Upper Tamar Lake Sailing Club race report — Sunday, May 20

Sailboat Three

BOB Sampson and Nathan Pollard, both with full-sized sails on their Lasers, had a race long battle which the lap chart does nothing to reveal that Sampson was first to complete all three laps.

They finished two seconds apart as they had been at many points in a race conducted in warm sunshine and, until the end, serviceable if highly variable winds.

These winds were coming from points to the south so the start was towards the dam.

Vicki Duncalf (Topper) and Adam Hilton (Solo) reckoned starting from the end of the pontoon might mean reaching Dam Green without tacking.

It worked well for the Solo, which was first around the buoy, with the Sampson/Pollard scrap already taking shape behind it.

Their Lasers were away before they reached the middle of the lake and at the finish were five minutes in front of the next boat, Jane Anderson’s Laser Radial, which she had squeezed into third place by cutting the corner into Inlet with dagger board up and hull canted over to clear the shallow water!

The wind abandoned the rear of the field and it was nearly half an hour before the back markers could get to their sandwiches.

Winner: Bob Sampson (Laser Full);

Runner-up: Nathan Pollard (Laser Full); 3rd: Adam Hilton (Solo); 4th: Jane Anderson (Laser Radial); 5th: Robin Spiller (Streaker); 6th: Sue Murray (Laser Radial); 7th: Linda Spiller (Laser Full); 8th: Jane Chadney (Laser Radial); 9th: Vicki Duncalf (Topper); 10th: Sally Wills and Roger Heasman (Bosun); 11th: Cilla Gilbert and Brian Pollard (Bosun)

Tamar Four

THE wind was even more variable for the afternoon race with those helms at the pontoon end of the startline, which faced up the lake this time, getting a useful gust denied to the others.

Bob Sampson, Nathan Pollard and Vicki Duncalf were first away but no one could stay with Sampson, Pollard having switched to a Radial sail because the Tamar race series requires consistency of hull and sail.

Paul Whybrow, in his familiar red Solo, did best at keeping up and was second at the end of lap one, a couple of minutes behind, with Linda Spiller (Laser Full) third and Jane Chadney (Laser Radial) fourth.

Jane Anderson was fifth at the end of the first lap but had hauled herself up to second by the end of the second.

However, neither the minute’s lead she had over Paul Whybrow at the finish, nor even the three minutes that Sampson had, was enough to overcome the advantageous handicap of the Solo which gained Whybrow victory.

Winner: Paul Whybrow (Solo); Runner-up: Bob Sampson (Laser Full); 3rd: Jane Anderson (Laser Radial); 4th: Linda Spiller (Laser Full); 5th: Vicki Duncalf (Topper); 6th: Jane Chadney (Laser Radial); 7th: Roger Heasman and Sally Wills (Bosun); 8th: Nathan Pollard (Laser Radial); 9th: Brian Pollard and Cilla Gilbert (Bosun)

Retired: Adam Hilton (Solo)

Grateful thanks were expressed to John Weller and Alan Comber for running the races and to Mandy Pollard for the photographs.