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8th October 2023 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

by Mandy Pollard

Frostbite 2

Nathan Pollard led off a bunch of four full-sailed Lasers on a glorious pretending-to-be-summer Sunday with very light southerly winds. Jane Anderson was second until, on the second lap, the Pollard Laser needed an extra tack to reach the Dam and she took over the lead, a minute ahead at the finish. Linda Spiller was third until Bob Sampson took over her place on lap 2. Chasing the Lasers and briefly getting in amongst them was Adam Hilton’s Solo, an effort rewarded when the handicaps were applied. The two Bosuns in the race were led by Brian Pollard’s with Cilla Gilbert as crew. They were aiming for sixth and seventh until Dave Perrett’s slow-starting Solo overtook the Bosun pair on the way up the Lake on lap 1.

  1. Jane Anderson (Laser Full)
  2. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full)
  3. Adam Hilton (Solo)
  4. Bob Sampson (Laser Full)
  5. Linda Spiller (Laser Full)
  6. Dave Perrett (Solo)
  7. Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun)
  8. John Dabbs and Paul Anderson (Bosun)

 

Icicle 2

The winds had dropped and progress around the Lake was considerably more reliable on a paddle board than a sailing boat. Not everyone had an appetite for drifting and the fleet was reduced to six boats. Dave Perrett reversed his performance in the earlier race and got his Solo away first, followed by Nathan Pollard’s Laser. The Lasers soon took over; Jane Anderson taking the lead on the second slow and final lap – the race finished after fifty minutes; the morning’s race had managed three laps in little more time. Bob Sampson’s Laser was third throughout but Adam Hilton’s Solo, last over the start line, managed to get up to fourth on the first lap and to stay there. Brian Pollard found progress in the heavier Bosun too slow and retired.

  1. Jane Anderson (Laser Full)
  2. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full)
  3. Bob Sampson (Laser Full)
  4. Adam Hilton (Solo)
  5. Dave Perrett (Solo)

Retired Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun)

 

Many thanks to Robin Spiller who ran the races and to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

Wednesday 16th August 2023 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Penny Abbott

Teatime Plate 1

Several sailors had launched in the course of the morning and drifted about the Lake for a bit in the very lightest of airs. Racing was not an enticing prospect. But John Buckett, who was Officer of the Day, commanded that there be wind for the start of racing and there was; light, fairly unreliable northerlies, but quite enough to power a race, even to raise hopes of a little planing on the near reach from Home 2 to West White.

Leila Farmer, sailing her Hartley 12 on her own, fashioned an excellent start but on the beat to Home 2 Ethan Walker’s Laser Radial took over at the front. Meanwhile Geoff Floyd was bringing up his Solo to begin a race-long battle with Ethan’s Radial. Geoff led at the end of the first lap, Ethan at the end of the second; there was five seconds between them at the finish with Ethan ahead. The handicap took the victory from him. Dave Perrett’s pretty navy blue Solo (soon to be replaced by something newer) managed to finish the first lap ahead of the Hartley 12 but fell back on the second. Rick Thurlow was helming the Commodore’s Bosun under the tuition of its owner. They toured at the rear but were not far behind and the handicap took them from fifth to fourth.

  1. Geoff Floyd (Solo)
  2. Ethan Walker (Laser Radial)
  3. Leila Farmer (Hartley 12)
  4. Rick Thurlow and Roger Heasman (Bosun)
  5. Dave Perrett

DNS: Adam Hilton (Solo)

Roger’s Bosuns 5

It was a near-side start and the consensus was to cross the line on starboard as close to Home1 as possible and hope for a two tack run to Home 2. Ethan Walker was dangerously early approaching the line and had to turn to leeward and wait for the horn. Geoff Floyd and Ian Chatterton did better, setting off from close to Home 1, but Dave Perrett started well too, his Solo seeming to point higher than in the previous race.

The Chatterton Enterprise led going up to Pinkie and at the end of the lap and at the end of this short two lap race, and by a good three minutes! Ethan Walker got over his compromised start and was third at the end of lap 1 but Dave Perrett had overtaken him before the finish. Geoff Floyd held his second place throughout the race but didn’t have the handicap to keep it in the results, second going to the Thurlow/ Heasman Bosun. The winds had strengthened by the end to a good 2 to 3 Beaufort.

  1. Ian and Katy Chatterton (Enterprise)
  2. Rick Thurlow and Roger Heasman (Bosun)
  3. Geoff Floyd (Solo)
  4. Dave Perrett (Solo)
  5. Ethan Walker (Laser Radial)

John Buckett ran the races with the assistance of Penny Abbott. Many thanks to them.

25th June 2023 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Mandy Pollard

Bosuns Plus 2

The wind, its gusts, its shifts, its sheer power, defined the day’s racing. Force four, gusting to six was the forecast and fully evident in the first race and exceeded in the second. Two senior helms took to the water but, daunted, returned to the shore before the start.

Roger Heasman and Rick Thurlow’s Bosun was well beyond the start line when the klaxon sounded. They had to return and started last. The first, in windward to leeward, rather than bow over the line, order, were Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert in the yellow Bosun, Bob Sampson’s Laser, flying a modest 4.7 sail, and Dave Perrett’s small-sailed Solo.  The Sampson Laser was first around the first buoy, at Inlet, with Brian Pollard second and Jane Anderson’s Topper third. By the time they reached Pinkie, Sue Murray (Laser 4.7) was ahead of Jane Anderson and at the buoy she slipped past Brian Pollard. Thereafter she chased Bob Sampson’s leading Laser at varying distances until, between Dam Green and the finish line on the fourth and final lap she managed to nose ahead and win on the water. It however was Jane Anderson’s third place at the finish which the handicaps rewarded with the victory in the non-Bosun race.

In the Bosun race the Pollard/Gilbert  Bosun was overtaken by its Dabbs/Spiller sister and then, at the last, by the Heasman/ Thurlow boat.

Bosun race

  1. John Dabbs and Linda Spiller (Bosun)
  2. Roger Heasman and Rick Thurlow (Bosun)
  3. Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun)

Plus race

  1. Jane Anderson (Topper)
  2. Sue Murray (Laser 4.7)
  3. Bob Sampson (Laser 4.7)
  4. Dave Perrett (Solo)

 

Pursuit 3

After two laps, during which most of the single-handed dinghies had capsized, some more than once, the race was stopped, the reason being, not the increased strength of the winds, but that the safety boat’s outboard had become partially dislodged. It was not a day to sail without a safety boat.

Many thanks were given to Nathan Pollard and Linda Spiller, Officers of the Day, and to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

11th June 2023 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Mandy Pollard

Pursuit 2

John Buckett in his little Otter led off this pursuit race on a day of sun and highly variable winds from points around the northeast. He had already completed a lap before the last four competitors had started their races. This was because a fishing competition had located sixty anglers around the banks of Tamar Lake; the water on which to sail was thus very limited and the laps consequently short, consisting of a triangular course from the Dam up to Middle, across to West and back again. It was however a requirement to leave Home 1 to starboard, a necessity forgotten by three helms at different points in the race, resulting in their disqualification. Behind the flying Buckett, three Bosuns competed. John Dabbs, sailing alone, was third to start but finished second. Brian Pollard, equally alone, began second but finished fifth. Roger Heasman and Dave Perrett began and ended in fourth. The fast full-sailed Lasers began the race between thirteen and nineteen minutes after the start. It was a lot of time to make up. Nathan Pollard managed to get up to sixth at the end; Jane Anderson achieved an impressive third. John Buckett’s Otter was never headed.

  1. John Buckett (Otter)
  2. John Dabbs (Bosun)
  3. Jane Anderson (Laser Full)
  4. Roger Heasman and Dave Perrett (Bosun)
  5. Brian Pollard (Bosun)
  6. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full)

Disqualified Adam Hilton (Solo), Paul Anderson (Laser Full), Graham Joyce (Laser Radial)

 

Many thanks were given to Penny Abbott, Officer of the Day, and to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

Wednesday 12th October 2022 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

@Roadford Lake

Three Soloists took to the water; Floyd, Hilton and Perrett and the Spillers took their boats out. They were joined by the RLSC Commodore Richard Willows in his Supernova. The winds were light and came from the southwest. The Supernova took off into the blue yonder. Linda Spiller’s Radial led Adam Hilton’s Solo by varying distances until he, confused about the number of laps to be sailed, went ashore. Robin Spiller and Geoff Floyd tussled. David Perrett, still finding his way around his Solo, followed along.

Wednesday 11th May 2022 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Midweek Mug 2

It had been blowing hard and raining. It was still blowing; force three to five the OOD, John Buckett, reckoned. Nobody expected timid sailors to turn up and they didn’t. So two Bosuns took to the water, both with small rigs: Roger Heasman’s with David Perrett as crew and John Dabbs’ with Adam Hilton pulling sheets. Bob Sampson said he would put a 4.7 on his Laser and go over the startline to make the race numbers legal, but once on the water, speed lover that he is, he revelled in the conditions and could be seen planing up and down the Lake, making gibe turns for the heck of it, long after the race had finished!

Roger Heasman started first but he had been overtaken by Bob Sampson before Inlet and had fallen back a minute and a half by the end of lap 1. By the end of the four laps the gap was nearly ten minutes on the water and six on corrected time. John Dabbs followed the Heasman Bosun throughout but the gap between the two boats  was never more than a few lengths and at times, generally as they rounded buoys, they were bow to transom. A good time was had by all.

  1. Bob Sampson (Laser 4.7l)
  2. Roger Heasman and David Perrett (Bosun)
  3. John Dabbs and Adam Hilton (Bosun)

Grateful thanks were given to John Buckett for running the race.

24th April 2022 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Mandy Pollard

Tamar 1

Ten boats took to the water for the first race of the Tamar series. The first to cross the start line and begin a successful day’s racing was the Bosun of John Dabbs crewed by Linda Spiller. However, confusion as to whether to leave Dam Green to port or starboard allowed a handful of Lasers and Robin Spiller’s Streaker to go past. James Pollard led initially but Nathan Pollard was first to finish the first lap and the following three, a predictably gusty bunch of north-easterlies powering the dinghies around the course in about fifteen minutes a lap. Jane Anderson, with a smaller Radial sail on her Laser, followed the brothers Pollard at a discreet distance, finishing a couple of minutes behind the winner but being given second place by the handicap. A contest developed between Robin Spiller’s Streaker and Adam Hilton’s Solo which, after recovering from a tardy start, dogged the wake of the Streaker, occasionally putting a nose in front. The Dabbs/Spiller Bosun consistently led its Heasman/Perrett and Pollard/Weller sisters.

  1. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full)
  2. Jane Anderson (Laser Radial)
  3. James Pollard (Laser Full)
  4. Robin Spiller (Streaker)
  5. Adam Hilton (Solo)
  6. John Dabbs and Linda Spiller (Bosun)
  7. Roger Heasman and Dave Perrett (Bosun)
  8. Geoff Floyd (Solo)
  9. Mike Coley (Laser Full)

Retired: Brian Pollard and John Weller (Bosun)

 

Tamar 2

The gloomy grey skies of the first race were replaced by sun and warmth but the winds remained much the same. Adam Hilton’s Solo was the first to get away and round the first buoy but was soon overtaken by the full-sailed Lasers of Nathan Pollard and Mike Coley; these two staying at the front for the rest of the race. Jane Anderson, who had been the seventh skipper to round the first buoy, Dam Green, disposed of the three Bosuns in front of her and watched the leaders from fourth place for a couple of laps before overtaking the Solo in front of her. Brian Pollard’s Bosun, John Weller crewing, started fast, being the first to round Dam Green but was overtaken by its sisters going up the Lake. The handicaps tossed the finishing order in the air, but one skipper keeping his on-the-water place was Nathan Pollard, even if he had to share the victory with John Dabbs and Linda Spiller!

  1. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full) and, equal first, John Dabbs and Linda Spiller (Bosun)
  3. Roger Heasman and Dave Perrett (Bosun)
  4. Adam Hilton (Solo)
  5. Jane Anderson (Laser Radial)
  6. Mike Coley (Laser Full)
  7. Brian Pollard and John Weller (Bosun)
  8. Robin Spiller (Streaker)

Vicki Duncalf was Officer of the Day. Many thanks were given to her as well as to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

 

10 April 2022 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

Mandy Pollard

Barnwell 2

‘Force 4, gusting 6’ was the forecast and the forecasters were right! The gusts were powerful and deviated wildly from the underlying southerlies; two members of the fleet had their dinghies capsize and the rest had to work very hard. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full) was first over the line and led throughout. Jane Anderson (Laser 4.7) was second to start and newcomer Mike Coley (Laser Full) was running in third until his boat disappeared from under him at Home 2. The Anderson 4.7 stayed in touch with the leading Laser around West and up to Pinkie. Brian (Bosun, Cilla Gilbert as crew) began to pull ahead of John Dabbs (Bosun, with Adam Hilton) in front of Geoff Floyd with a small sail on his Solo. Mike Coley got his Laser the right way up and was giving chase but retired at the end of lap 1.

On the second lap Nathan Pollard was stretching the gap to Jane Anderson but in the winds even he was having to loose his mainsheet a little. The Bosuns were duelling, Brian Pollard generally ahead as they rounded the buoys until, on the beat from Pinkie back to Middle, John Dabbs’ choice of tacks gave him a lead over the yellow Bosun which was not again challenged.

The fleet continued to reduce, with Jane Anderson retiring her Laser on lap 2 and Geoff Floyd being towed in. The third lap therefore finished with Nathan Pollard some ten minutes ahead of the leading Bosun with Brian Pollard following some two and a half minutes behind.

Rank HelmName CrewName Class Rating Elapsed Corrected
1 Nathan Pollard LASER 1075 0:38:53 0:36:10
2 John Dabbs Adam Hilton BOSUN 1236 0:48:30 0:39:14
3 Brian Pollard Cilla Gilbert BOSUN 1236 0:51:03 0:41:18
4 Jane Anderson LASER 4.7 1185 RET
4 Geoff Floyd SOLO 1143 RET
4 Mike Coley LASER 1075 RET

 

Sailboat 2

Not run; too few skippers were prepared to brave the gusts!

Roger Heasman was Officer of the Day: many thanks to him and to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

Wednesday 15th September 2021 Race Report

Teacake 5

Only four helms signed on for the race, others no doubt put off by yet another forecast of 4 mph winds. To add spice to this meagre contest Sue Murray, the OOD, was persuaded to race. Cameron Putt, the SWLT safety boat man, started the race and helms took their own times at the finish. In the end the wind got up and was pleasantly brisk at the start only returning to its tiresome lethargy on the third lap which Sue, the leader, after a little mid-lake discussion, determined should be the last.

John Dabbs, solitary in his Bosun, Adam Hilton, Soloed as usual and Sue Murray, full sail on her Laser, were all close at the start, but the Solo was over the line and had to turn back. Sue set off in the lead and stayed there but was kept honest by Linda Spiller (Laser Full) who was never far behind. The Solo’s ability to point high took it past the Dabbs Bosun and, the Streaker needing one more tack on the long beat from West to Pinky, Robin Spiller. The gaps lengthened as the race went on.

  1. Sue Murray (Laser Full)
  2. Linda Spiller (Laser Full)
  3. Adam Hilton (Solo).
  4. John Dabbs (Bosun)
  5. Robin Spiller (Streaker)

Sue Murray did everything needed to run a race except stand in the race hut. Cameron Putt pressed the button for the horn sequence to start. Thank you.

5th September 2021 Race Report

by Adam Hilton

 

Mandy Pollard

Commodore 6

The waters at Upper Tamar Lake were very low and the winds were barely present. A fishing competition put much of the Lake out-of-bounds. The sun shone.  Sue Murray (Laser Full), Robin Spiller (Streaker) and Jane Anderson (Laser Full) all managed to cross the line when the starting horn sounded while the rest of the fleet floundered. Sue Murray stayed first at the first buoy but was overtaken by Jane Anderson on the way to Middle. A random puff of wind brought Adam Hilton’s Solo up to the leading bunch but he touched Sue Murray’s gunwale at Middle, did penalty turns and from then on lost ground. Robin Spiller remained in third catching up the Lasers on the second lap. Three helms thought they’d finished when they hadn’t and were ‘retired’. Others struggled on and were rewarded, notably Vicki Duncalf whose Topper gained fourth place and Geoff Floyd whose Solo gained fifth when the handicaps were applied.

  1. Robin Spiller (Streaker)
  2. Sue Murray (Laser Full)
  3. Jane Anderson (Laser Full)
  4. Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
  5. Geoff Floyd (Solo)
  6. Roger Heasman and John Buckett (Bosun)

Retired:  Adam Hilton (Solo). Linda Spiller (Laser Full) Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun) John Dabbs (Bosun)

 

Spalding Cup 6

Robin Spiller continued his enviable run of good starts and he was still first at Dam Green but Jane Anderson was in front by the time they reached West and retained the lead from then on. They were chased by Sue Murray and Nathan Pollard who’d joined the fleet in his Laser (Full). Linda Spiller followed in fifth and John Dabbs in sixth. John Buckett had switched from crew to helming his Otter and completed the first lap in seventh but lost ground subsequently. There were several retirements by helms who couldn’t persuade their dinghies to sail without wind.

  1. Jane Anderson (Laser Full)
  2. Robin Spiller (Streaker)
  3. Sue Murray (Laser Full)
  4. Nathan Pollard (Laser Full)
  5. Adam Hilton (Solo)
  6. Linda Spiller (Laser Full)
  7. John Buckett (Otter)
  8. John Dabbs (Bosun)

Retired: Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun), Geoff Floyd (Solo), Vicki Duncalf (Topper)

 

Grateful thanks were given to Graham Joyce, assisted by Nicky Buckett, for running the races and to Mandy Pollard for the photographs.