Barnwell 7
On a day with a fluky north-westerly wind, the 8-strong fleet got away well in a closely-bunched group before taking different options on the fastest way to beat toward West buoy; whilst the bulk of the fleet opted to hug the Devon bank, Brian Pollard and Jane Anderson tacked away early over towards the Cornwall bank of the reservoir. Nathan Pollard in his full-rig Laser wasted no time in moving into an early lead and as the fleet did a dogleg at the Home 2 buoy and headed up towards Pinky, he had already put a considerable distance between himself and the rest of the fleet. However, despite sailing a Topper dinghy, nominally the slowest class of boat on the water, Jane Anderson was showing her customary sailing expertise to be at the head of the chasing pack in second place. It wasn’t until the third lap that the Bosuns of Brian Pollard and John Dabbs managed to overtake Jane.
The three Bosuns in the fleet were having a close fought tussle of their own, with Brian Pollard initially leading the trio, before John Dabbs and crew Linda Spiller overtook before the end of the third lap. By the end of the hour-long race, Nathan Pollard had continued to leave the rest of the fleet far behind, crossing the line nearly nine minutes ahead of the second boat. However, despite this it wasn’t enough to give him the win on corrected time, with Jane Anderson being a comfortable winner on handicap, leaving Nathan in second, followed in turn by Vicki Duncalf in another Topper taking third place.
Results:
- Jane Anderson (Topper)
- Nathan Pollard (Laser)
- Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
- John Dabbs and Linda Spiller (Bosun)
- Brian Pollard and Natasha Routley (Bosun)
- Roger Heasman and Jenny Routley (Bosun)
- Dave Perrett (Solo)
Robin Spiller (Solo) retired
Tamar 7
An altered course for the second race resulted in a biased start line and this led to a considerable melee of boats jostling for position at the favoured pin end but out this free-for-all Nathan Pollard managed to get clear away into clean air, closely followed by Dave Perrett in his Solo. A short reach to the Zebra buoy was followed by a true beat to West, with Nathan once again soon disappearing into the far distance in his Laser. Behind him, Linda Spiller was going well in the smaller-rigged Laser 4.7, managing second place behind Nathan at the end of the third lap, with Dave’s Solo only just behind. The closest tussle on the water was between the two Bosuns, with Roger Heasman initially just ahead, but with Brian Pollard bit-by-bit eating into the gap between them. Uncharacteristically, Jane Anderson had made a poor start and was last away and it wasn’t until the end of the first lap that she managed to close up with the other Topper helmed by Vicki Duncalf. The revised course gave a long broad reach all the way from Far buoy right down to the Dam and some of the faster boats were able to exploit this if the gusts of wind came at the right time, getting onto the plane and accelerating away.
By the end of the race, Nathan Pollard again had exploited his superior boat speed to be first across the line by a huge margin, with Linda Spiller over six minutes behind. The Bosun duel continued all the way to the finish: Brian rounded the penultimate mark two boat lengths ahead, but a rapid roll-gybe enabled Roger to inch ever nearer and he was agonisingly close as the two dinghies crossed the finish line almost side-by-side. After calculation of boat handicaps, the leading positions were a reversal of the previous race’s, with Nathan in first place and the recovering Jane in second.
Results:
- Nathan Pollard (Laser)
- Jane Anderson (Topper)
- Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
- Linda Spiller (Laser 4.7)
- Brian Pollard and Natasha Routley (Bosun)
- Roger Heasman and Jenny Routley (Bosun)
- Dave Perrett (Solo)
- Robin Spiller (Solo)
Thanks were given to race officer John Buckett and to photographer Mandy Pollard.