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The WoW! event was very successful and very pleasurable as far as Roger was concerned, as the organiser. We had a Chris Judd from Eastleigh/Gosport who brought a DF 95, John Price from Reading who also bought a DF 95, George Cannon with his wife, Shirley, who had come after watching the Fred’s Big Toephy a few days before. They brought a Footy sporting a rig given by Peter Shepherd, a Micro Magic and a DF 65. Roger came with 2 BOTTLE boats and his new 10 rater UP4FUN and Alan Viney brought his PRIME NUMBER Marblehead. Also ace vane A class designer Jon Simpson, came with his 13 year old son Jeremy. One of our potential new members, Charles Ward-Tetley, who has bought a DF 95, but not yet rigged it, was pleased to be part of the coaching session and also enjoyed the BOTTLE boat. So it was well supported and with all these boats afloat on the water there was a lot of sailing done and we even had half a dozen races which were very interesting. George Cannon’s wife, Shirley really enjoyed sailing the whole afternoon with a BOTTLE boat and her Micro Magic, sailing from her wheelchair. She kindly took some photographs, which now form the attached pic page.

All the DF sailors were really pleased to have the advice on rigging and particularly the John from Reading, who also has an IOM and a really nice 10 rater, MAGGOT. He promised to bring it next time. Like our evening workshops, Chris Judd whose boat was better rigged than the other one helped by his experience of sailing this boat. Roger would have replaced all rubbishy Dyneema and replaced it all with better quality smoother Dyneema because it was so difficult to move the plastic bowsies across the textured line to make the necessary adjustments to the trim.

Roger had great pleasure in sailing one of his BOTTLE boats as they are fantastic boats to sail, so responsive, lively and manoeuvrable. Roger did also sail the better of the 2 DF 95s and despite having the same 2 kg displacement in comparison it was not quite so responsive even after the tuning of the rig/sails at the beginning of the event. However these 4 boats made a good match in these light weather conditions.

Young Jeremy sailed the Marblehead/10 rater all afternoon and not having sailed a radio boat before he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Everyone got this simple message more than once, not just at the bottom of Roger’s little cards handed out to all attendees; “if in doubt let them out”!”

The Guildford Model Yacht Club hopes to repeat this with hopefully a similar mix of boats at the next WoW! event on 8 May 2019.

Roger Stollery 2019-04-17

Saturday’s racing

Fred’s Big Toephy – Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

This Footy event was postponed from the cold snowy conditions in February planned for sailing at Guildford Model Yacht Club’s water at Abbey Meads Lake, Chertsey. Subsequently this event and the Videlo Globe event were brought together to create a weekend of Footy sailing in what should have been better weather. 

Far from it, Saturday was freezing cold with incredibly variable north-easterly winds 3 to 8 mph and attracted a small, but high quality entry from the Abington Park and Birmingham clubs, as well as the local entries from Frensham Pond and the host club. 

Race Officers Martin Crysell and Peter Dunne had a difficult job as the wind was so variable, but set a simple windward leeward course several times to get the best angle for the windward legs.

The event started well with a win for Roger Stollery sailing his new ICE, but he was then beaten into 2nd and 3rd places by John Burgoine in the next two races. Peter Shepherd then headed the fleet to win Race 4, before letting John have a run of 4 consecutive wins only interrupted by Roger in Race 9. John’s winning streak continued in the next race, but Peter took Race 11 and the last Race 14. John sailed incredibly well with 9 wins, having to discard a 3rd place as his second worst score! With a well setup rig and beautiful home-made sails, John looked invincible when combined with his clever strategy around the course. The powerful ICE design is resistant to nosediving and was able to manage the vicious gusts, which struck the course from several different angles.

Results:

1st John Burgoine Birmingham ICE 15

2nd Peter Shepherd Abington Park FAT BOY SLIM 28

3rd Roger Stollery Guildford ICE 31

4th Peter Jackson Abington Park IBEX 40

5th Keith Parrott Frensham Pond ICE 53

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The Dinner

Everyone thawed out in a local pub with a dinner and the usual discussions about new Footy developments and putting the world to rights. 

Sunday’s racing

Videlo Globe 

If Saturday felt cold, it was nothing to Sunday’s exposure to the icey 4-12 mph north-easterly wind blowing onshore into the control area at Frensham Pond. 

Race Officer, Roger Stollery, set a simple windward leeward course, which had to be varied as the winds became more easterly during the afternoon. The Footys were sharing the pond with combined Lark/RS 200 dinghy open events, which provided an interesting background to the Footy racing. Whilst the dinghies had 4 races, Footys had 17 and despite the small size, more starts and more racing created more fun for the 10 boat Footy entry, which equalled the numbers in each of the dinghy classes. 

With a pole on the bank to adjust the starting line angle there were some very even starts and very good racing. The difference in the conditions compared with the Saturday was that the big waves created by the onshore wind suited the diagonally measured fine ended narrowboats better, as they were able to slice through the waves more easily than the more powerful, wider and more bluff-bowed boats that had dominated racing the day before. They won all but 3 races, which were won by the ICEs of Keith Parrott in Race 4, John Burgoine in Race 7 and Graham Whitehead in Race 9. 

Just as John had dominated the Saturday racing, so Peter Shepherd sailing his balsa FAT BOY SLIM, lead the fleet on 10 occasions, often by a large margin as his boat was perfectly suited to these wave conditions. The other races were won by the IBEX designs sailed by Sid Sims in Race 5 and the IBEX designer, Peter Jackson, in Races 12, 13 and 16.

The prize-giving

The Frensham Pond Sailing Club Commodore, Jeremy Hudson gave away the prizes and marvelled at the number of races sailed and gave his full backing to this form of sailing at the club. The race team of Roger, Nick Royse, Steve Hill and Bryan Stichbury were thanked for having to work in such cold conditions.

Footy boat developments 

Footys are made from many different materials, balsa as the winner of the Videlo Globe, plywood, corrugated plastic and carbon fibre, which at this small scale is not expensive. However there were new developments at this event, as David Wilkinson initially sailed a 3D printed GREEN HORNET hull designed in America by Bill Hagerup and built by David’s clubmate. It looked good, but suffered from mechanical/radio problems. The Footy is absolutely ideal for this method of construction, with the whole hull being manufactured ‘string by string’ wound vertically from the transom to the bow. Whilst the finish was not perfect with tiny ridges that one could feel long the surface, it does hold great promise for the class as lightweight hulls can be made quickly and cheaply in one piece. 

It is likely that the long fin of a Footy is still likely to be made with more suitable reinforcement material such as carbon fibre. Roger’s new ICE was sporting a new set of low drag fin and rudder sections designed by Dave Hollom, of America’s Cup fame.This boat was used by John Burgoine before lunch and David Wilkinson later using their own rigs when their boats had to be retired and it showed some promise. 

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Results:

1st Peter Shepherd Abington Park FAT BOY SLIM 19

2nd Peter Jackson Abington Park IBEX 30

3rd Graham Whitehead Frensham Pond ICE 57

4th Sid Sims Birmingham IBEX 58

5th Keith Parrott Frensham Pond ICE 61

6th David Wilkinson Cotswold GREEN HORNET 76

7th John Burgoine Birmingham ICE 87

8th Colin Robertson Cheddar Steam IBEX 92

9th Tony Butler Birmingham IBEX 98

10th Steve Hill Frensham Pond ICE 157

The large number of free hull designs and a full programme of Footy racing can be followed on www.sailfootyuk.com.