River around large town with back of dinghy leaving wake (6)
I believe the answer is:
excite
'wake' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'river around large town' is the wordplay.
'river' becomes 'exe' (River Exe).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'large town' becomes 'cit' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'exe' enclosing 'cit' is 'EXCITE'.
'with back of dinghy leaving' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for excite that I've seen before include "Inflame or stimulate" , "Act as a stimulant" , "Thrill" , "Cause strong feelings in" , "Kindle" .)