WoW!

Workshop On Water

Guildford Model Yacht Club is introducing new Wednesday After Lunch Events for 2019. Based on the most successful of our winter Friday Evening Workshops – SAIL TRIMMING, we will be holding summertime coaching Workshops on our Abbey Meads Lake, which will be completely free.

World Vane Marblehead Champion, Roger Stollery, will be passing on his great experience in radio, vane and full-size sailing to help YOU get the best out of your boat. This may help YOU to enjoy your sailing more and be more competitive than those who miss out on these WoW events.

Every class of boat is invited to Abbey Meads Lake whether you are a one design sailor of the DF classes, where it is only your sailing skill that gives YOU the difference, or the fine tuning of IOM’s, or the swing rigs of the M and 10 rater classes.

WoW! events are designed to be FUNand not just about sail trimming. During the 9 event WoW series there will be coaching sessions to practise things like starting, and every aspect of sailing round the course. As well as sailing windward, leeward and reaching courses, honing YOUR skills in finding the best winds etc,there will be one session with a short FUN course against the clock that you won’t have used before. This will show why YOU have to talk to each other, sail in a straight line, tack on the shifts both up and down wind and avoid contacts at all costs.

Inevitably, when there are a few boats on the water there will be some racing for YOU to try out your new trimsetc. You will enjoy sailing at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the southwith fantastic visibility from the high level control areas. GMYC are skilled at running more than one class at once to provide FUN and a challenge for all sizes of boat.

WoW! After Lunch Events start at 2 PM and depending on the weather, finish at about 5 PM. The next one is on Wednesday, 5^thJune 2019. Please check on the GMYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.ukfor the dates of other WoW! events, which are currently planned for Wednesday,  June 19^th, July 3^rd& 31^st

If you want to come, you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 either before or on the morning of the WoW!

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

This was a fantastic 2 days sailing on this very exposed lake, with A rig winds from the WNW on the Northern course, followed by mainly C rig, but sometimes B even C2 rig SW winds on Sunday on the southern course. 9 races were sailed on each day in 2 heats to divide the 30 boat entry.

Not having sailed in these big wave conditions since the 2015 Nationals, when we experienced some problems, I was apprehensive as well as excited about how all the improvements made in the UPROAR design would help the performance of UP in these waves. 

SATURDAY

I shouldn’t have worried, as the UPs went well with Peter winning the Saturday event with 4 first places out of the 7 counting, although credit must also go to Brad Gibson who tied on points, was very consistent, but only won 3 races. He was sailing a 1990s PARADOX with the original GB sails and a modern ROBOT fin and bulb. 

My UP sailed well and was quick compared with other boats and particularly against the ‘boat-to-beat’, GRUNGE designs. Downwind, the reduction of drag with the Dave Hollom designed fin sections was significant and worth all the development time and effort put in by the builder, Dave Winder. Unfortunately the results didn’t match that good performance and were not improved when trying to cross Darin Ballington on port when in the lead of the A heat. The tops of the masts clashed and we entangled. 

Whilst it was not advertised, the ACORN Trophy, which was given by Guildford for the M&S ranking events was retained by Peter for winning the Saturday event.

SUNDAY

A stronger wind from the south-west created much bigger and longer waves and was much more exciting on the fast downwind runs. Initially C rigs were used, but the wind varied and lightened enough for B rig briefly and then blew up for C2 rigs for the final Race 9.

The seeding race went well with a third behind Peter and Brad, but I then hovered between A and B heats with technical problems with both my sheeting and steering forcing me to retire in the last 3 races. The good thing about this was that I could take photographs of the boats flying downwind and slicing their way to windward. Peter had some consistent results but not as good as on the previous day. 

Most remarkable was Brad Gibson’s performance, as he gave a masterclass in sailing in those conditions, finishing with only 7 points from 7 races with a boat that is 25 years old! Some way behind were Darin Ballington, Graham Bantock and Peter, with Rob Vice finishing 12th after suffering technical problems with the radio gear in his GRUNGE, borrowed from Phil Holliday.

The progress of racing was interrupted by the launching and the recovery of half a dozen small yachts which halted the racing and created frustrating delays.

At the prize-giving the winners thanked Terry Rensch for organising the event and also the race team with race officers, Graham Bantock and David Isset and their assistants, who were thin on the ground on Sunday. Thanked most of all was Hugh McAdoo, who spent the whole weekend in the rib doing a good job setting the course and also rescuing boats that were out of control or which had gone ashore on the sloping concrete sides. Events are physically hard at Datchet because of the distance walked just to get your boat in the water and back up to the control area at the top. We were used to walking along the rim of the reservoir to get to the start, but on Sunday this was slightly shorter, but you had to look through the galvanised railings where the horizontal bars were just at eye level, which felt really uncomfortable. 

Saturday’s results:

1st Peter Stollery Guildford UP 15

2nd Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 15

3rd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 25.7

4th Phil Holliday Datchet Water GRUNGE 33

5th Rob Vice Guildford NIOUTRAM 39

6th Rob Walsh Fleetwood STARKERS 43 

14th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 75 

Sunday’s results: 

1st Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 7

2nd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 21

3rd Graham Bantock Chelmsford QUARK 25

4th Peter Stollery Guildford UP 37 

5th John Tushingham Keighley VISION 39

6th James Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE 39

12th Rob Vice Guildford GRUNGE 72

19th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 103

The full results can be found on the Marblehead Class website, events, Datchet delivers.

WoW!

Workshop On Water

Guildford Model Yacht Club is introducing new Wednesday After Lunch Events for 2019. Based on the most successful of our winter Friday Evening Workshops – SAIL TRIMMING, we will be holding summertime coaching Workshops on our Abbey Meads Lake, which will be completely free.

World Vane Marblehead Champion, Roger Stollery, will be passing on his great experience in radio, vane and full-size sailing to help YOU get the best out of your boat. This may help YOU to enjoy your sailing more and be more competitive than those who miss out on these WoW events.

Every class of boat is invited to Abbey Meads Lake whether you are a one design sailor of the DF classes, where it is only your sailing skill that gives YOU the difference, or the fine tuning of IOM’s, or the swing rigs of the M and 10 rater classes.

WoW! events are designed to be FUNand not just about sail trimming. During the 9 event WoW series there will be coaching sessions to practise things like starting, and every aspect of sailing round the course. As well as sailing windward, leeward and reaching courses, honing YOUR skills in finding the best winds etc,there will be one session with a short FUN course against the clock that you won’t have used before. This will show why YOU have to talk to each other, sail in a straight line, tack on the shifts both up and down wind and avoid contacts at all costs.

Inevitably, when there are a few boats on the water there will be some racing for YOU to try out your new trimsetc. You will enjoy sailing at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the southwith fantastic visibility from the high level control areas. GMYC are skilled at running more than one class at once to provide FUN and a challenge for all sizes of boat.

WoW! After Lunch Events start at 2 PM and depending on the weather, finish at about 5 PM. The next one is on Wednesday, 22^ndMay, 2019. Please check on the GMYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.ukfor the dates of other WoW! events.

If you want to come, you MUST phone Roger on (01483) 421801 either before or on the morning of the WoW ! event

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

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

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

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. 

Click Here to Link to Photo Gallery

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.