Midweek Mug 3
by Adam Hilton
All morning the Lake had been glassy while a small posse (Leila, Louise, Geoff, technical assistant Roger) had been removing green mould and putrid snails from the Club’s Toppers, but when the race started, 1 pm, there was enough westerly wind to make sitting on the gunwale possible, most of the time at least. Nicky Buckett, the day’s Officer, was watching the start line hawklike, thinking that Adam Hilton’s Solo would cross it prematurely; but no, he was able to set off on the long beat to Pinkie unrepremanded. Linda Spiller took her Radial on a different line but was behind at Pinkie; she grabbed the lead at Dam Green and led at the end of the first lap. The position was reversed for the second lap but Linda was ahead again on the third after a racelong battle between the two.
It was the tacking up to Pinkie that made or broke many competitors’ races; how high did their boat point? Had they chosen the bit of the Lake which had the most wind just then? On the first lap John Dabbs, sailing his Bosun alone, emerged in third place in front of Geoff Floyd’s Solo and the Heasman/Perrett Bosun but on the next lap the single-hander’s – Geoff’s and Robin Spiller’s Streaker – took up third and fourth places in front of the Bosuns and they kept them until the end. The handicaps tried to reverse the position. Leila Farmer took out one of the newly cleaned Club Toppers and followed in a creditable seventh.
- Adam Hilton (Solo)
- Linda Spiller (Laser Radial)
- John Dabbs (Bosun)
- Geoff Floyd (Solo)
- Roger Heasman and Dave Perrett (Bosun)
- Robin Spiller (Streaker)
- Leila Farmer (Topper)
- John Buckett (Otter)
- Colin and Louise Witchell (Bosun)
Midweek Mug 4
by John Buckett
A much reduced fleet of three boats went out for the second race, just sufficient to make a quorum for a race. Nevertheless, there was still a sufficiently keen competitive spirit that two boats were over the line at the start and there was a general recall. On the second time of asking, Linda Spiller was nail-bitingly close to again being OCS but in the end got it just right and made a very fast start. The wind had strengthened considerably from the first race and John Dabbs was pleased to take on Dave Perrett as crew. Not only was the wind gustier, but it was also quite shifty, with the north or north-westerly breeze alternating with sudden puffs from the west, probably caused by the sea breeze building in the strong sunshine. Linda built on her good start to draw out a clear lead, but Geoff Floyd was also going well in the Solo to stay more-or-less in touch and had already passed Zebra as Linda approached Dam Green on the second lap. The fluctuating wind direction meant that the course had a couple of awkward gybes on the return back from Pinkie via West and Middle (at which booms didn’t always come across when expected) to keep the competitors on their toes, but all stayed upright. On the final lap, Linda caught a gust and made a very fast transit from West to Middle, sufficient to open up the lead over Geoff. John and Dave looked to be sailing comfortably and might well have caught the Solo on handicap, but on rounding Dam Green to beat up to the finish line for the final time, John tacked early and the Bosun then hit a header and couldn’t quite make the line, so he had to put in a couple of slow tacks, probably sufficient to push him back to third place.
- Linda Spiller (Laser Radial)
- Geoff Floyd (Solo)
- John Dabbs and Dave Perrett (Bosun)