Upper Tamar Lake Sailing Club — March 6

NINE boats took to the water for the first race of the season, a very good turnout considering that the chill of the brisk northwest wind ripped through any insulation that sailors had put between themselves and it.

James Pollard and Jane Chadney had both made the safe choice of small 4.7 sails for their Lasers but that didn’t stop them getting over the start line first, James leading by, the Officer of the Day reckoned, 0.01 of a second!

They continued in close company throughout the race with James finishing a second in front. Rob Spiller in his Streaker had a lonelier race behind them, with Adam Hilton’s Solo, which started last, eventually taking up station some distance behind the Streaker.

Nathan Pollard and birthday girl Jane Anderson followed in Toppers and had a good tussle through all three laps with Jane just pipping James to the line by ten seconds.

Cilla Gilbert, with minder Bob Sampson in a brand new dry suit, did well to keep the club Bosun in contention and it was nice to see Toby Tobias sailing his pretty little blue Mirror for a change.

Geof Floyd had a big grin on his face for the first outing of his new — to him — Solo.

The 2016 handicaps are not yet available and so the results below show what happened on the water.

1. J Pollard (Laser 4.7)

2. J Chadney (Laser 4.7)

3. R Spiller (Streaker)

4. A Hilton (Solo)

5. J Anderson (Topper)

6. N Pollard (Topper)

7. C Gilbert, R Sampson (Bosun)

8. T Tobias (Mirror)

Retired: G Floyd (Solo)

Thanks were expressed to the Commodore, Sue Murray, for officiating and to Brian Pollard and Roger Heasman for manning a very chilly safety boat.