The weather lived up to the name of the event and this Marblehead event was sailed at GMYC’s Abbey Meads Lake in atrocious freezing conditions that were not forecast.  Instead of small amounts of rain and 20 to 40 mph westerly winds there was continual rain, sleet or snow and very little wind from almost every direction.The heavy snowfall further north prevented Phil Holliday from setting out from home, but did not prevent Alf Reynolds and David Croom getting to Abbey Meads through the snow in Kent.

This did not put off the Guildford team, who erected two linked gazebos close to the edge of the southern bank to act as part of the control area for protection from the worst downpours. A ring of specially laid marks allowed windward legs to match the wind variation at some point around the course.

Rob Vice, who had upgraded his UPROAR with a new Robot keel and new bulb, set the pace to win Race 1 from Roger Stollery’s UPROAR. He won again in Race 2 from Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER. Then it was the turn of Peter Stollery to win from Roger, who then won Race 4. After another 2 races won by Rob and Roger there was a welcome break for lunch with the hot mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies helping to warm the frozen fingers to thaw out.

As it began to snow harder, all agreed to do another couple of races to end the madness and thaw and dry out properly on the way home. This was a wise decision as it was becoming difficult to see the boats through the blizzard conditions in the final race.

As is traditional for this Christmas event, the prize-giving consisted of selecting by the order of finishing places, a wrapped prize, which was the entry fee. As this was the finale of the GAMES’ events it was hoped to present the Midgley Memorial Mug to the winner, but the cold and wet was not conducive to doing the necessary calculations. The top 3 are shown below.

The Marblehead events for 2018 are already on the Guildford Model Yacht Club website at www.guildfordmyc.co.uk

BRASS MONKEY Results:

1st  Rob Vice Clapham UPROAR        11

2nd Peter Stollery Guildford UPROAR 11

3rd Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR       12

4th Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 19

5th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 27

6th Les Thorn Hawley Lake PARADOX 31

7th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford PARADOX 33

8th Keith Bullard Guildford  ABEL’S 41

9th David Croom Chelmsford STARKERS 49

GAMES results – 

1st Peter Stollery 378.9

2nd Rob Vice 348.8

3rd Roger Stollery 336.5