Tinker Class Owners Association

Bassenthwaite - 2009

South Cerney Carsington Bala Chichester Bassenthwaite Swarkestone Season's Results

Sail Number	Helm	Boat Type	Crew	H'Cap	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Total Points	Overall Position
5201	David Warren	Star	1	146	2	0.75	0.75	3	3.5	1
1547	Malcolm and Harri Ellwood	Star	2	152	0.75	4	3	0.75	4.5	2
2688	Stewart and Barbara Warden	Star	2	152	3	2	2	2	6	3
1470	Peter and Anne Cross	Star	2	152	4	3	8	5	12	4
1193	Ken Robey	Star	1	146	5	5	4	6	14	5
7299	Nigel Kirby	Star	1	146	6	8	5	8	19	6
7135	John Rogerson	Star	1	146	13	6	7	7	20	7
2653	Syd Gage	Star	1	146	7	7	6	12	20	7
2003	Arthur Clive	Star	1	146	8	9	9	4	21	9
7412	Mac Gasking	Star	1	146	11	12	11	9	31	10
6188	R John Blake	Star	1	146	12	11	12	10	33	11
4784	Roy Bradshaw	Star	1	146	10	17	10	13	33	11
7367	Stuart Munroe	Star	1	146	9	10	18	18	37	13
88	Nick and Win Derbyshire	Traveller	2	156	18	17	14	11	42	14
5141	Gordon Graham	Star	1	146	18	17	18	18	53	15
5559	John and Francine Gresham	Supertramp	2	155	18	17	18	18	53	15

Notes

To their dismay, when assembling their Tinker Nick and Win found that one of the tubes had sprung a big leak and would not hold air.  With a little help from their friends they applied a patch which enabled them to sail on Sunday.

2 races were held on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday.  All starts were from the committee boat, with a starboard biased line marked on the water by two flags.  The countdown was a 6, 3, 'Go'.  Not quite the start we're used to, and a few sailors were a little slow across the line because of it.  Gordon is not quite sure how he achieved it, but one second he was happily sailing along sitting on one tube with the sails over the other.  Suddenly the sails were on the same side of the boat as Graham and a capsize ensued.  Consensus has it that it's all Andrew's fault.  Absent for this meet, he wasn't there to balance the boat.  It rained during the second race and all of us came off the water with very cold extremities.

Racing was hampered for some of the fleet who have never sailed on Bassenthwaite before and have no idea where the buoys should be on the lake.  Normally a safety boat would lead the fleet around the course but this didn't happen.  Number 1 buoy was in a different position to usual (it is usually near the mouth of the river in the north-west corner of the lake, but it was further south).  'N' and 'S' were not on the water, nor was 'A'.  Interestingly, the coven also had no idea of the courses being sailed as they were in the land based race hut, and the courses were being set on the committee boat.

Winds were reasonable on Saturday, but the best wind was experienced in the last race on Sunday.  On Sunday morning we left shore with the merest zephyr pushing us out to the middle of the lake.  It was all very relaxing and gradually the wind strength increased significantly to provide some truly competitive racing.  Stuart Monroe, who recently had a rotting transom replaced on his newly acquired Star Traveller, was being overpowered by his jib whenever the wind kicked up.  His Tinker still had the standard set of stays which has a masthead jib and forestay but no masthead side stays to counter the pull of the jib.  The strong winds were bending the top of the mast forward which had the effect of powering up the jib.  Bet Stuart has masthead side stays when he sails his next meet.

As mentioned, the best wind was saved for the last race.  One-Tube Warren lived up to his nickname, and the racing in the middle of the fleet was very close - especially between John Rogerson and Nigel Kirby who were both across the line within 3 seconds of each other.  John was on port tack sailing down to the finish line, and Nigel on starboard sailing up to the buoy which he needed to round to cross the line.  They were on collision course and Nigel was set to call 'starboard' to push John off his line when the wind reduced a little allowing John to slide by.