It was incredibly hot and windless as the forecast for to 5 mph north-easterly never arrived. Only 2 regular supporters, Roger and Les got the boat out and set up the course, but we had two visitors who enjoyed the experience at Abbey Meads and want to become members, which is very encouraging.  We look forward to this when we restart sailing after the holiday period on Saturday, 11 September.

Just 4 of us had a very good sail in a southerly/south-westerly breeze.  We were delighted to welcome back Mike Wilkie from his successes in his Solo after a break of 23 years.

He is now learning to sail his DF 95, but did not need much time as he won Races 4 and 14!  The other races were shared by Martin and Les with 8 and 6 wins respectively.  Roger did get some 2nd places with his BOTTLE boat, but struggled to keep up in the strong winds in the afternoon as you can see from the scoresheet. 

Mike invited his friend Tom to watch and he kindly took lots of photographs, which give a good indication of the conditions.  So many thanks Tom!

As there is lots of weed at Hampton Court we hope that will bring some of his friends to sail on our last summer Wednesday DF series on 21 July.

After that GMYC will be closing down over the August period and starting back again with the Marblehead club event for the Ted Gearey Trophy on Saturday September 11.

Although the entry was disappointing, those that attended enjoyed a decent A rig southerly breeze in the morning, which after a heavy rain shower died and then went more westerly in the afternoon.  Martin, Roger and Peter Jackson welcomed long-time full-size sailor, Chris Chandler and his partner Phoebe and introduce them to radio sailing in some of the best conditions that Abbey Meads can provide.  Roger brought the BOTTLE boat no:2 and immediately let Phoebe, who was not a sailor, spend all morning learning to sail radio, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Roger also brought his ROAR EDGE for Chris to sail.  He was also on a learning curve despite having been sailing all his life in all sorts of full-size boats and yachts.  

When we arrived at the Western control area, a friendly fisherman, Simon, was just packing up and we had some interesting discussions.  He noticed the carbon fibre moulded corner units to the landing stage and mentioned that he was a technical teacher for a local public school and also interested in the material.  He thought that the BOTTLE boat might be a good subject for a young person’s project and may contact Roger about this.  He also walked round the lake casting in different areas to test the depth of the water with a specially designed gadget.  The depth he recorded was between 10 and 16 feet.  This should help us when making up the lines for new marks, as in the past they have often been too long.

Martin and Roger had some close racing and at lunchtime the scores were level.  Peter was struggling with the setting up of his swing rig not allowing the forces in the mainsail and jib to be properly balanced.  However this was identified and Peter will be coming back with the rig properly set up in the future.

As we had a lady present, Phoebe was invited to present the Arcadia Trophy to Roger who had a two-point advantage over Martin as the scoresheet shows.

With the August holiday period approaching the next Marblehead event at Abbey Meads will be on September 11.

Report by Roger Stollery 2021-06-04

Some of the best Marblehead sailors in the country from 3 districts entered this annual event for the famous bronze Mermaid.  A fleet of 12 took to the water in brilliant sunshine and a cantankerous breeze, which couldn’t make its mind up whether it was northerly or north-westerly.  RO Martin Crysell twice reset the 100 m windward/leeward course as the wind went gradually more westerly in the afternoon, with even more variable direction and strength.  Despite this a total of 16 races were sailed.

During the early part of racing we were honoured by having a fly past of the Red Arrows directly overhead, on the return to their base having flown over Windsor Castle for Trooping the Colour.

From the start it was clear that Peter Stollery sailing his UPFRONT was going to be the boat to beat with 5 clear wins only interrupted by a 4th in Race 4, beaten by Phil Holliday & Darin Ballington sailing GRUNGEs and Rob Wilson racing a STARKERS.  His dad, Roger beat him in Race 6 and then he lost the next 3 to Tony Edwards, who was sailing a GRUNGE.

The lunch break was enjoyed by all not just the break from racing, but as Darin put it “I enjoyed being out with my sailing ‘buddies’.” and a catch up on the lost months.

Unsurprisingly Peter was at the top of the Lunchtime Leaderboard with 11 points, followed by Phil with 25 & Darin with 26.

In the afternoon, Peter didn’t have it all his own way as Darin beat him in Race 10, as did Rob in Races 11 and 13 & Phil in Race 12.  Keith Parrott, who was scoring, observed that “Peter certainly gave a master class in picking the right course and spotting the wind shifts.”  Peter put his success  down to “…good starts and balanced swing rig, which he altered very little from the totally slack ‘sail bag trim’, just tensioned with the last 50 mm of winch trim with the transmitter, as necessary when beating.”

The prize winners thanked the Guildford/Frensham race team for running another good event at Abbey Meads, despite the frustrating wind.

Results:

1st Peter Stollery Guildford UP 19

2nd Rob Vice Guildford GRUNGE 39

3rd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 45

4th Tony Edwards Yeoville GRUNGE 50

5th Phil Holliday Datchet GRUNGE 51

6th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 70

7th Rob Wilson Lincoln STARKERS 73

8th Michael Thomas Eastleigh STARK 86

9th Peter Jackson Hollowell UP 92

10th Peter Kirby RSW PRIME NUMBER 116

11th John Cleave Ryde GRUNGE 137

12th Geoffrey Bremner Datchet F5 161

Winner of Best Improver’s prize &

Vic Cooney Trophy – Tony Edwards

As you may know Guildford Model Yacht Club ran a very successful Open event for DF 95s last week at our superb sailing water at Abbey Meads, Chertsey.  Everyone who came thoroughly enjoyed it! We would like to encourage you and your members to join in our sailing on alternate Wednesdays 10 o’clock till 2 PM.

In particular on 2 June we are offering a very special prize, that every DF sailor will want on their boat!  This is new, unique and will help to make sailing your boat easier and more pleasurable.  

This prize will be presented to the first placed visitor at the end of racing.  This is an ordinary club event that will be carried out in a relaxed manner, but efficient way for which Guildford is renowned.  

Please forward this on to your members as everyone is welcome .  We would be delighted to see you so please contact Roger on (01483) 421801 for details.  

Guildford Model Yacht Club hosted their first event for this class and attracted 9 entries from 7 clubs.  Despite the cantankerous light and variable breeze, which was forecast to blow from the north-west, but instead blew from the north-east, 8 competitors enjoyed 14 races of a 300 m windward leeward course.

The DF 95 is a one design just under a metre long and has transformed the accessibility of a quality radio racing yacht at a reasonably economical price.  As a result the racing was very close with skippers who could pick the right wind shifts and sail the course to avoid the holes in the wind came to the fore.

In the first race Martin Crysell demonstrated this skill and won from David Cole and Barrie Martin.  This was a pattern which set the scene for the whole of the event.  In Race 2  the order was reversed, but with Glenn Meekcoms taking 3rd place.  Martin won Races 3 and 4, but then let David win Race 5.  Glenn, who was consistently in the top 3 came good in Race 6 to win from Charles Wand-Tetley and Martin. Race 7 was won by David from Barrie and Colin Honour and as the wind was becoming more variable and inconsistent, the lunch break was taken, 

The lunchtime leaderboard had Martin on top with 12 points closely followed by David with 13 and Glenn with 16 points.

Race Officer Roger, Stollery was expecting the wind to back to the forecast north-westerly, but this wasn’t happening and so another 2 races were sailed, after which the wind became very calm and fitful.  In these conditions Martin took Race 8 from Barrie with David 3rd and in Race 9 Barrie reversed this order with Glenn 3rd. 

The beauty of radio racing at Abbey Meads Lake is that the club has 2 control areas with the banks of the lake at right angles and Roger decided to move the operation to the southern bank to allow a better windward leeward course to be set.  This took just over half an hour as in addition to moving cars and gear etc, the marks needed to be reset etc.

On the new course Barrie sussed out the constantly varying breeze to win Race 10 in front of David and Glenn, but it was backing even more westerly and the course was reset again. 

Perhaps it was just local knowledge or just pure skill of picking the right shifts and following the right gust path down the run, but Martin won Race 12 from Barrie and both Races 11 & 13 from Les Thorn, who was enjoying the stronger winds and the impacts of the heavy dark gust streaks, as he had been struggling in the lighter conditions.

Leen Buurman had beaten only a few competitors during the day, but in the last Race 14 he made up for that by sailing through the fleet from a good start to round the windward mark first with a small lead and then screamed away in a black gust into a 10 metre lead. On the beat he kept in front of all but David to finish 2nd and was absolutely delighted.

At the prize giving Roger  thanked everyone for coming to Abbey Meads and helping to create an enjoyable event sailed in a very good spirit of sportsmanship.  He also thanked Judith Buurman for volunteering to act as the assistant RO and recording all the finishing places and presented her with a bottle of wine.

In preparation for the event the club decided to rededicate, the Ash Trophy, originally presented by David Coode and Mervyn Dackombe for the 36″ class, as perpetual trophy for this DF 95 class annual open event. 

This was presented to the winner, Martin Crysell as well as the prize he collected from the table.  He thanked Roger and the team for running another good event at in difficult conditions.  David collected the 2nd prize and both Barrie and Glenn tied for 3rd place, which was broken in favour of Barrie, who had more first places.  He collected the prize and thanked Guildford for their efforts in running the event.  

As is traditional at Abbey Meads, the club always present a prize for one of the most important competitors at the event, who are not the winners but the other competitors without which there would be no winners.  So the prize for the last-placed skipper at the prize giving went to Leen Buurman; he was both surprised and delighted!

The club are looking to build up the membership for sailing this class with events on alternative Wednesdays, so please come along for more racing and contact Roger Stollery on (01483) 421801 for details.

Results:

1st Martin Crysell Guildford 22 points and the Ash Trophy

2nd David Cole Hampton Court 30 

3rd Barrie Martin MYSA 35

4th Glenn Meekcoms Cole House Fort 35

5th Colin Honour Chipstead 57

6th Les Thorn Hawley 58

7th Leen Buurman Hampton Court 80

8th Charles Wand-Tetley Guildford 84