After having to cancel the first two races of this series due to lack of entries it was good to finally get things going again.

This time we had six skippers and with some of the regulars on holiday hopefully in the weeks to come the numbers will increase.

Alan and myself got to the lake early to be greeted with a distinct lack of wind, anyway we set a straightforward windward leeward course from the south bank ready for the forecast westerly breeze that was supposed to arrive.

Sadly there was hardly any breeze all day but we did manage to sail five races in the revised sailing time of 11am to 2pm which seems to suit everybody.

As is often the case with the DF fleet there were four different race winners so not bad from six skippers from five races. At some stage we were all affected by weed but it could have been worse so hopefully things will improve as the water temperature goes down, next time out for this class is 23rd October.

Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-10-09 DF95

6 skippers turned up for this event plus Martin who acted as race officer and sailing instructor to Alan Armitage who had won a days radio yachting in a bowls club auction.

It was a hot day initially, with hardly any wind but the forecast southerly did eventually kick in to give some good racing from the west bank.

From the six competitors there where four different race winners,but the stand out skipper of the day was Alan Viney who won seven of the twelve races sailed and won by seven points from second placed Slieve and was presented with a bottle of wine.

Unfortunately there is some weed about in the lake but hopefully it won’t be any worse for the next event on the 11th September.

Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-08-28 DF95

Six of us arrived on a beautiful summers morning with a light southerly blowing straight down the lake.

We laid a very straightforward course using the two blue mark as a gate at the north end ,a shorter course was used for Alans 12 year old grandson who was sailing a bottle boat.

The wind did increase a little throughout the day and although fluky at times stayed fairly constant in direction.

It was all very competative with every skipper winning at least one race.Simon Johnson was really on form and won the day,surprisingly he only got the one win but all his other finishing positions were seconds,so he had a convincing overall win.

Alan spent some of his time instructing Mathew his grandson which was obviosly working as Mathews sailing was improving rapidly throughout the day,and he thouroughly enjoyed it.

Not sure yet who has won the series overall but I am sure this will be anounced soon.

Next up for the DF’s is the August holiday races .Two races both to count on 14th and 28th with a big prize at stake for the overall winner.

Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-07-24 WWS 7 DF95

“”The easy way to get all the gear down the bank in one go ,put the plastic boat on the back of the car and the rubber boat on the back of the plastic boat . It works a treat !!!”

Report by Roger Stollery

15 races were run in uncomfortable wind conditions changing from southerly to westerly, initially causing strong swirling gusts and lulls and really heavy rain before settling down to even stronger gusts up to the 25 mile an hour forecast and bright sunshine after the barbecue lunch.

Once the wind direction had settled down RO Roger Stollery set a windward leeward course of 3 beats & 3 runs. Finishing on the run was exciting with decks awash, rudders in the air as most held onto their A rigs with fantastic speed achieved provided that you didn’t broach in the strongest gusts!

Variations made the beat difficult and those who picked the shifts and chose a rhum line course were the most successful. Nigel Barrow was the master of this and counted 6 wins to put him right at the top of the lunchtime leaderboard, with David Cole 2nd with 16 points followed by Shaun Wyeth with 19.

Nigel’s wizardry continued into the afternoon with another 6 wins, with the latest F6 design beaten only by Shaun in Race 10 and David in Race 11. Shaun took great delight in sailing the STARKERS with which he won the 2002 Marblehead National Championship, which had just bought back, whilst David was sailing the only GRUNGE in the fleet. It demonstrates again that you don’t have to have the latest Marblehead design to do well in this class. Indeed the oldest boat made 30 years ago to the ROAR EDGE design, which was then all carbon, was the most seaworthy downwind inspired by the tall bow and flared bow of Viking ships. 

This was the final event of the three GMYC Summer Series. The trophy for the Series was originally presented by Frank Parsons of model sailmaker Nylet at the very beginning of radio Marblehead racing in 1974. The best 2 of the 3 races counted for this Series and Frank came to watch the racing, chat and present the trophy and the prizes to the winners. Peter Stollery won the Series by his score of 190 in the first 2 events and could not be beaten at this event, but was unable to take part in this one, so Frank presented the trophy to Roger for onward transmission. Frank also presented the trophy to Nigel, who not only won the Series last year but was the highest scorer in this year’s event.

Today’s results:

1st Nigel Barrow, Frensham Pond, F6          15 points

2nd David Cole, Hampton Court, GRUNGE    35

3rd Martin Crysell, Guildford, PRIME NUMBER  41.9

4th Lewis Wyeth, Gosport, STARKERS CUBED     47

5th Shaun Wyeth, Gosport, STARKERS SQUARED  53

6th Colin Harper, London MYC, QUARK              63

7th Chris Watkins, Royal Temple, ROAR EDGE  73

Results of the GMYC Summer Series

1st Peter Stollery, Guildford, UP 190 points & winner of Nylet RM Challenge Trophy

2nd Nigel Barrow, Frensham, F6  187.5

3rd Barrie Martin, London MYC, STARKERS 155

4th Oliver Stollery, Guildford, F6 122.5

5th David Cole, Hampton Court, GRUNGE 110.7

2024-06-15 Nylet RM Challenge Trophy NoR

GUILDFORD MODEL YACHT CLUB

A small but enthusiastic fleet of 8 skippers assembled at Abbey Meads lake in overcast conditions but with a northerly breeze blowing straight down the lake, although it did have a tendency to go a bit easterly at times which made for some tricky beats.

It was good to see a reappearance of Shaun Wyeth in the fleet after a gap of some 20 years he was accompanied by his son Lewis.

Peter Stollery set a straightforward windward leeward course with a gate at the leeward end and this stayed for the whole day.

The racing got off to a good start for Peter  who narrowly won the first race from Nigel Barrow with Barrie Martin in third. Nigel then won the next 3 races leaving Peter in 2nd ,at this stage Shaun Wyeth had got a third and Oliver Stollery a 4^th but Lewis Wyeth had a good win in race 5.

Peter then went on to win a further 5 races on the trot as well as races 12 and 13, Race 9 was a Stollery lockout with Peter first and Oliver 2nd .David Cole who had had winch problems in the first race had gone home fixed it and got back to the lake in time for race 9 and was delighted to win two races in the afternoon as did Barrie.

As we started the 16th race within the last minute of the cut off time the wind started to leave us, so it was a good time to stop.

The 3^rd race in this 3 race series is for the Nylet Cup to be sailed on the 15^th June.

Report by Martin Crysell

The wind was a bit more south-westerly than forecast but of a reasonable strength, so there were some fast runs. We were delighted to welcome David Howard to this event and he sailed BOTTLE boat 92, so there were 2 of us sailing with the DF 95s of Mike Wilkie, Martin & Slieve as shown in the photo.

The violently changing variable wind made it difficult to sail, so David’s first racing event with his boat was a bit of a challenge, but by the end he had mastered getting round the windward leeward course. We all stalled at one point going to windward. Before the start of one of the races we had a collision which resulted in David’s jib being torn away from the forestay. Fortunately, I had gone with a spare rig and so was able to replace the jib.

Mike Wilkie was the star of the day sailing very well to win the event with Martin 2nd and myself 3rd having won the first race, and Slieve in 4th.

I’m afraid that because of current chaos in my study I have lost the scoresheet, but at least have started the schedule for the Summer Series.