Mark, Author at The Guildford Model Yacht Club

Members Trophy Saturday 8th June 2019

“MEMBERS” Trophy – After the disappointment of arriving at the lake and finding no West Bank launching platform last Wednesday for the WoW! event, we came prepared with chains, nuts, bolts and washers and related equipment to try and make sure that it didn’t get cut loose again epoxied in place. Martin arrived with an enormous Danforth anchor, which we attached to the other end of the chain and took it a little way out in the boat and dropped it in the water. We then attached chains to either side of the steps, which are fixed with stainless steel bolts through the wooden string into the nearest available link to provide an infinitely variable support. This worked well and didn’t take too long to assemble. A photograph is attached.

There was a good wind, but it was in a south-west direction when we arrived and so were on the west bank. It became more west south-west later as forecast and we should have moved to the south bank controlled area to get a more steady breeze. We had a good turnout of 7 boats, 6 Marbleheads and Charles’ DF 95, for which we set a shorter handicap course, so that we could all race together from the same start. Seeing that the wind strength forecast was good, Rob Vice came over and raced his borrowed NIOUTRAM and as you can see from the results he won the event on merit. At the end of the event Alan and I guessed who was the winner as it was close between Rob and Martin, but we got it wrong and presented the handicap trophy to Martin. Sorry Rob! From the attached results you can see that Rob won both on merit and handicap, which was a very good performance. You will have to come over and collect it at our next club event for the Arcadia on 6 July. We were delighted to welcome Phil Elford to sail his newly acquired UPROAR in its first race using the C rig off UP. Unfortunately, there was a range problem to do with a broken aerial and so I had several ships in the dinghy to the other side of the lake rescuing and then helping to put the gear back together in order that he could sail. Anyway he enjoyed racing his boat when we got it going and also racing my UP, when I was fiddling with his radio gear etc.

The wind was particularly awkward, with strong gusts blasting down the lake and making the boats fly downwind in clouds of spray, only to drop off the plane and fall into a hole in the wind and slow right down. Anyway this made it fun at times, but frustrating trying to search out the best wind angle and strength to beat or reach back to the finish. However all enjoyed it and in particular Peter Dunne saw his STARKERS was going very well both ways.

The NEXT EVENT is the WoW! 6 event on Wednesday 19th of June followed by the WoW! event 7 on Wednesday, 3 July. The latter will be attracting several of my friends from the construction industry, the builders of the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon who came last year and really enjoyed it. Good club support for this particular event would be very welcome.”

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-06-12T19:28:29+01:00June 12th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW Workshop on Water Event 5th June 2019

This afternoon there was a good turnout of 7 apart from Roger. Tom Roberts from Gosport, Peter Kirby, Stephen Osborne and Ray Darby, all with IOM’s from RSW, Nick Royse from Frensham with his M and potential GMYC member Charles Wand Tetley with his DF 95. Roger had taken a BOTTLE boat and this was enjoyed by one of Stephen and Ray’s female friends. Roger did the one-to-one rigging and sail trimming critique for each boat and this was much appreciated by all and obviously Stephen and Ray had listened last time and have since improved their boat gear and set their boats up well.

Furthest travelled Tom got there soon after Roger at 1:30 PM and Roger directed him down the West Bank track and asking to park opposite the landing stage. A few minutes later he came back to say that he couldn’t find the landing stage. He was right because it had been cut adrift by vandals and was nowhere to be seen. So, although arriving early Roger was fully occupied rowing after the landing stage and setting it up for launching the models. He did give everybody a sail trimming session before having a brief sail with the UP to test the modified B rig, 10 mm further forward, which appeared to sail OK. Everyone enjoyed a good afternoon sail and a bit of racing.

By Mark|2019-06-05T23:54:41+01:00June 5th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW Workshop on Water Wednesday 5th June

WoW!

Workshop On Water

Guildford Model Yacht Club is introducing new Wednesday After Lunch Events for 2019. Based on the most successful of our winter Friday Evening Workshops – SAIL TRIMMING, we will be holding summertime coaching Workshops on our Abbey Meads Lake, which will be completely free.

World Vane Marblehead Champion, Roger Stollery, will be passing on his great experience in radio, vane and full-size sailing to help YOU get the best out of your boat. This may help YOU to enjoy your sailing more and be more competitive than those who miss out on these WoW events.

Every class of boat is invited to Abbey Meads Lake whether you are a one design sailor of the DF classes, where it is only your sailing skill that gives YOU the difference, or the fine tuning of IOM’s, or the swing rigs of the M and 10 rater classes.

WoW! events are designed to be FUNand not just about sail trimming. During the 9 event WoW series there will be coaching sessions to practise things like starting, and every aspect of sailing round the course. As well as sailing windward, leeward and reaching courses, honing YOUR skills in finding the best winds etc,there will be one session with a short FUN course against the clock that you won’t have used before. This will show why YOU have to talk to each other, sail in a straight line, tack on the shifts both up and down wind and avoid contacts at all costs.

Inevitably, when there are a few boats on the water there will be some racing for YOU to try out your new trimsetc. You will enjoy sailing at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the southwith fantastic visibility from the high level control areas. GMYC are skilled at running more than one class at once to provide FUN and a challenge for all sizes of boat.

WoW! After Lunch Events start at 2 PM and depending on the weather, finish at about 5 PM. The next one is on Wednesday, 5^thJune 2019. Please check on the GMYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.ukfor the dates of other WoW! events, which are currently planned for Wednesday, June 19^th, July 3^rd& 31^st

If you want to come, you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 either before or on the morning of the WoW!

By Mark|2019-06-04T12:41:27+01:00June 4th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Marblehead Ranking Weekend at Datchet 25th-26 May 2019

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

This was a fantastic 2 days sailing on this very exposed lake, with A rig winds from the WNW on the Northern course, followed by mainly C rig, but sometimes B even C2 rig SW winds on Sunday on the southern course. 9 races were sailed on each day in 2 heats to divide the 30 boat entry.

Not having sailed in these big wave conditions since the 2015 Nationals, when we experienced some problems, I was apprehensive as well as excited about how all the improvements made in the UPROAR design would help the performance of UP in these waves.

SATURDAY

I shouldn’t have worried, as the UPs went well with Peter winning the Saturday event with 4 first places out of the 7 counting, although credit must also go to Brad Gibson who tied on points, was very consistent, but only won 3 races. He was sailing a 1990s PARADOX with the original GB sails and a modern ROBOT fin and bulb.

My UP sailed well and was quick compared with other boats and particularly against the ‘boat-to-beat’, GRUNGE designs. Downwind, the reduction of drag with the Dave Hollom designed fin sections was significant and worth all the development time and effort put in by the builder, Dave Winder. Unfortunately the results didn’t match that good performance and were not improved when trying to cross Darin Ballington on port when in the lead of the A heat. The tops of the masts clashed and we entangled.

Whilst it was not advertised, the ACORN Trophy, which was given by Guildford for the M&S ranking events was retained by Peter for winning the Saturday event.

SUNDAY

A stronger wind from the south-west created much bigger and longer waves and was much more exciting on the fast downwind runs. Initially C rigs were used, but the wind varied and lightened enough for B rig briefly and then blew up for C2 rigs for the final Race 9.

The seeding race went well with a third behind Peter and Brad, but I then hovered between A and B heats with technical problems with both my sheeting and steering forcing me to retire in the last 3 races. The good thing about this was that I could take photographs of the boats flying downwind and slicing their way to windward. Peter had some consistent results but not as good as on the previous day.

Most remarkable was Brad Gibson’s performance, as he gave a masterclass in sailing in those conditions, finishing with only 7 points from 7 races with a boat that is 25 years old! Some way behind were Darin Ballington, Graham Bantock and Peter, with Rob Vice finishing 12th after suffering technical problems with the radio gear in his GRUNGE, borrowed from Phil Holliday.

The progress of racing was interrupted by the launching and the recovery of half a dozen small yachts which halted the racing and created frustrating delays.

At the prize-giving the winners thanked Terry Rensch for organising the event and also the race team with race officers, Graham Bantock and David Isset and their assistants, who were thin on the ground on Sunday. Thanked most of all was Hugh McAdoo, who spent the whole weekend in the rib doing a good job setting the course and also rescuing boats that were out of control or which had gone ashore on the sloping concrete sides. Events are physically hard at Datchet because of the distance walked just to get your boat in the water and back up to the control area at the top. We were used to walking along the rim of the reservoir to get to the start, but on Sunday this was slightly shorter, but you had to look through the galvanised railings where the horizontal bars were just at eye level, which felt really uncomfortable.

Saturday’s results:

1st Peter Stollery Guildford UP 15

2nd Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 15

3rd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 25.7

4th Phil Holliday Datchet Water GRUNGE 33

5th Rob Vice Guildford NIOUTRAM 39

6th Rob Walsh Fleetwood STARKERS 43

14th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 75

Sunday’s results:

1st Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 7

2nd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 21

3rd Graham Bantock Chelmsford QUARK 25

4th Peter Stollery Guildford UP 37

5th John Tushingham Keighley VISION 39

6th James Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE 39

12th Rob Vice Guildford GRUNGE 72

19th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 103

The full results can be found on the Marblehead Class website, events, Datchet delivers.

By Mark|2019-06-04T12:37:52+01:00June 4th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Congratulations Rob Vice for Finishing 3rd at Midlands Manor Park

Congratulations Rob – Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

It looks as if there were similar light and fluky conditions to what we experienced at Abbey Meads, in the GAMES 5 event last week at Manor Park. Our very own Guildford member Rob Vice sailing his UPROAR did well, finishing 3rd to Chris Harris and Darin Ballington. Photo in gallery Rob on the left.

By Mark|2019-05-20T21:57:40+01:00May 20th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW! Workshop On Water This Wednesday 22 May 2019

WoW!

Workshop On Water

Guildford Model Yacht Club is introducing new Wednesday After Lunch Events for 2019. Based on the most successful of our winter Friday Evening Workshops – SAIL TRIMMING, we will be holding summertime coaching Workshops on our Abbey Meads Lake, which will be completely free.

World Vane Marblehead Champion, Roger Stollery, will be passing on his great experience in radio, vane and full-size sailing to help YOU get the best out of your boat. This may help YOU to enjoy your sailing more and be more competitive than those who miss out on these WoW events.

Every class of boat is invited to Abbey Meads Lake whether you are a one design sailor of the DF classes, where it is only your sailing skill that gives YOU the difference, or the fine tuning of IOM’s, or the swing rigs of the M and 10 rater classes.

WoW! events are designed to be FUNand not just about sail trimming. During the 9 event WoW series there will be coaching sessions to practise things like starting, and every aspect of sailing round the course. As well as sailing windward, leeward and reaching courses, honing YOUR skills in finding the best winds etc,there will be one session with a short FUN course against the clock that you won’t have used before. This will show why YOU have to talk to each other, sail in a straight line, tack on the shifts both up and down wind and avoid contacts at all costs.

Inevitably, when there are a few boats on the water there will be some racing for YOU to try out your new trimsetc. You will enjoy sailing at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the southwith fantastic visibility from the high level control areas. GMYC are skilled at running more than one class at once to provide FUN and a challenge for all sizes of boat.

WoW! After Lunch Events start at 2 PM and depending on the weather, finish at about 5 PM. The next one is on Wednesday, 22^ndMay, 2019. Please check on the GMYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.ukfor the dates of other WoW! events.

If you want to come, you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 either before or on the morning of the WoW ! event

By Mark|2019-05-20T20:37:07+01:00May 20th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

2019 Nicklin Trophy

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

Dear All,

Just Martin, Peter and I had a lovely morning at Abbey Meads on Saturday despite the variable light northerly breeze, because it was warm, it was sunny and most importantly there was none of the forecast rain. It would have been good if Peter Dunne’s invitation to Woking members had borne fruit, but they didn’t take up the invitation to sail at Abbey Meads despite having their weekend meeting abandoned because of a conflicting event.

When we arrived our circular padlock on the gate had been tampered with, but its use was not damaged. We need to be wary that this or something more serious might happen again. The 2nd thing we encountered were thousands of ants who obviously have a nest outside our container and these ants including flying ants absolutely covered the 8 ft square front elevation. As the wind was northerly we set up on the West Bank for the first time since the mound had been flattened and despite the lack of rain there was a bit of grass growing there. However to our great surprise the grass had been cut all around the edge of the lake. see Gallery for photo’s.

The water level was extremely low and we had to lower the landing stage to more or less the very bottom of the steps before getting the inflatable boat in the water and setting a short windward leeward course, before starting sailing. We sailed 9 races with Martin and I having the same score with the tide being broken in favour of Martin. Who won the last race. Unfortunately, the Nicklin Trophy was not available, so Martin was presented with the mini Nicklin Trophy as his temporary prize. Peter got his boat trimmed really well and did win one of the races as well as getting 3 second 2nd places and learnt a few things about sailing the course. Martin was pleased to win the event and was sailing with his short fin and 3.2 kg ballast. I was pleased to match his speed with my new latest and longest Wonderfin with a 3.467 kg ballast. I also tested a revision of my 10 rater rig and it appeared to sailed just as well of the original. Let’s hope that we get more support for the Members trophy on Saturday, 8 June.

Our next event is WoW! event 4, this coming Wednesday and so again GMYC member support is required, as I don’t fancy doing the setting up etc on my own. Please ring me if you can help, thanks. The invitation which will go out to all M&S clubs is attached for your information.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-05-20T21:10:10+01:00May 20th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Cancelled WoW Event 3

“Unfortunately, the weather forecast has got worse and the forecast is for rain all afternoon. As the ‘workshop’ part of the event involves concentration on and fiddling with rigging as well as trimming, this is best done in the dry and so today’s event is cancelled. We hope that the next WoW! event in a fortnight’s time, on 22nd of May will provide better conditions.

Our next club event, on Saturday 18th May is also open to any WoW! event visitors who may have been disappointed by this cancellation. Please ring Roger on (01483) 421801 on Friday, 17 May if you wish to take part.”

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-05-08T10:40:47+01:00May 8th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW Event 3 – 8th May 2019

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

The 3rd of Guildford Model Yacht Club’s WoW! events is this coming Wednesday afternoon, 8th May at our lake at Abbey Meads, Chertsey. WoW! Stands for ‘Workshop on Water’ and will not only cover SAIL TRIMMING but many other subjects. ALL CLASSES of boats are most welcome to take part and it is all free! These will allow you to test your trims and get more out of these ‘live outdoor’ coaching sessions as well as having a bit of fun on the water, practising things like starts, mark rounding and other sometimes novel activities. Abbey Meads Lake, is one of the best lakes in the south, which recently has had a makeover with all the lakeside trees cut down and we invite you to come and take part and enjoy this fabulous water. Fantastic visibility from raised banks and two launching platforms on West and South banks to suit the wind direction.

All the details are shown on the attached WoW! introduction. Also attached is the report on the 2nd WoW! event with photos event last month, which was very successful as those attending gained a great deal from the coaching sessions. It attracted a whole range of different boats and we expect more of the same with DF 95, DF 65, BOTTLE boats, Micro Magic, Footy, Marblehead, 10 rater sailors taking part and we would hope IOMs also. We look forward to seeing you!

Please note that if you want to come you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 in the morning of Wednesday 8th May as noted in red on the PDF.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-05-06T11:54:37+01:00May 5th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW! Event 2 Report – 17th April 2019

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

The WoW! event was very successful and very pleasurable as far as Roger was concerned, as the organiser. We had a Chris Judd from Eastleigh/Gosport who brought a DF 95, John Price from Reading who also bought a DF 95, George Cannon with his wife, Shirley, who had come after watching the Fred’s Big Toephy a few days before. They brought a Footy sporting a rig given by Peter Shepherd, a Micro Magic and a DF 65. Roger came with 2 BOTTLE boats and his new 10 rater UP4FUN and Alan Viney brought his PRIME NUMBER Marblehead. Also ace vane A class designer Jon Simpson, came with his 13 year old son Jeremy. One of our potential new members, Charles Ward-Tetley, who has bought a DF 95, but not yet rigged it, was pleased to be part of the coaching session and also enjoyed the BOTTLE boat. So it was well supported and with all these boats afloat on the water there was a lot of sailing done and we even had half a dozen races which were very interesting. George Cannon’s wife, Shirley really enjoyed sailing the whole afternoon with a BOTTLE boat and her Micro Magic, sailing from her wheelchair. She kindly took some photographs, which now form the attached pic page.

All the DF sailors were really pleased to have the advice on rigging and particularly the John from Reading, who also has an IOM and a really nice 10 rater, MAGGOT. He promised to bring it next time. Like our evening workshops, Chris Judd whose boat was better rigged than the other one helped by his experience of sailing this boat. Roger would have replaced all rubbishy Dyneema and replaced it all with better quality smoother Dyneema because it was so difficult to move the plastic bowsies across the textured line to make the necessary adjustments to the trim.

Roger had great pleasure in sailing one of his BOTTLE boats as they are fantastic boats to sail, so responsive, lively and manoeuvrable. Roger did also sail the better of the 2 DF 95s and despite having the same 2 kg displacement in comparison it was not quite so responsive even after the tuning of the rig/sails at the beginning of the event. However these 4 boats made a good match in these light weather conditions.

Young Jeremy sailed the Marblehead/10 rater all afternoon and not having sailed a radio boat before he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Everyone got this simple message more than once, not just at the bottom of Roger’s little cards handed out to all attendees; “if in doubt let them out”!”

The Guildford Model Yacht Club hopes to repeat this with hopefully a similar mix of boats at the next WoW! event on 8 May 2019.

Roger Stollery 2019-04-17

By Mark|2019-05-06T11:55:31+01:00May 5th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

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