Inter Club RMs at Three Rivers 23rd January 2011

11 skippers turned out last Sunday at Three Rivers for the first of the 2011 rounds of Met & Southern Marblehead Inter Club Events.  These were started some years ago to try and encourage club sailors to race at different Clubs in a friendly atmosphere.  Four clubs were represented; Three Rivers, Hampton Court, Reading and ourselves, GMYC being represented by Martin, John O’Brien and myself.

The PRO Steve, assisted by Jim, set us a triangle and sausage with the finish near the windward mark.  The wind was fairly steady and gave comfortable top rig conditions, with enough shifts to make the beats a test; however it was a cold and dull day, but no RAIN, which meant that the mud was far less than the same event last year, after which I had to hose out my rig box!

The racing format was two back to back with a break in between after an initial single first race; weed was at a near minimum however Martin did claim to clearing some timber from the lake!

The time deadline of 1500hrs gave 15 races completed, much to my disappointment because I needed all the discards I could get.  8 Skippers completed all 15 races.  The racing was conducted in a very well behaved manner with no protests or, even mention of the word, all skippers accepting their penalties and carrying out theirs turns with bad feelings.  I hear a comment by a spectator (3Rs member) who asked was this how RMs behaved all the time.  I am afraid to say no, but it is the way we should.

The top 4 places at the end of the day were shared between 3 clubs; Colin of Hampton Court 1st, Martin 2nd and myself 3rd, with John Male 4th from Three Rivers.

The other factor to be remembered is the friendliness of RC Yachting Skippers, as an example I turned up in the car park without my boat switch which incorporates a converter lead for my lippo batteries, Marin leant me one of his spare Futaba battery packs, which took me to lunch time and Peter Popham leant me another which lasted till the end of the day, after lunch I then leant one of my unused lippo batteries to Colin Thrower, who after the Boat Show ever ended up with one battery for the day.  Another incident being the failure of John Shorrack's tiller, the tiller was slipping on the rudder stock and after a selection of screwdrivers were offered, John decided it was not fixable at the lakeside.  Rig tuning and advice was also seen to be given, I don’t know if my advice did any good.  What I would say to those who want advice, don’t be afraid to ask.  But bear in mind that the more experienced may not or do not know all the answers, also pick you moment, if he or she is head down in his/her boat between races - wait.

For those of you RM skippers, don’t be afraid to enter these events, yes the racing rules are enforced, but racing without them is not a sport.  However the atmosphere is friendly, as all events should be, so come and enter the next round, but don’t forget you have to enter in advance.  The events tend to be centred on Reading, Three Rivers, Hampton Court and ourselves, so traveling is not a major consideration.

Many thanks to Three Rivers for another excellent event and this time with some wind.

Best Regards

Hugh McAdoo

Funsail 8th May 2010

Dear All,
We were not lucky with the weather, as it was very cold with light or heavy drizzle.  As a result there were not too many members of the public walking in Stoke Park!

However what we lacked in numbers we gained in quality. Slieve McGalliard brought his family and his young grandchildren had a go on a reaching course set up to make learning easy. His 6 year old granddaughter had two goes and despite the frustratingly slow progress with little wind she was able to sail OK at the end......and Slieve wants now wants a Footy.  One young lad brought his electric power boat, which of course went very fast, but only for a few minutes after which he thought the slow sailing boats might be boring, but discovered the 'challenge' of sailing.  According to his Mum his granddad may be interested in sailing at Frensham. There was a Brazilian lad who had never sailed before, but under Charles' expert wing caught on very quickly.

Despite the lack of public and decent wind Charles, Alan, Hugh and I had fun on the Footy Internet Course with Alan getting the fastest time of 4 minutes 32 seconds sailing AWK with the maximum sized 750 rig of 410 square inches with Hugh setting the fastest lap of 1 minute 8 seconds. The details are attached.  Once again this course was GRIPPING and we look forward to future challenges to break the 3 minute 12 second record. We are convinced by the number of sub minute laps achieved, that 3 minutes can be broken!

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday evening.

Cheers, Roger

News 15th April 2010

Dear Members,
Don't forget the Club race for the Elstead Cutter Trophies this Sunday 18th April for both Ms and BOTTLE boats starting at 10 o'clock, followed by Footys racing round the FIC after lunch.
The Cutters are handicap events so everyone has a chance of winning.

Marblehead National Championship, Chelmsford
This two day event over Easter was sailed on Chelmsford's new lake at Channels Golf Course, high up on top of a hill with very open wind conditions. There were 16 entries and we sailed 34 races! 
Saturday was light tall rig winds sailed over some rather poor courses where the buoys were set too far away to be able to see what you were doing.  Peter took the lead at the end of Saturday, closely followed by Graham Bantock.  Mark Dennis organised a good evening meal in the golf club which was much enjoyed by all who went.
Graham Bantock sailed immaculately on Sunday winning nearly all the races in limit B/C rig conditions as his speed to weather was in a different class. Peter finished 2nd with the 3 Frenchmen 3rd, 5th and 7th.  I had a bad event with lots of technical problems as well as not sailing well. The lesson; don't replace any lines JUST before a big event! You can see the results and photos on the MYA website.

Irish IOM Championship
Hugh McAdoo also sailed on a big open lake and found his boat was not going as well as he would have liked and he finished 6th out of 11. He too had a RO who set the marks too far away to be able to race properly and he did not enjoy the courses set as well as a full size sailor RO insisting on using the round the ends starting rule. The golden rule for all ROs is that if you cannot read the sail numbers at the marks then they are too far away!

Vane 36" National Championship, Bournville
Last weekend was another success for Guildford's vane sailors as Alex Austin with son Sam as mate came from behind to win the two day event by just 3 points from Bournville's Graham Reeves.

Videlo Globe Open event for Footys at Frensham
I have already sent you the report and pics, but this was a good event with an excellent clear wind and the Frensham Pond made everyone very welcome with an excellent 'tea' to finish with.

Don't forget the first evening meeting on Wednesday 28th starting a 6pm, but you can join in whenever you get there.

Cheers,  Roger

Footy Open for the Videlo Globe

Frensham Pond Sailing Club – Model Yacht Group, 10 April 2010

The FPSC’s Model Yacht Group hosted the third 2010 UK Footy Class open meeting on Saturday 10th April. Footy radio sailing boats are very light and only one foot long, but are great fun to race and sail amazingly well.  They are the starter radio sailing class with simple designs able to be made by DIY enthusiasts for just £50 including the radio control gear.

Sixteen skippers of both sexes, all ages and from as far away as Gloucester enjoyed 16 races in fantastic sunny weather and a good breeze. Big waves built up near the lee shore control area, but the Footys sliced through these impressively going into the wind and surfed down the waves on the run back.  

Six young people took part and the best placings were those sharing the sailing with a parent or grandparent in 5th and 7th places.  A special junior race was sailed after lunch and the early lead was taken by 10 year old Charlotte Broszek, but 11 year old ‘CJ ‘ Vice clawed his way back on the second beat to win the prize; a box of Heros.

In the main event Cotswold member, David Wilkinson with a narrow American design won the early races in 6-8mph winds, but later his balanced una rigged ‘RAZOR 3’ struggled with nose diving and suffered structural and leak problems. Reducing rig area to prevent this as the wind increased to an average of 8-10 mph with 14mph gusts, did not help as the wind also dropped in between the gusts leaving this boat underpowered.  It was very interesting to compare this narrow hard chine Footy that fits diagonally across the measuring box with the more stable Stollery designs that made up most of the fleet. In the afternoon the wind was very variable in strength with some boats in their lowest rigs whilst those who didn’t bring small rigs were overpowered both up wind and down. Most skippers opted for Swing Rigs just under 400mm high with their low centre of effort, which coped well with both the gusts and lulls.

National champion, Rob Vice from Clapham MYC dominated the remaining races with his powerful ‘ICE’ Footy, winning all except Races 12,13 and 14, which were won by local skippers, Alan Viney and Paul Brooks, with ‘ICE’ and ‘ANT’ designs respectively. Lots of the finishes were close and in Race 12 the finish was very close indeed with Paul’s ‘ANT’ just holding off Rob’s chasing ‘ICE’, by a couple of inches!

A beautiful new trophy, the Videlo Globe, created by Chiddingfold wood turner Fred Shepherd, was presented to the winner by Mona Videlo in memory of her husband Don. Apart from being a past commodore of the Frensham Pond Sailing Club, he had played a key role in setting up the Model Yacht Group over the last 3 years.

FPSC Commodore, Judith Young welcomed this new aspect of the sailing club’s activities, thanked the organisers and gave away the prizes to the winners. She said afterwards “Model yachting is becoming an important part of FPSC’s activities and we hope to introduce lots of young people to the sport.”

The FPSC Model Yacht Group meets every Tuesday afternoon and welcomes new members to sail Footys, International One Metres, and fast, elegant 10 Raters with their massive seven foot rigs. Come and have a go by contacting Pat Cushing on 01420 835 55 or join us for a trial sail any Tuesday afternoon.

Results:
1st Rob Vice Clapham ‘ICE’ 15,  2nd Alan Viney Guildford ‘ICE’ 36, 3rd David Wilkinson Cotswold ‘RAZOR 3’ 48,  4th Paul Brooks FPSC ‘ANT’ 48, 5th Phil + Charlotte Broszek Guildford ‘ICE’ 78 ,  6th Roger Pearce Woking ‘AWK’ 78,  7th Charles Smith (+Mim Roche) FPSC ‘ICE’ 81, 8th John Cadenhead  Southwater Dabblers ‘MICRON’ 98,  9th John Birnie Gloucester  ‘ZEPHYR’ 100,  10th Nick Burden Southwater Dabblers ‘HOTFOOT’ 117,  11th Geoff Sutton FPSC ‘ANT’ 121,  12th Hayley Vice Guildford ‘ANT’ 133,  13th David Hawkins FPSC ‘AWK’ 170,  14th Phil + Peter Roche FPSC ‘ANT’ 199,  15th ‘CJ’ Vice Guildford 12” 210, Lachlan Vice Guildford BUG 215.

Junior race:
1st ‘CJ’Vice, 2nd Charlotte Broszek, 3rd Haley Vice, 4th Lockie Vice, 5th Mim Roche, 6th Pete Roche.

Report by Race Officer, Roger Stollery 01483 421 801.

Click Here for the Footy Open Picture Page

 

Hampton Court 8th November 2009

Many of you missed the thoroughly good day's racing at the Interclub at Hampton Court on Sunday. There were 14 entries from 4 clubs. The 4-10 mph wind from the clubhouse or East end was straight down the lake and varying in direction in unpredictable ways to make the racing really exciting. Hugh and I had some really cracking races. OK, you have to learn where the water runs out and forgive the weed problems, but with the wind in this direction this lake is close to Fleetwood's for quality racing over long courses.  The results are attached and if you go to HC's website there are some photos. Many thanks to Hampton Court's team, PRO peter Constable and Dennis Moss for putting it all together.

Cheers,   Roger

Click Here for the Hampton Court Results Page

2009 BOTTLE boat Championship

Before starting the report of the event there is another story that we can all empathise with. Alan Viney had spent time carefully checking all his BOTTLE boat gear before he set off for Waldringfield on Friday. However on Saturday morning he realised that he had left his rig behind in his shed in Guildford! Fortunately he contacted me before setting off home, as luckily I had brought a spare rig kit with me. We found a black bin bag and copied a mainsail, used a spare jib that Alan had brought with him and made up the rig parts and Alan’s Bb66 was back in business!
There were no Vice or Broszek families at this year’s event, so there were fewer juniors taking part and they were missed. However all those practice starts last week were very worthwhile and both Paul and Alan Morgan did better than last year. Young Paul finished a creditable 11th and was delight to collect the new Junior Champion’s Trophy.
Another super radio sailing event! This was despite a little rain at the start and a light and frustratingly variable westerly breeze blowing square across the river Deben from behind Waldringfield Sailing Club. One spectator commented that “the BOTTLE Boat Championship has become an autumn ritual and today it had a lovely colour and atmosphere.” 21 entries from all over the South and one very enthusiastic competitor who flew in especially from Toulouse enjoyed 17 races sailed in a wonderfully light-hearted, yet competitive atmosphere of fun. This was enjoyed as much by many spectators and family supporters as by the competitors. Despite being a strict one design, the fleet of small high performance radio controlled boats made mainly from recycled parts, presented a colourful sight with sails of different recycled polythene bags and 2 litre bottle hulls decorated in a most artistic and colourful way. It brought the whole beach alive.
Initially, the tide was still ebbing, so starting against the wind and tide gave no problems. However when the tide turned some of the less experienced sailors were having difficulty staying behind the line so PRO, Roger Stollery set a more off wind start against the tide.
There were still quite a few problems at the first mark when 5 or 6 overlapped boats tried to round, but there was only the occasional pile up. The racing was incredibly close with half a dozen boats often finishing within seconds giving line judge/scorers Linda Stollery and Emily Orr a hard time recording the total of 357 placings. The fluky conditions did allow there to be 10 different winners, but it was consistency that mattered and many found this very difficult! Lark sailor and previous champion Stephen Videlo started with a win followed in Race 2 by Graham Viney, who didn’t seem to be affected by any jet lag! Laser sailor, Ian Davidson won Race 3 and in the next it was a win for Graham’s father Alan. Wayfarer sailor, Bernard Kufluk won Race 5 from local Dragonfly dinghy sailor, John Fish sailing his brightly coloured harlequin pattern hull bottles. Not satisfied with second John won the next race from Ian and Alan. Then it was time for the ladies to shine and Dot Fraser won Race 7 with the final race of the morning won like the first, by Stephen. At lunch Bernard was leading with Ian second and Stephen third. The break allowed competitors to join in a superb barbecue for new WSC members, who were thoroughly enjoying the BOTTLE boat spectacle. It gave the opportunity for two independent architect judges to look closely at the boats to help select the best turned out. This award went to Dot Fraser with her striking black and white dotted hull, bottles and sails. The results of the afternoon’s racing were, like the wind, far from predictable, except for Peter Stollery who had come over for lunch and couldn’t resist having a race or two. He started well clear of everyone else at the windward end and recorded 1, 1, 1,3,1,3, showing that it was possible to be consistent. These places were not scored! Ian started well with a win in Race 9 with Alan second, but followed this with 4 poor results. Not content with second, Alan made no mistakes to win the next, followed by more podium places. Wayfarer sailor Neil Collingridge, who recovered from his technical troubles in the morning, was delighted to win Race 11. Graham Viney came back to win Race 12 and another top Wayfarer sailor, Mike Pert began to get some good places to win Race 13. Tim Norris was also getting the hang of the fickle winds finishing well with lots of podium places and winning Race 14. Bernard who was always in the top 10 also finished well with his second win in Race15. The penultimate Race 16 was good for Ian with the win taking him into a 2 point lead over Bernard and a 6 point lead over Tim. The Championship depended on the last race, which was won by Mike Pert with Bernard third, Tim fourth and Ian trailing in eighth, which allowed Bernard to snatch the Championship by just three points.
This year two new Championship trophies were presented. These were specially designed and made by ace 1960’s model yachtsman, Fred Shepherd from walnut that blew down in the 1987 October gale. These were both well received by Bernard and Junior Champion, Paul Morgan.

Results:
1st Bernard Kufluk Waldringfield SC 58, 2nd Ian Davidson WSC 61, 3rd Tim Norris WSC 63, 4th Alan Viney Guildford MYC 70, 5th Noel Fraser WSC 76, 6th Stephen Videlo WSC 79, 7th Mike Pert WSC 86, 8th Graham Viney 98, 9th Robert Norris WSC 118 , 10th Howard Ryan WSC 125, 11th Paul Morgan Guildford MYC 127, 12th  Matthew Lake WSC 134, 13th Dot Fraser WSC 143, 14th John Fish WSC 144, 15th Alan Morgan Guildford MYC 161, 16thNeil Collingridge WSC 162, 17th Simon Kernthaler 192, 18th Tim Elliot WSC 236, 19th Asher Parkinson WSC 251, 20th Malcolm Crawford WSC 299, 21st Howard Kufluk WSC 308.

Junior Champion:               Paul Morgan

Best turned out boat:           Dot Fraser

Click Here for the 2009 BOTTLE boat Championship Picture Page

RM Met & Southern Interclub #3 10th October 2009

This event was scheduled to be hosted by Reading Sailing Club Model Yacht Section on their water at Sonning Eye.  Due to unforeseen circumstances a re-venue was necessary and the Guildford Model Boat Club allowed their Abbey Meads water to be used instead, Reading Club expressed their gratitude at the skippers briefing.
The seven skippers, three from Guildford, two from Reading and two from Woodley gathered on a bright autumn day with a light westerly breeze.  Twelve races were run using a triangle and sausage course, Hugh McAdoo of the Guildford Club mastered the variable shifting wind and won the day.  Chris Brill of Woodley Club was second using a borrowed boat and Mark Mortimore of Guildford came third.
This was a friendly good natured meeting which concluded at approximately 2.30pm.

Results:

Position                       Name                                      Club
1                                  Hugh McAdoo                         Guildford
2                                  Chris Brill                                Woodley
3                                  Mark Mortimore                      Guildford
4                                  Geoff Sutton                           Guildford
5                                  Mike Mace                              Reading
6                                  Alan Oxlade                            Woodley
7*                                 Lionel Corper                          Reading
*Withdrew due to breakdown of boat.

Report by Tony Brailsford.

2009 'A' Boat Nationals at Fleetwood

At his 17th attempt Peter Stollery has won the 'A' boat nationals at Fleetwood. This is a week long event where you sail each competitor in turn and in this event with 17 entries you sail them twice after 2 rounds of the schedule.
As some of you know Peter and I have been hurriedly building a special lightweight version of my 1983 'Robot' design. Whilst I left Peter in the lead on Tuesday night he obviously didn't need my help to finish the job and win by a small margin. He was quite delighted.
Attached are the pics from the event and the Yachting Monthly Cup event on Wednesday in which we were knocked out in the first round!

Report by: Roger Stollery

Click Here for the 2009 'A' Boat Nationals Picture Page

2009 Footy Championship

Click Here for Frensham Pond Footy Info

A large fleet of tiny lightweight RC FOOTYs from 10 clubs enjoyed a brilliant championship of 15 races at Frensham Pond Sailing Club in a light variable, but gusty westerly breeze. All boats took only seconds to be measured by fitting into the foot by a foot by six inch measurement box. This simple and most inexpensive class attracted skippers from all over the country aged between 8 and 77 and all had a great deal of fun racing them.

PRO Roger Stollery’s briefing asked skippers to remember RRS rule 14 and try to avoid collisions, do penalty turns if obliged and most importantly, talk to each other whilst racing in a manner that they would like to be hailed. Note was taken and the wide start line, simple windward leeward course with a leeward gate helped, with very few collisions or raised voices. 

The 70metre grass area between dinghy launching ramps provided an ideal control area for the 300 metre long course. The westerly wind parallel to the bank became more south westerly, blowing through the trees during the championship and skippers who were able to make sense of the changes reaped the rewards. Whilst big rigs were the order of the day the gusts of 7 or 8 mph were strong enough to drive bows under briefly and make control offwind tricky.

The racing was dominated by experienced RC sailor Rob Vice sailing (17) a borrowed 2008 ‘AWK’ design, a powerful 500gram 5 plank double chine boat made of Correx stuck together with insulation tape and powered by a simple 550mm high swing rig.  He was only beaten on two occasions when he started late after seeing to his children’s boats. It was good to see three children taking part and displaying the best of sportsmanship.  Most remarkable of Rob’s wins was in Race 6 when he started over 2 minutes late and yet was able to sail through the fleet, finally overtaking a sister ship ‘AWK’(68) sailed by Frensham sailor, David Hawkins at the end of the final run to the line.

In Race 7 Paul Midgley with his own ‘GER’ single chine design(66) and beautiful double luff film sails took an early lead only to have this whittled away by Richard Alford whose consistency with previous three seconds was rewarded with a win. His 2005 design competition winner, ‘Footloose’ (3) is a very efficient 5 plank chine boat powered by a relatively small 500mm high swing rig.  At the lunch break Rob was leading with Richard second and Frensham sailor Charles Smith third.

Paul Midgley was determined to improve on his second place and in Race 8 made no mistake to win from Southwater Dabbler’s Nick Burden’s ‘HOTFOOT(16) and Cotswold’s David Wilkinson’s borrowed ‘ANT’(34).  There were some incredibly close finishes in the afternoon and in Race 9 John Birnie(180), Nick Burden(16), Geoff Sutton(53), Gary Sanderson(13) and young Hayley  Vice(118) crossed the line within seconds fighting for 8th place.

Everyone enjoyed the racing and the special ‘Frensham’ tea. At the prizegiving in the clubhouse competitors thanked the race officials, helpers and the Frensham club’s Model Yacht Group for putting on this championship at short notice when the Hampton Court’s lake weeded up. As well as the Champion’s ‘Lost Rock Trophy’, a beautiful new ‘Colt Foot’ trophy for the Junior Champion was initiated by Frensham Pond MYG and made locally by Guildford MYC’s top skipper of the 1960s, Fred Shepherd. This was much appreciated by the Junior Champion, Hayley Vice who also won a special prize for sportsmanship. Her younger brother Lockie aged 8 finished every race, improved with every race with his best result in Race 14 finishing in the top 10.

Results:
(place, name, club, design, score)
1st Rob Vice Guildford ‘AWK’ 13,  2nd Richard Alford Southwater Dabblers ‘FOOTLOOSE’ 37,  3rd Charles Smith Frensham Pond ‘ANT’ 59,  4th David Hawkins Frensham Pond ‘AWK’ 69,  5th Geoff Sutton Frensham Pond ‘BUG 3’ 70, 6th Paul Midgley Guildford ‘GER’ 82, 7th Gordon Edmondson Woking ‘AWK’ 87,  8th David Wilkinson Cotswold ‘IAMBUS’ 89,  9th Nick Burden Southwater Dabblers ‘HOTFOOT’ 102,  10th John Cadenhead Southwater  Dabblers ‘MICRON’ 102,  11TH Hayley Vice Guildford ‘ANT’ 136,  12th Gary  Sanderson Colwyn Bay ‘MONGOOSE’ 137, 13TH Bill Letten Hove Lagoon ‘MICRON’ 158,  14th John Birnie Gloucester ‘ZEPHYR’ 160,  15TH Lawrence Hartley Clevedon ‘507’ 174, 16TH Lockie Vice Guildford ‘BUG 3’ 194, 17th Andy Trewin Clevedon ‘K2’ 209, 18th Don Videlo Frensham Pond ‘BUG 3’ 237,  19th Mark Collyer Tri Forces ‘ANT’ 242.

Junior Champion – Hayley Vice

Congratulations to Paul Midgley and Gordon Edmondson on their 2nd and 3rd places in the Frensham Footy Open last Saturday. Congratulations also to Martin Crysell for winning the Marblehead District Championships at 3 Rivers a couple of weeks ago.