The intense heatwave and strong easterly breeze gave almost perfect conditions for exciting racing and the Marbleheads provided a fantastic spectacle in front of the LSC clubhouse. 13 races were sailed in A rigs initially, but required C rigs after the first two races.

The wind was variable in both strength and direction which made it very difficult to set the course, but after several changes a short course was established by RO Roger Stollery with windward mark, spreader and a leeward gate and a short starting line. This was no problem as the 12 boat entry soon became 8 on the water and then technical difficulties with the strong gusts and waves forced boats to retire from the event. This left just 5 boats racing. A big problem on the course was weed blown to the lowered end of the lake where we were racing and annoyingly upset everyone and their results.

ARO Martin Crysell started the first race, which was won by Nigel Barrow sailing an F6 design, followed by Peter Stollery with his UP and Rob Vice sailing a GRUNGE. Race 2 was won by Peter from Nigel and Rob third and appeared to set the pattern for the event. However Oliver, who had struggled in A rig changed down to C rig and sailing his grandad’s UP was much more comfortable and won Race 3 with GAMES’ leader Phil Holliday second and Nigel third. Peter won the next with Nigel and Chris Watkins sailing a Brad Gibson INDIE design third.

Races 5 and 6 belonged to Rob Vice with Nigel second and Oliver third. Rob was sailing with a conventional C rig and was the first boat with that rig to win a race and set up an interesting battle with Peter sailing with a swing rig, which gained a bit more speed by being able to tack downwind. Both were going flat out under pressure downwind with rudders showing in the gusts and having great fun and a close finish in Race 7, which Peter won.

Ever consistent Nigel won Race 8 from Rob with Oliver third. Race 9 was another tight race with the Peter winning from Rob with Oliver third, who went on to win Race 10 with his dad Peter, second and Rob third. Race 11 finishing order was Peter, Rob and Nigel, who went on to win Race 12 from Peter and Rob. After fixing a really difficult technical problem Oliver went on to win the last race under great pressure to win that final race.

At the prize giving Roger and in particularly Martin were thanked for running another superb GAMES event. Whilst the course was OK for the small entry, but bigger events need at least a longer start line for an E/W breeze and one has been identified at the northern end of the control area.

Results:

1st Peter Stollery, GaLRS, UP   20 points

2nd Nigel Barrow, Datchet, F6   26

3rd Rob Vice, GaLRS, GRUNGE     27

4th Oliver Stollery, GaLRS, UP  37

5th Chris Watkins, Royal Temple YC, INDIE 46

6th Phil Holliday, Datchet, F6  88

7th Jim La Roche, Datchet, F6   95

8th Hugh McAdoo, Datchet, F6    106

DF95 Series results please click here

DF95 Series results please click here

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and it’s the first time that I had been at the Club on a Sunday. I was surprised how few LSC members were taking advantage of this lovely weather, as only 3 dinghies were sailing as well as 2 disabled boats and related powerboat assistance. I was very grateful for assistance from Rob E in one of the power boats for rescuing my Marblehead which had lost radio control as a result of a dodgy on off switch.

Guildford and Littleton Radio Sailing organised this annual Marblehead Open event, which was publicised in LSC Scene earlier.

The racing was a fantastic spectacle with the boats screaming downwind in the gusts with loads of spray, broaching and sometimes rudders showing.

The mark roundings are always exciting and on the beat the skill of those who could tack on the shifts and make a good rounding of the windward mark showed up clearly.

The 16 reaching starts were exciting, but it was easy to be too early and there were several general recalls and often with boats over the line OCS.

We used two of the dinghy circular orange buoys as turning marks which worked well with the scale of the tall rigs of the Marblehead standing up well above the mark. It is always difficult to judge whether you are past the mark or not, but the tall rigs throw a shadow of the rig on the buoy when you are past it, making the judgement easier.

In the control area in front of the clubhouse there are lots of strange things to see and questions to ask. What are those funny rigs with the jibs set on an extension to the main boom? How does that work? Don’t be afraid to ask as model sailors are always very helpful and can explain things like the setting of the sails, which in principle is no different to setting the sails on your DF95.

Finally don’t be afraid to ask to have a go at sailing a Marblehead as with the DF95 they give a great deal of pleasure, excitement and fun!

Roger Stollery, 1 June 2026

Full details please click here

After a couple of trial days back in the summer it seemed that both GMYC and LSC were keen to join up and Littleton S C could not have been more welcoming and helpful. Whilst our previous home at Abbey Meads lake had been good to us for some thirty years or so, and we did have some great races there but we had no facilities whatsoever, and I’m sure this had a counter effect on some of the entries that we got for open events, it was always hard work getting things set up with marks launching platforms etc. Once the break ins started happening regularly it was obviously time get out and  move on.

We started racing at LSC properly at the beginning of September with DF 95 boats on Thursday mornings. There is a core of about six of us who are mostly regular and the really good news is that in a relatively short space of time we have three new members that are also LSC members and  have bought themselves DF 95’s and are now MYA affiliated.

In October we held a Marblehead open meeting and although it was a fairly small entry of eight boats they were all experienced skippers who regularly race all over the country and the general consensus of opinion was that we not only had an excellent stretch of water, we now had facilities that were second to none. I’m sure this news will soon get spread around the Radio Yachting fraternity and will do the club a power of good.

So, I think we can look forward to 2026 with new enthusiasm and we now have the ability to be able to grow the club into a venue that can be used for major radio yachting events, with all the facilities.

What we need most is some younger members who will step up and help with the running of the club

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!