THE Upper Tamar Lake sailors were greeted by a useful little wind, a blue sky and bright sunshine for their festive and thoroughly informal race on Boxing Day.

The Laser fleet was represented by Bob Sampson in his regular black-hulled craft and James Pollard in his new (not very), green (soon to be repainted) and thoroughly refurbished boat.

Vicki Duncalf and Nathan Pollard flew the Topper’s flag while the Bosun’s consisted of Brian Pollard taking out Cilla Gilbert in the club’s Rob Eason boat and Adam Hilton crewed by John Dabbs.

The wind was north-westerly, so that a beat up to the first buoy meant starting on the Devon side of the line and tacking up to West White.

Nathan Pollard, Bob Sampson and James Pollard were very quickly away, with Bob the only starter on port tack. This seems to have been a good choice because he was soon in the lead, achieving a 12-minute lap, although Bob was followed throughout by James Pollard in the other Laser. The first Bosun was Brian Pollard’s, with Adam Hilton’s Bosun the last to round the first buoy. Nathan Pollard’s Topper led Vicki Duncalf’s.

The Hilton/Dabbs Bosun gradually overhauled Vicki and then Nathan but not by nearly enough to overcome their handicap advantage.

On three laps John Duncalf, who had generously volunteered to run the race, reckoned it was probably chilly enough to call it a day and cancelled the fourth lap.

Bob Sampson finished first on 42-minutes and won, but the Toppers came up from fifth and sixth to second (Nathan) and fifth (Vicki) when the handicaps were applied.

1. B Sampson (Laser); 2. N Pollard (Topper); 3. J Pollard (Laser); 4. B Pollard & C Gilbert (Bosun); 5. V Duncalf (Topper); 6. A Hilton with J Dabbs (Bosun)

Thanks were expressed to John Duncalf who was the officer of the day and calculated the handicapped results without electronic assistance, and to Mandy Pollard for the photographs.