Tootle One

The weather on Wednesday being forecast to be nice the Vice Commodore had suggested a 
tootle around some buoys and four boats took to the water. The weather was indeed sunny 
and warm and the Lake looked glorious with a heron or cormorant on every buoy. There was 
however very little wind. Bob Sampson was in his Laser, Roger Heasman in his Streaker, 
Adam Hilton in his Solo and Cilla Gilbert helmed the club Bosun with Brian Pollard as crew. 
Jane Chadney generously got up off her knees (scrubbing her boat cover) and started the 
horn sequence. The fleet set out to tack from the far side line to Dam Green. There was a 
good deal of calling starboard. Roger called starboard to Adam (when he, Roger, was 
actually on port). Adam called starboard on Bob who took very little notice but did kindly 
inquire whether Adam had had to alter course. Ah, the joys of informal racing!

Bob was first round Dam Green followed by Adam, Roger and then Cilla. As they ran (a 
technical term) up to Middle the Solo edged past the Laser and kept the lead around West 
and up to Pinkie where Bob retook it and held on to it for the rest of the race. Lap 1 took a 
good half hour so a quick on-water conference agreed to shorten the race to two laps. The 
Laser and Solo were never far apart but the Streaker and Bosun, less well adapted to the 
conditions, were well behind. Afterwards Bob and Roger kindly 'awarded' the race to Adam, 
on the basis that the handicaps, had they been applied, would probably have brought the 
Solo up to first place.

Results:

1.       Bob Sampson (Laser)
2.       Adam Hilton (Solo)
3.       Roger Heasman (Streaker)
4.       Cilla Gilbert and Brian Pollard (Bosun)