By Adam Hilton

Upper Tamar Lake Sailing Club race report – Sunday, March 30

BARNWELL ONE

ON THE first day of the racing season, Upper Tamar Lake Sailing Club members turned up to scrub up their boats but some were put off taking to the water by viciously cold winds which the bright sunlight failed to tame.

Nathan Pollard, however, began the new sailing season at Upper Tamar Lake in the style which he, no doubt, intends to maintain; he crossed the line first and was never headed, gradually pulling away from the rest of the field and finishing, after three laps, more than three minutes ahead of the second boat. He was sailing his Laser with a little 4.7 sail on a day of welcome sunlight but strong and penetratingly cold breezes from points around the northwest. White streaks of foam stretched the length of the lake.

John Dabbs, officer of the day, had set a course that had the fleet tacking to Zebra buoy, making for West and continuing to tack up to Pinkie. Here a gybe was needed to set helms on a return journey that included a visit to Inlet, where competition fishermen were camped in the water. How did they survive the cold? Finally a reach to Home Two took the fleet to the centre of the lake before the run down to the Dam.

Second over the starting line were Brian Pollard and crew Natasha Routley racing, indeed sailing, for the first time the Graduate two-handed dinghy, a long-term Tamar Lake resident but unsailed since Adeney Pooler gave up.

It was an impressive effort; the Graduate is a small boat, only four centimetres longer than a Solo but with one and a half square metres more sail.

It could have been a handful in the winds; perhaps was; there were times when it looked close to going over. And in theory the boat should have won the race; it has a handicap similar to a Laser with a full-sized sail. Perhaps, when Brian Pollard knows it better, he’ll see off the competition.

In this race, Vicki Duncalf, sailing her familiar little Topper, and starting third, managed to judge the two tacks to the first buoy perfectly and rounded it in second place. It took most of the first lap for Brian Pollard to get the Graduate firmly ahead of the Topper. But once his lead was established the order didn’t change.

However when the handicaps were applied to the boats’ times, Brian Pollard and Natasha Routley’s three and a half minute lead over Vicki Duncalf’s Topper was reversed.

On corrected times, Vicki Duncalf had second place by six minutes.

Results: 1 Nathan Pollard (Laser 4.7); 2 Vicki Duncalf (Topper); 3 Brian Pollard and Natasha Routley (Graduate).

Grateful thanks were extended to John Dabbs and Linda Spiller who ran the race and to Mandy Pollard who took the photographs.

Thanks were also extended to Bob Sampson and Dave Perrett who, in the absence of a South West Lakes Trust operative, gave up their racing to man the safety boat.