavy steel centreplate

[ which had been removed for transit] sliding aft. From 1949-1954 she raced at Midland SC at Edgbaston Reservoir in the middle of Birmingham [see 1953 picture] and then in the early 1960s, following considerable refurbishment including terylene sails, a new boom and centreplate raced at Bala, Earlswood Lakes and Salcombe [several SYC Regattas], admittedly without conspicuous success.


Later she lay neglected for a number of years until renovated for the Centenary Regatta of Midland SC in 1994. It was considered impractical to use traditional methods to restore the boat so modern epoxy resins were used extensively and a new centreboard-case installed.

She completed the regatta without incident and attracted a good deal of interest. Since then she has been stored under cover and, while this has preserved the structure, stresses have been set up between the original and modern materials which have led to weaknesses.


It is rare to see a racing dinghy of this age still in sailable condition, even if not exactly as she would have been in 1936 and I hope she contributes to the Festival.


John Wylie