The last big open event of the year attracted a lot of good skippers from 10 clubs from the North, Midland and Southern Districts to Guildford’s water at Abbey Meads Lake for the climax of both the 2016 Ranking and GAMES series. The cold 5-10 mph North North-Easterly wind initially allowed Race Officer, Peter Stollery, to set a long windward leeward course and give perfect ‘A’ rig conditions for some really good racing.

Added to the excitement was the appearance of the 3 pre-production Brad Gibson GRUNGE designs sailed by top skippers. 12 good races were completed.

A great deal of care was taken to get the starting line and gate angles set without bias.  Although this looked OK to spread the boats along the starting line, initially the competitors were overenthusiastic and the first two starts resulted in a general recall.

When the race eventually got under way Roger Stollery sailing his own UPROAR design won from Colin Goodman sailing James Edward’s GRUNGE and Austin Guerrier sailing his newly acquired V1 design from New Zealand. Roger also won Race 2 from ex-National 12 and Squib sailor, Tony Edwards and Darin Ballington also sailing GRUNGE’s.

Double World Fireball dinghy Champion, Colin Goodman won Race 3 from David Adam sailing a PRIME NUMBER and Tony. The next two races were won by Darin, which then put him top of the lunchtime leaderboard with a total of 15 points, from Tony with 18 and Colin with 19 points.

During lunch the wind became much more Easterly and Peter reset the whole course further down and across the lake to give a shorter windward leeward course that just fitted diagonally across the wider part of the lake.

Darin continued his winning streak, taking Races 6 & 7 from Tony and Colin respectively. Tony took Races 8 & 10 after letting Roy Stevens sailing a QUARK win Race 9. The penultimate race was won by Darin which left the three leading boats within 4 points of each other. The excitement built for the last race and the start sequence is shown in the photographs with Colin demonstrating the perfect start at the port end in clear air in the breezier part of the lake furthest away from the tree line on the far side. He turned this good start into a win of the three lap course, but it was not sufficient to overtake Darin overall,who finished second to take the famous Mermaid Trophy.

The only thing that spoiled this was strands of weed picked up by every competitor at some point during the racing.

At the prizegiving Darin thanked Peter and the Guildford club and mentioned how important such club open races are for honing the skills of the top skippers, who recently have done so well at international events with nine skippers in the top 20 of the World Marblehead Championship in Lake Garda. The learning curve whether it is in competing with your boat or being able to set a good course starts at your club.

As well as the Mermaid itself, other prizes included the Vic Cooney Trophy for the top veteran over 60, which went to Tony Edwards, the Ted Gearey award for the most improved skipper after Race 3, which went to ex IOM world champion, Trevor Binks and the furthest travelled which went to Roy Stevens from Middlesbrough.

This event was final event of the GAMES series and the Midgley Memorial Mug was awarded to Roger Stollery with a score for the best five events of the 441.6/500 points.

Results:

1st Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 22,

2nd Colin Goodman Coal House Fort GRUNGE 25,

3rd Tony Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE 26,

4th Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR 42,

5th Roy Stevens Tri-services QUARK 63,

6th Trevor Binks Eastbourne PRIME NUMBER 65,

7th David Adam Woking PRIME NUMBER 67,

8th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 68,

9th Austin Guerrier Three Rivers V1 73,

10th John Smith Manor Park QUARK 81,

11th Terry Rensch Datchet QUARK 82,

12th Colin Walton Manor Park STARKERS 91,

13th Roy Pearson Guildford ROK 106,

14th Les Thorn Hawley Lakes PARADOX 112.