Upper Tamar Lake Sailing Club race report — Sunday, June 10

Barnwell Three

JOHN Dabbs in his Gull won the Barnwell Three race on handicap.

He was ninth to cross the finish line but only eight minutes behind Steve Axford in the full-sailed Laser, who finished first.

Another major beneficiary of the handicaps was Vicki Duncalf in the Topper. She finished tenth, nine minutes behind Axford, but was awarded third place.

It was another lovely Sunday with light and highly variable easterlies which disappeared altogether for minutes at a time, leaving the fleet scattered motionless across a glassy Lake.

The officers of the day, Geoff Floyd and Robin Spiller, shortened the race to two laps.

The leading bunch consisted of Lasers (Nathan Pollard, Steve Axford (who shared the lead between them) and Linda Spiller with full sails, Jane Anderson and Penny Abbott with Radials) and a lone Solo (Adam Hilton).

They all finished within a minute of Steve’s time but the full sailed Lasers got demoted in the results.

The second bunch (the Bosuns, the Gull, the Topper, Bob Bennett’s Laser Radial) were also pretty close together for much of the race, but were left some way behind when they got becalmed at Inlet and subjected to glares from offshore fishermen.

Winner: John Dabbs (Gull); Runner-up: Adam Hilton (Solo); 3rd: Vicki Duncalf (Topper); 4th: Jane Anderson (Laser Radial); 5th: Penny Abbott (Laser Radial); 6th: Steve Axford (Laser Full); 7th: Nathan Pollard (Laser Full); 8th: Linda Spiller (Laser Full); 9th: Sally Wills and Roger Heasman (Bosun); 10th: Bob Bennett (Laser Radial); 11th: Cilla Gilbert and Brian Pollard (Bosun)

Tamar Five

A REVISED course omitted the fisherman-infested Inlet and the wind held up most of the time.

There was enough of it for the leaders to be doing 15-minute laps, four of them within the hour.

But at the other end of the fleet, it took half an hour longer — the tail-enders were being lapped — so there were no major promotions by the handicap system.

Again Steve Axford led, from the off this time, and he was four minutes ahead of Linda Spiller by the end.

Jane Anderson was second around Dam Green, the first buoy, but third at the end of each lap with Adam Hilton consistently fourth. Roger Heasman, now helming the Bosun with Sally Wills as crew, was well up for the first couple of laps and kept his fifth place in front of Nathan Pollard who was now flying a Radial, but was ten minutes behind Hilton’s Solo at the end.

Winner: Steve Axford (Laser Full); Runner-up: Adam Hilton (Solo); 3rd: Linda Spiller (Laser Full); 4th: Jane Anderson (Laser Radial); 5th: Roger Heasman and Sally Wills (Bosun); 6th: John Buckett (Otter); 7th: John Dabbs (Gull); 8th: Nathan Pollard (Laser Radial); 9th: Penny Abbott (Laser Radial); 10th: Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun)

Retired: Vicki Duncalf (Topper) and Bob Bennett (Laser Radial)

Grateful thanks were expressed to Geoff Floyd and Robin Spiller for running the races and to Mandy Pollard for her photographs.