A fantastic day’s racing with 17 races was enjoyed by all 16 competitors from 10 clubs at Guildford’s Abbey Meads lake, despite tricky wind conditions. 8 races were sailed in the sunny morning with variable west south-westerly winds. There were five different winners and some of the finishes were very close indeed, but Colin Goodman dominated the racing with three wins to head the lunchtime leaderboard, five points clear of Peter Stollery, who was seven points clear of Vinnie Zammit.

The wind, which was forecast to become more southerly during mid-morning changed during Race 9, which was won by Austin Guerrier sailing New Zealander’s Ian Vickers V1M design. All competitors and their cars moved to the western control area, where the southerly wind was steadier and stronger, but still within the A rig strength. There were plenty of fast planing runs down to the leeward gate in the strongest gust zones.  However it was still variable in direction requiring great skill to pick the right shifts both up and down wind. Colin, who had been starting well in every race won Races 10 and 11, but let Peter win Race 12 and then came back to win Race 13 and to stamp his authority on the event with another win in Race 16. John Shorrock sailing his QUARK won both Races 14 and 15, but left Peter to win the final Race 17. This event win extends Colin’s lead at the top of the GAMES table by 20 points, from Hugh McAdoo and John Shorrock.

The furthest travelled competitor, Vinnie Zammit, from Norwich was sailing his ‘Think Pink’ STARKERS very consistently and finished with a string of fourth places to take the final podium slot from Hugh McAdoo, who was six points behind. It was good to see three new competitors to this year’s GAMES events, Keith Evans sailing a PRIME NUMBER, Peter Dunne sailing a STARKERS and Peter North sailing a JIVE showing good support from club sailors for the Marblehead class at district level.

It was also good to see Les Thorn doing really well with his PARADOX, showing that you don’t have to have the latest designs to be competitive in this class.

At the prize-giving Colin thanked the Guildford team running another good event. This was truly a district effort with Keith Parrott and Graham Whitehead from Frensham Pond MYG providing essential RO support. The next GAMES interclub/open events are the 23^rd July, again at Abbey Meads and then at Datchet on 24 September, as noted on the GMYC website, www.guildfordmyc.co.uk.

Results:

1^st Colin Goodman Coalhouse Fort QUARK 25

2^nd Peter Stollery Guildford UPROAR 39

3^rd Vinnie Zammit Norwich STARKERS CUBED 53

4^th Hugh McAdoo Datchet PRIME NUMBER 59

5^th Trevor Binks Eastbourne PRIME NUMBER 62

6^th John Shorrock Datchet QUARK 63

7^th Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 94

8^th Austin Guerrier Datchet V1 RM 97

9^th Dick Jobbins Solent CONSTERNATION 2 99

10^th Les Thorn Datchet PARADOX 106

11^th Nick Royse Frensham CRAZY TUBE FREE 130

12^th John Bennett Eastleigh STARKERS CUBED 148

13^th Keith Evans Woking PRIME NUMBER 164

14^th John Townsend Guildford UPROAR 169

15^th Peter Dunne Woking STARKERS CUBED 192

16^th Peter North Woking JIVE 193

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.

A great time was had at Abbey Meads Lake with the 16 races sailed in some of the best conditions that Guildford Model Yacht Club can offer. After a rather gloomy drizzley start, 8 competitors representing 3 clubs had a great deal of fun over the long beat and run course ideally placed parallel to the western control area. The fast planing runs were very exciting until the strongest gusts and power of the A rigs used by nearly all competitors drove bows under and rudders into the air.

The very first race gave an indication of how the results might turn out, as Peter Stollery, who was testing a new version of the UPROAR B rig managed to win despite having less power than the A rig competitors in the light airs. His father Roger, who was also testing a variation of the same offset pivot swing rig won Race 2 and Race 6, leaving Peter to win the other 6 races before lunch. The most consistent skipper apart from Peter was John Shorrock with five 2nd places and this took him to 2nd place on the leaderboard 7 points behind Peter, but 5 points ahead of Roger.

The sun then came out and the wind continued to increase during the afternoon, but 2 boats managed sail with their A rigs all day, although most were then in B. Mr Consistency, John Shorrock, sailing a QUARK managed to beat both the UPROARs to win Race 9, but then let them win all the remaining races. The wind direction gradually became more south-westerly as it increased and there were a few short breaks in the racing to pick up boats that had gear problems and had drifted into the bushes. Everyone enjoyed the incredible speed can be reached by these fast lightweight Marbleheads off the wind.

The disappointing entry from local clubs may be as a result of the closeness to next week’s MYA National Championship at Datchet, where there is a big entry from M&S District clubs. Those clubs not supporting this event missed a great opportunity to sail in breezy conditions at Abbey Meads and we hope that they will return to contribute to future events run by Guildford MYC later in the year.

The next M&S District Interclub event no. 4 and GAMES 8 is at Datchet on 7^th of August.

Results:

1st Peter Stollery Guildford UPROAR 15, 2nd Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR 27, 3rd John Shorrock Datchet QUARK 30, 4th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 50, 5th Les Thorn Datchet PARADOX 65, 6th John Townsend Guildford ROK 76, 7th Phil Holliday Datchet QUARK  79, Peter Dunne Woking CRAZY TUBE TOO 81.