Before the start of the day’s racing, the club held a minutes silence in 
memory of David Pepworth.  David as a member supported grandson 
William in all his sailing activities and also helped the club racing 
members, by doing officer of the day duties. He will be sadly missed.

AM: Tamar Cup 4. 

Seventeen boats took to the water for the morning race However even 
before the five minute horn went, seven sailors decided dry land was a 
safer bet. Whilst the lake looked amiable enough, the wind was gusting 
hard and it was a roller coaster ride for the ten starters.  Neil Wallace with 
John Leveridge (stand in crew for injured Nicky Buckett), got away first 
with Steve Axford, Roger Heasman, Vicky Duncalf and Simon Veal 
close on their stern. All the boats managed to get round west buoy and 
then had a hairy run to inlet. With the first four boats getting away, 
carnage occurred at inlet with Katie Leveridge capsizing and a head on 
collision between John Chandler’s Bosun and Derek Farnfield’s 
Wanderer. The net result of the collision was that the Wanderer ended up 
on the lee shore and retired.

The race then settled into a battle against the elements, with Steve Axford 
sailing magnificently in his fully rigged Laser and managing to pass the 
Wayfarer to take the lead. Meanwhile Vicki Duncalf settled down to 
maintain a steady fifth position, whilst SimonVeal also sailing manfully 
in a fully rigged Laser, set about trying to take third position from Roger 
Heasman sailing the smaller rigged Laser 4.7.  The second lap saw a 
further four retirements, which only left five boats racing. Steve Axford 
at the front was putting enough distance between himself and Neil 
Wallace to enable him to claim first place both on the water and on 
handicap.  Meanwhile in his valiant efforts to claim third place, Simon 
Veal capsized twice and suffered at Dam buoy where, in trying granny 
tacking to avoid gybing, he nearly end up going over the dam!  Vicki 
Duncalf having made statements on the water as to the atrocious 
conditions, calmly brought the Topper home to fourth on handicap.

Results: 

1st Steve Axford (Laser)
2nd Neil Wallace and John Leveridge (Wayfarer)
3rd Roger Heasman (Laser 4.7)
4th Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
5th Simon Veal (Laser).
Katie Leveridge (Laser 4.7), John Chandler and John Savage (Bosun), 
Derek Farnfield and David Harris (Wanderer), Mike Ford  and John 
Buckett (Wanderer), Mary Carter (Laser 4.7) rtd.

PM: Ladies Cup/Junior Helm/Gosling Shield 4

Having decided that the gusting winds in the morning were atrocious 
sailors voted with their feet early in the afternoon and only ten boats took  
warily to the water.  At the start Roger Heasman got away well, with 
Simon Veal on his heels and Jane Anderson sailing really well in the 
Topper. Again everybody managed to negotiate West buoy safely and 
then Roger tacked round Middle instead of Home Two buoy, in the 
process dragging Simon Veal with him. This completely threw Jane 
Anderson who promply capsized right on top of the middle buoy.
Simon realised the mistake having seen all the other boats heading for the 
correct buoy, called out to Roger to turn around. Home Two then became 
the nemesis capsize buoy of the race, starting with the first round 
retirement of Katie Leveridge, having lost her tiller to the lake bottom. 
Fraser Martyn with crew Tom Moulton in the Laser Pico also had 
difficulties, getting into irons.

With Roger and Simon now at the back of the fleet and chasing hard 
Simon unfortunately capsized at Far, with Mary Carter following his 
example. (To those in the club house it was starting to look like total 
chaos had taken over.)   Things started to sort themselves out by the time 
the boats were heading back to Dam, with Vicki Duncalf now in the lead 
by a long way, followed by Jane Anderson, Jane Chadney and Mike Ford 
with crew John Buckett.  On the second lap, Jane Anderson capsized in 
nearly the same spot as before and then had to swim after her boat which 
carried on without her.

Roger Heasman managed to overtake John Duncalf only to capsize at 
West, with Simon Veal also doing a death roll nearby. Simon decided that 
enough was enough and headed for home, where upon he leapt out of the 
dinghy too soon before landing and disappeared from sight as the waters 
closed around him.  John Duncalf met his nemesis during the vicious 
gybe round Home Two and also retired. Meantime at the front Jane 
Chadney managed to overtake Vicki Duncalf for the lead, only to capsize 
and retire with a damaged boat. Fraser and Tom also capsized twice and 
had to be rescued leaving their upside down Pico for the safety boat to 
collect later.

At this stage there was so much going on, that Steve Axford as Officer of 
the day could not keep up with the race report! The net result was that 
only three boats managed to finish, with Vicki Duncalf an immaculate 
first, Roger Heasman second and Mike Ford with valiant crew John 
Buckett third.

Results: 

1st Vicky Duncalf (Topper)
2nd Roger Heasman (Laser 4.7)
3rd Mike Ford and John Buckett (Wanderer)
Simon Veal (Laser), Katie Leveridge (Laser 4.7), John Duncalf (Topper), 
Jane Anderson (Topper), Jane Chadney (Laser 4.7), Mary Carter (Laser 
4.7), Fraser Martyn and Tom Moulton (Pico) rtd