2016 M&S District Marblehead Championship Report

There was keen competitive racing, despite the uncooperative winds over Guildford’s Abbey Meads Lake on 5^th of June. 11 entries from 8 clubs enjoyed some really close racing in which there were 8 different winners in the 17 races sailed. Light to moderate A rig northerly winds greeted competitors and provided good racing over a long windward leeward course parallel to the west bank control area.

In the morning’s racing the two most successful skippers were Dick Jobbins, sailing a Martin Houlton designed CONSTELLATION ll and John Smith sailing a QUARK, with 2 wins each. Other winners included John Shorrock also sailing a QUARK in Race 2, John Cleave sailing his SKALPEL 14 in Race 6, Les Thorn sailing a PARADOX in Race 7 and Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER in Race 8. John Smith was at the top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 28, closely followed by John Shorrock with 29 and Martin Crysell with 30 points.

Over lunch the wind became much more easterly and in Race 9 there were lots of holes and swirling winds making the north-south course unacceptable. However, Dick Jobbins skilfully picked up the windshifts in that race to get his third win.

Race Officer, Roger Stollery then moved the whole operation to the south bank control area and re-laid the course to suit the developing east north-easterly wind direction. Alan Viney sailing a PRIME NUMBER made the best start and won Race 10, whilst John Cleave was getting some consistent results and in Race 11 scored his 2nd win. The next 2 races were won by John Shorrock, but not by much because in Race 13 the chasing pack of 7 boats crossed the finishing line within a couple of seconds! John Smith kept up the pressure by winning 2 of the last 3 races, only interrupted by Alan Viney scoring his 2nd win in Race 15. However the Manor Park skipper’s 4 wins was not enough to overtake John Shorrock who was very consistent, not dropping below 5th in any of his counting races and so becoming the M&S District Marblehead Champion. The final race was won by John Bennett sailing his modified and upgraded PARADOX.

At the prizegiving the RO thanked the competitors for their co-operation in moving to the other bank and for their sportsmanlike behaviour on the water. In turn, competitors thanked Roger and assistant race officer, Keith Parrott for putting together a good championship and despite the difficult conditions they said that they enjoyed the racing.

The next GAMES event is another Interclub event, Interclub 4, again at Abbey Meads on 9 July.

Results:

1^st John Shorrock Datchet Water QUARK 40

2^nd John Smith Manor Park QUARK 44

3^rd Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 48

4^th John Cleave Ryde SKALPEL 53

5^th Dick Jobbins Solent CONSTELLATION II   60

6^th John Bennett Eastleigh PARADOX 73

7^th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 79

8^th Les Thorn Hawley Lake PARADOX 83

9^th John Townsend Guildford UPROAR 93

10^th Colin Walton Manor Park STARKERS 110

11^th Peter Popham 3 Rivers CREAM CRACKERED 124