Small friendly sailing club, based at Upper Tamar Lake, with dinghy racing, cruising and a busy social programme
Results
Thanks were given to Race Officer Robin Spiller.
Adam Hilton’s Solo was first away with Dave Perrett’s hot on its heels. John Dabbs and Leila Farmer’s Bosun followed. The winds were easterly and strong enough to have persuaded the Solo sailors to fly small sails. At the start the beat to Dam Green was easily made in one tack. After a gybe around the buoy the course went to Inlet, Middle and Pinkie and back via West. Dave Perrett took the lead before Inlet and kept it from then on despite a quick capsize on lap 2. The Dabbs/Farmer Bosun overtook Adam Hilton’s Solo going around Inlet and something of a ding-dong between the two boats followed which continued for the three laps. Dave Perrett did not manage to get far enough ahead of the Bosun to keep first place when the handicaps were applied.
Thanks were given to Roger Heasman who ran the race.
Dave Perrett, Jane Anderson and Vicki Duncalf, regular fast starters, led away from the Home 2
startline into moderate west winds interspersed with vicious gusts. More remarkable was Brian
Pollard’s second place at the first buoy, West (Natasha Routley crewing his Bosun). Dave Perrett’s
Solo overtook the Bosun definitively at the top of the Lake and Linda Spiller’s Radial also passed
before they rounded Inlet. After this a short sharp beat took them to new buoy Seagull and a run to
Dam Green followed during which any boat capable of planing, planed. Robin Spiller retired with a
broken batten. Vicki Duncalf and Liam Routley sparred throughout.
Half the fleet started on starboard tack and half on port but it wasn’t clear which was the better
choice; Nathan Pollard, Dave Perrett and Brian Pollard benefitting from starboard tacking; Linda
Spiller and Jane Anderson doing well out of port tacks. At West and still at Pinkie the fleet was
bunched but from then on Nathan Pollard established a lead, as the helm of the fastest boat should,
with Jane Anderson following, close enough, it turned out, for the handicap to give her the victory.
Brian Pollard had another Bosun to compete with, John Dabbs’ (with Adam Hilton); the yellow boat
led the red almost all the time.
Adam Hilton ran the morning race and Vicki Duncalf the afternoon. Mandy Pollard took the
photographs.
Nathan Pollard (Laser Full) was the first of a close starting bunch followed by Vicki Duncalf’s Topper
and the Bosun of Brian Pollard and Natasha Routley. On the beat to Pinkie via Home 2 Nathan
continued to lead but the high pointing Solos of Adam Hilton and Dave Perrett overtook the rest.
The winds were light, northerly and unusually consistent. Liam Routley’s Laser came next ahead of
Vicki Duncalf’s Topper and the two Bosuns. After nearly an hour’s sailing and with the fleet well
spread out, Jane Anderson, Officer of the Day, shortened the race from four laps to three.
Vicki Duncalf’s Topper was first to start with Nathan Pollard’s Laser the last, twenty minutes later.
But the wind had dropped and, when the Topper reached the middle of the Lake, it almost
disappeared, the early starters looking as though they were waiting for the fast boats at the back! At
the beginning of lap 2 the wind strengthened substantially with powerful gusts. Adam Hilton and
Liam Routley retired at the end of the lap. On lap 3 Nathan Pollard took over the lead from Dave
Perrett’s Solo and sailed through the stormy conditions to win.
Thanks were given to Jane Anderson who ran the races.
Seven helms considered racing, five signed on to do so, four started the race, two finished it. It was not so much the strength of the base winds – they rarely reached the forecast 15mph – but the chaotic nature of the gusts that made sailing so difficult. Dave Perrett launched his Solo (with a small sail), tasted the tumultuous winds in the middle of the Lake and returned to the shore. Vicki Duncalf(Topper) started this Pursuit race first. She lasted almost a whole lap before retiring. Brian Pollard with Natasha Routley as crew crossed the line next, made it to Pinkie, capsized, righted the boat without assistance and continued to the end, the crew heroically bailing out as they went. James Pollard (Laser Full) came next. He retired after a while because he was worried that he might damage his borrowed Laser. Nathan Pollard (Laser 4.7) started last, overtook the Bosun and won.
Nathan Pollard (Laser 4.7) crossed the line first in conditions that remained violent. He gradually
increased his lead over the only two other entrants willing to brave this unrestful Tamar Lake.
Thanks were given to Geoff Floyd who ran the races and to Mandy Pollard who took the photos.
The clouds galloped across the sky from the south-west but when the race started, at water
level at least, the winds came from the north-west, except for the gusts which came from
any direction they felt like. Five boats signed on for the race. Roger Heasman and Rick Thurlow were out in the Bosun. Liam Routley was in his pretty green Laser. Three Solos with small sails took to the water but
Adam Hilton had one taste of crossing the centre of the Lake and scuttled straight back to
the slipway. Dave Perrett (Solo) crossed the line first but before the horn. He went back and started last.
Liam Routley started well and led the field followed by the Heasman/Thurlow Bosun and
Geoff Floyd’s Solo. The Bosun had some sort of problem leaving Inlet and let the Solos past.
At Dam Green Dave Perrett was close behind the leading Laser which completed the lap in
sixteen minutes. Each lap Liam seemed to have trouble getting his Laser to make the
passage between Inlet and Middle and on lap 2 Dave was able to get past, a lead he
retained until the end, although only by fifteen seconds on the water.
Thanks were given to race officer John Dabbs.
Dave Perrett (Solo, with a small sail) was first over the line. He was at the far end of the start line on
starboard tack when most of the fleet started on port from the other end. He benefitted from the
clean air and was still first rounding the first buoy, followed by Jane Anderson. By the time the fleet
reached the top of the Lake James and Nathan Pollard had exploited their Lasers’ speed and were
first and second. It was a sunny/cloudy day with a moderate wind and quite powerful gusts, reducing
as time went on. The Bosuns, Roger Heasman’s with Adam Hilton and Brian Pollard’s with Natasha
Routley, tussled. The Heasman boat eventually came out on top.
The fleet increased to eleven and, with the wind reducing, two of the Solos had full-sized sails. The
long beat to Far was reduced to Pinkie which Nathan Pollard was the first to reach. He led at the end
of each lap. Jane Anderson’s Laser 4.7 was never far from Dave Perrett’s Solo; she finishing some
thirty seconds behind, fourth on the water. Brian Pollard spent most of the race as the lead Bosun
but lost the position to Roger Heasman on the last lap.
Thanks were given to Linda Spiller who ran the races and to Mandy Pollard who took the photos.
The winds had abandoned their brief sojourn in the East and were blowing from a more
familiar Northwest at a speed of 13mph, plus gusts of course, but coming over a reasonably
smooth contour, they were comparatively friendly gusts. It was sunny. There were no
anglers!
The four Solos in the race were all equipped with small sails, by agreement among their
helms. Rob Spiller got his over the start line first followed by John Dabbs with Graham Joyce
in a reefed Bosun and then Linda Spiller in the sole Laser Radial. Rick Thurlow’s course went
from a far side start around Zebra to West, then across to Middle and up to Far. Apart from
a brief reach across the centre of the Lake this was all beating and it put a premium on the
boat/helm’s ability to point high. The Spiller Laser was first around Zebra but couldn’t make
west in one tack which Adam Hilton’s Solo could. He took a lead which was not
subsequently relinquished. The Dabbs/Joyce Bosun, one of three in the race, was third at
the end of lap 1 but Roger Heasman’s sister ship with Bob Sampson as crew had a full
mainsail and took over as lead Bosun. Dave Perrett, whose Solo was only fifth at the start
pulled himself up to be the second of the Solos, third boat to finish. The handicap gave Linda
Spiller victory by a few seconds.
Thanks were given to race officer Rick Thurlow
South-easterly winds dictated a start towards the Dam and that meant congestion at Dam Green
buoy. Bob Sampson (Laser Full) got round first with Nathan Pollard (Laser Full) following and Jane
Anderson (Laser 4.7) emerging doing penalty turns. The three Solos in the race all had cut down
sails, amply justified by the strength of the wind gusts. Dave Perrett’s was the last of the three over
the line but managed his tacks well and was the first of the three at Dam Green. He stayed ahead of
the other Solos throughout. Vicki Duncalf kept her Topper in touch with the fleet, finishing ten
minutes behind the leader, and the handicap rewarded her with third place.
Nathan Pollard was first round Dam Green in strengthened winds and warm sun. Jane Anderson,
Bob Sampson, now with a sail two sizes down, and Dave Perrett all converged on the buoy, the Solo
helm performing penalties afterwards. The two small-sailed Lasers were never far apart but Jane
Anderson remained in front, not near enough to Nathan Pollard for the handicap to give her victory
however. The handicap did push the Perrett Solo down below the Pollard/Hilton Bosun which
finished a minute and a half behind. Vicki Duncalf, another couple of minutes back, was again
promoted.
Thanks were given to Sue Murray who ran the races and to Mandy Pollard who took the photos.
It was a very hot afternoon with no wind on arrival at the lake, however just before the start a decent breeze raised the prospect of a good race.
Seven boats took to the water, with the added challenge of a group of kayaks close to the start line. Robin was first over the line in his solo, followed by John and Leila in the bosun. Adam deftly slalomed through the kayaks to the first buoy! Skillfully managed to move from 6th to 1st before the second buoy on the first lap and remained in front throughout. Four laps, with everyone well spaced out, so no pressure at each buoy and little opportunity to improve position.
Thanks were given to Colin and Louise Witchell who ran the races
Photo taken just before the start.
