AM: Barnwell 1

A good turn out for the race saw fifteen boats milling around the start 
line.  John Buckett in the Otter got a brilliant start to lead the boats to the 
Dam Green buoy. All the boats arrived at the buoy almost together and 
the wind took this moment to decide to drop! The result was that poor 
John sat idle watching the Lasers of Bob Sampson, Steve Axford, Jane 
Anderson and Nicky Buckett pull away from the rest of the fleet.
The first lap saw all the boats struggling with the set course and Paul 
Anderson retired in disgust, muttering that he could have been at home 
pulling up daisies faster than he was sailing!  The first lap took 26 
minutes and so the decision was taken to shorten the race to two laps. 
Almost immediately Murphy's law took effect as up came the wind 
again!

The second lap then saw very close racing between Bob, Steve and Jane 
with neither of the men able to lose Jane who was sailing with the smaller 
Radial rig. Nicky Buckett meanwhile, was hanging onto the coat tails of 
the first three boats. Further back David Higgs, newly converted to 
Lasers, was having a really good race and John and Vicki Duncalf in the 
Toppers were both sailing, well given the light wind.  John Buckett must 
have thought somebody had it in for him, as he got innocently involved in 
a collision between Stephanie Heasman and David Harker on the 
approach to Pinkie buoy.  Bob crossed the line first but Jane took 
handicap honours.

Results: 

1st Jane Anderson (Laser Radial)
2nd Bob Sampson (Laser)
3rd Steve Axford (Laser)
4th John Duncalf (Topper)
5th=  Nicky Buckett (Topper) 
5th= Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
7th John Buckett (Otter)
8th John Chandler and Gia Fox (Bosun)
9th David Harker (RS Feva)
10th Stephen Muller (Topper)
11th David Higgs (Laser)
12th Mike Ford and Alan Comber (Wanderer)
13th Simon Veal (Laser)
14th Stephanie Heasman (Laser Radial)
Paul Anderson (Laser) rtd

PM: Pursuit 2

At race start there was a clearing mist, light drizzle and a listless wind out 
of the North West, which had a tendency to veer suddenly and rise 
instantly to 8 knots before dropping back to almost nothing.  Prior to the 
race, John Chandler who was the hare being chased by all the hounds, 
offered a prayer that the wind would blow hard for the first minute and 
then drop so that the following pack would not catch him. However his 
prayer wasn't answered as a fair breeze and a storming charge through 
the fleet saw Bob Sampson win the race.  During the 65 minutes set time 
for the race Paul Whybrow and Steve Axford in the Scorpion who started 
some 14 minutes later than John, still managed a magnificent third place 
behind him and crew Gina Fox.  Mike Ford in the Wanderer seemed to 
decide to start after his allotted time and on the wrong starting line which 
was a shame, as he sailed really well and would have finished fourth, had 
he not been disqualified.  David Harker had problems trying to set his 
spinnaker whilst sailing single handed and at times he could be seen 
veering across the lake at most peculiar angles. Vicki Duncalf  and 
Stephen Muller both elected to go the wrong side of a buoy whilst dicing 
and were disqualified.
As the final hooter went Jane Anderson, Nicky Buckett and Roger 
Heasman were almost line astern of each other proving that John 
Duncalf's unique Pursuit handicapping principal works very well.

Results: 
1st Bob Sampson (Laser)
2nd John Chandler and Gina Fox (Bosun)
3rd Paul Whybrow and Steve Axford (Scorpion)
4th Jane Anderson (Laser Radial)
5th Nicky Buckett (Laser)
6th Roger Heasman (Laser Radial)
7th David Harker (RS Feva)
8th Paul Anderson (Laser)
9th John Duncalf (Topper) 
10th David Higgs (Laser)
Mike Ford (Wanderer), Vicki Duncalf (Topper), Stephen Muller (Topper) 
dsq