Teatime Tankard 7

Five boats took to the water in what was, initially at least, quite a powerful WNW 
wind.  Nathan Pollard went for a port tack start near the pontoon and got his approach 
absolutely on the button, being right on the line as the horn sounded.  As well as being 
fast away, he then built on this good work by seeming to point considerably higher 
than the remainder of the fleet as headed off on the initial beat to West White.  Adam 
Hilton and Sally Wills tacked away towards the Devon bank in the red-hulled Bosun, 
but then caught up with a fast approach to West across the middle of the lake.    The 
fleet was then faced with a high speed broad reach to Inlet White before heading back 
out into the main body of the lake for a beat (or sometimes close reach) up to Pinky.  
After that, sadly things began to go astray, as a well-intentioned Race Officer had set 
what turned out to be a counter-intuitive course for some helms, since both Robin 
Spiller's Streaker Wave and John Dabbs's Bosun went the wrong side of the mark at 
Zebra and subsequently decided to retire rather than return to the buoy and correct the 
mistake.

By the end of the first lap, Nathan had already built a commanding-looking lead and 
over the remaining three laps, he consolidated this to finish well ahead in splendid 
isolation.  On the last lap, the three-up Bosun of Roger Heasman, Pavol Rovensky and 
Brian Pollard seemed to be closing up with the Adam Hilton's Bosun as both boats 
reached across to Inlet White and it looked as though a tight finish might be on the 
cards.  However, with the wind by now dropping away to a gentler breeze, Adam 
Hilton kept both his nerve and his place, moving away to finish nearly a minute ahead 
of Roger.  On handicap, though, Nathan was a very comfortable winner, with a 
margin of well over four minutes over Adam on corrected time.

Results:

1.	Nathan Pollard (Laser 4.7)
2.	Adam Hilton and Sally Wills (Bosun)
3.	Roger Heasman, Pavol Rovensky and Brian Pollard (Bosun)
John Dabbs, Bob Bennett and Annie Quartermain (Bosun) and Robin Spiller 
(Streaker Wave) rtd

The usual thanks to John Buckett for Race Officer duties and more especially to Mandy Pollard, juggling with two cameras in taking the pictures.