Roger’s Bowl 8
Five boats prepared to start into a damp Cornish mizzle, blown along by a reasonable SW breeze. The start had been delayed a few minutes to allow the safety boat to be fully operational. The two Club Bosuns had hoisted their small sails in anticipation of Roger and Bob taking out potential new recruits in their taster sessions, planned to follow on from this race. Roger’s Bosun was crewed by Linda with the other Club Bosun helmed by Teresa, crewed by Bob and Charlotte. The other starters were Harriet in her Laser 4.7, Nathan in his Aero 7, and John’s Bosun with full sails crewed by Leila.
Nathan and John crossed the start line virtually together. John reached Dam Green first, but Nathan made a more compact tack and stayed well in front for the rest of the race. A gust encouraged all boats along to Zebra and then to Inlet, together with first of several heavy showers.
After Inlet was Middle, then Pinkie, by which time, Nathan was 100 metres ahead of John, with Harriet, Roger and Teresa in pursuit. The row of fishermen on the Cornish bank demanded an abrupt gybe around Pinkie to stay clear of them, especially with the reduced water level currently in the lake.
Lap 2 (of 3) saw Nathan well out in front and the rain was still falling. When John finished Lap 2, Nathan was already half way round his final lap. Harriet was travelling very well as she completed this second lap.
Nathan lapped both Roger’s and Teresa’s Bosuns before he capsized within seconds of finishing his race. Teresa’s performance was very encouraging as she is new to sailing and this was quite a challenging introduction to helming in a race. After applying the relevant handicaps, the finishing order remained the same as the actual finishing sequence, although Nathan’s lead from John was reduced from 8 minutes (actual) to under 1 minute (corrected)
- Nathan Pollard (Aero 7)
- John Dabbs and Leila Farmer (Bosun – full sails)
- Harriet Cox (Laser 4.7)
- Roger Heasman and Linda Spiller (Bosun – small sails)
- Teresa Cox and Bob Sampson & Charlotte Cox (Bosun – small sails)
Many thanks to Ian Chatterton, Officer of the Day.