This was event was to be run in the morning as a conventional club race except that we would record the times of each Marblehead at the finishing line. This was in order to take part in the charity event, Bart’s Bash; Biggest Little Boat Bash set up especially for radio sailing by Shaun Priestley, who works for the Andrew Simpson Foundation who are promoting this event.   This foundation is for the encouragement of young people to go sailing.

When we arrived at Abbey Meads we were in no hurry because there was no wind. So we made good the damage caused by vandals to the launching platform on the west bank, which we had prepared for following photo kindly taken by John Townsend last Wednesday.

With an easterly forecast we launched our dinghy from the southern launching platform and there was a little bit of wind, but you could barely feel it. So we abandoned the idea of sailing our Marbleheads and set up the Footy Internet Course (FIC), because Footys go amazingly well in light winds as a result of of their big sail area and lightweight the displacement. We sailed 3 times round the course as is required by the FIC rules to complete a race and we raced 6 times, before the wind changed through 180° and destroyed the course.

Race 3 was good because Roger was timed at 3 minutes dead and Martin at 3.03 minutes. It was close racing and much more exciting than it appears on the surface! Our worst period extended Martin’s winning time to 8 minutes and 31 seconds and Roger was unable to finish! Towards the end the wind just died away and turned round making the course collapse.

Guildford Model Yacht Club are donating a minimum of £50 to the Andrew Simpson Foundation.

Our next event is on Saturday, 12 October and look forward to a big entry and getting our Marblehead racing going again.