The finale of the 8 GAMES events attracted a big entry this year with 10 Ms and 6 small boats, which Guildford Model Yacht Club were delighted to welcome at Abbey Meads Lake on a cold but sunny Sunday morning on 14 December.  Many thanks for boosting the numbers must go to Phil Holliday, who like the wise men at Christmas brought gifts and the three F6 Marbleheads that he brought for others to sail could well have been named Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh!

It turned out to be a quite superb event of 11 races that everyone enjoyed immensely despite a light fluky wind that demanded ultimate concentration.

Race Officer Martin Crysell decided to run 16 boats on the water together, with Marbleheads starting a minute before the small boats, which sailed a shorter course. This worked well and it was amazingly quiet on the southern control bank with no shouting nor formal protests to be heard; just quiet words with everyone doing their penalty turn.

Race 1 set the scene for the event with Phil Holliday and his F6 winning from Peter Stollery’s UP and his 14-year-old son Oliver’s UPROAR. This was the first of Phil’s 4 wins with the runner up either being Peter or Barrie Martin’s STARKERS in Race 2. However Barrie, who was leading the GAMES series up to now broke the mould by winning Race 5 after a very good start. The small boats racing was dominated by Mike Wilkie with 4 wins up to lunchtime.

RO Martin now took on an extra job after starting and finishing the races by lighting the cooker for the sausage rolls, mince pies and mulled wine which is an essential and traditional part of this Christmas event and again was enjoyed by all.

The afternoon session changed the pattern with straight wins for Peter in Races 7 to 9 before it reverted to Phil to take the last 2. The wind which had been getting lighter and lighter finally died away and Martin appreciated the frustration and started no more racing half an hour before the official deadline. This allowed the time before it got dark to check the scores before the prizegiving, backup the safety boat, marks & gear.

Another tradition for this race is that there is no financial entry fee, but instead you enter by handing in a wrapped present. This always works well as there were generous prizes and one leftover was presented to Martin as thanks for running such a good event. The winners each got a trophy, Marblehead’s Brass Monkey and a separate trophy for both BOTTLE boat and DF 95 winners. The trophy for winning the series, the Midgley Mug was not presented,  but an indication of the winner was announced – Peter Stollery, with Niger Barrow, Barrie Martin second and third.

Marblehead results:

1st Phil Holliday, Datchet Radio Sailing, F6                 11 points  – Winner of the Brass Monkey

2nd Peter Stollery, Guildford, UP                                  16

3rd Barrie Martin, London MYC, STARKERS                35

4th Oliver Stollery, Guildford, UPROAR                       35

5th Niger Barrow, Frensham Pond, F6                         40

6th Graham Hetem, Datchet RS, F6                             47

7th Jim La Roche, Coalhouse Fort, F6                         59

8th Nick Fezer Brown, London MYC, F6                      59

9th Colin Harper, London MYC, GRUNGE                   64

10th Chris Watkins, Royal Temple YC, ROAR EDGE    69.

Small boat results:

1st Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court MYC DF95,              16 points – winner of DF 95 trophy

2nd Roger Stollery, Guildford, BOTTLE boat,              16 points – winner of BOTTLE boat trophy

3rd Alan Viney, Guildford, DF95                                   19

4th Celia Greetham, London MYC, DF 95                   32

5th Richard Baldey, Frensham Pond DF95                 37

6th Keith Parrott, Frensham Pond, BOTTLE boat,       73

Click Here for Results: 2024-12-14 Brass Monkey

Unfortunately we had only three skippers for this event, some others were away or not feeling good.

Getting to the club took far longer than usual because of the heavy overnight rain which had caused widespread flooding.

For this reason we decided to sail from the south bank despite the northerly breeze so that we could park on the road and not get stuck in the mud.

It actually worked out well because the wind went slightly round to the west and amazingly one of our old marks which had been lost in the trees for best part of a year suddenly reappeared presumably courtesy of storm Bert.

Anyway this buoy anchored itself it the right place for us to use it as a windward mark so with two other marks laid for a start line these were used as a gate on the intermediate lap and a finish line on the last lap, and this worked well.

The racing was almost at the top end of A rig but we held on with only a few nose dives and did 12 races before we decided we were too cold to carry on.

As is becoming usual each of us had wins but it was Simon Johnson who had the most so gave yet another winner to the series.

Full results are attached and the final event of the series is on 11^th December and the final position is still wide open

Report by Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-11-27 DF95

We extend a very warm welcome to you to come and have some competitive fun at our Christmas Open meeting for Marbleheads and DF 95/BOTTLE boats. We hope that you will come and enjoy racing in a relaxed mode at Abbey Meads Lake, Chertsey to get you into the party mood. This is very much a fun event, with festive dress for self/boat anticipated! As usual, we will be stopping for lunch when mince pies and mulled wine will be served. We do hope that you will come and join the party. 

This year the event is again the finale of the 2024 GAMES Marblehead series With the MIDGLEY MUG, Improver’s and Junior Prizes to be awarded along with the Brass Monkey itself and the special trophies for DF95 and BOTTLE boat winners. There is all to sail for as well series winner 

the GAMES improver’s prize (best improver outside the top 10) are presented at this event. The current leader is Barrie Martin by his consistent GAMES results of 324.7, but Peter Stollery & Nigel Barrow are close behind on 290 & 287.5 respectively and despite two wins each need good scores to take the MIDGLEY MUG; an exciting spectacle! The latest 2024 GAMES schedule is attached.

Following GMYC tradition there will be no normal financial entry fee.  Instead, please bring a wrapped present containing something that you might like to win!   The racing will be organised for Marbleheads and DF 95/BOTTLE boats starting using the same countdown, but at different times. The Marbleheads will start first and the smaller boats shortly after. The latter will have a course handicap with the intention that all will finish together, but the small boats will be competing within their own classes.

The racing will be conducted using the RRS 2021-2024 modified by the MYA SSIs & the IRSA Short Penalty. The relevant notices are as follows:  BRIEFING – this will start at approximately 09.40 hours. RACING TIMES – the first race will start soon after the briefing at approximately 10.00 hours – no race will start after 15.00 hours and any race in progress at 15.20 hours will be abandoned. The closing date for entries for the event is midnight on Thursday 12^th December 2024. Please enter Marbleheads using the MYA entry system, but please ring Roger if you are entering a DF 95 or BOTTLE boat on 01444 523053 or e-mail him on stollery117@gmail.com and include your MYA number if you have one.  

ABBEY MEADS Lake is easy to find. From wherever you are travelling, follow the signs to THORPE PARK and go to the roundabout at their entrance. Then travel south on the A320 towards Chertsey. After a few hundred yards turn left off the road after you see the Chertsey Water Board sign. The what three words location is same-fame-cabin. If you arrive late and the inner gate is locked, put 1617 into the circular GMYC number padlock, slide the button at the bottom to open and just slide the horizontal bar back and replace this after entry. Please make a note of this or print this NoR and refer to it when you are at the gate. We look forward to seeing you! 

5 of us turned out on a lovely warm November morning, sadly only one thing was missing namely the wind.

It really was drifting conditions although it produced three different race winners it was Barrie Martin who managed to drift faster than the rest of us to win four of the six races. Mike Wilkie kept up his good form by following his last win with a second place.

There is no clear leader in this series so it’s still all to play for. The next race is on 27^th November.

Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-11-13 DF95

5 skippers turned out for this second race of the winter series, the first two having to be cancelled due to lack of entries.

The first job this morning was to rescue one of our blue marks that had drifted some 60 feet or so to the north. That having been done a simple windward leeward course was set using the two blue marks as a leeward gate.

As usual with this class the racing was close with three different race winners from the ten races that were sailed in the light southerly breeze.

However one skipper was really on form and put in a convincing performance Mike Wilkie won a total of six races to win the day by a margin of nine points, so well done Mike. Full results are attached.

Next time out is 13th November

Martin Crysell

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