Rogers Bowl Eleven Race
Seven boats took to the water to start the race. The wind supposedly from the south east was playing dirty tricks. As a result the club Bosun being helmed by Jack Knigh and his mother Tess, both novice racers retired, before race start.
As the race started, the fully rigged Laser of Harriet Cox and the Bosun helmed by John Dabbs and crewed by Leila Farmer, crossed the line almost simultaneously. However, the Bosun had more speed and sped off towards Dam Green. Tacking for the buoy the Bosun came to a standstill, allowing Harriet to take the lead. Meanwhile, Tom Knight, another novice racer in a Pico dinghy, had also made a good start over the line, but was almost immediately was passed by Robin Spiller and Geoff Floyd in their Solo dinghies, with Bob Sampson in his re-rigged Topper Bringing up the rear.
John Dabbs and Harriet Cox, then spent the first two laps duking it out around the various buoys and having a clash of boats, at Inlet buoy. This gave John the race lead back, as Harriet did her penalty turns. (Harriet also managed to have a capsize doing an athletic roll tack!) Having quickly righted the Laser, Harriet then set of again in pursuit of the Dabbs Bosun.
Meantime, after his good start Robin Spiller was overtaken by a determined Geoff Floyd, who managed to retain his third position on the water until race end. Tom Knight was beginning to find the switch about wind really tricky and having fallen to last position on the water, decided to call it a day. (Well done Tom for your first ever race!)
Harriet’s steely determination paid off, as by the end of the race she had put distance between herself and John/Leila, who crossed the line second. Geoff who had been working hard to catch up finished in good time, was third over the line, with Robin fourth and Bob, a hard worked last.
Many thanks to Brian and Nathan Pollard for neglecting their racing, to crew the race support safety boat.
OOD: Roger Heasman.
Results:
- John Dabbs and Leila Farmer, Bosun
- Bob Sampson, Topper
- Harriet Cox, Laser
- Geoff Floyd, Solo
- Robin Spiller, Solo
Retired: Tom Knight Pico and Jack and Tess Knight, Bosun.