A sunny but cold day with brisk easterly wind greeted 10 competitors from 5 clubs for the penultimate GAMES event. This was an A rig wind, which increased to B rig for some boats later in the event.

The 3 Rivers race team set a good long course parallel to the bank with 2 laps of a windward leeward course with a separator forming a triangle on the first lap.

Colin Goodman, who has been house renovating rather than sailing his GRUNGE this year, showed that his great sailing skills have not been lost and he won the first 2 races. Roger Stollery sailing his UP won the next which interrupted Colin’s run of wins, as he went on to win the next 5 races on the trot!

Newcomer to Marblehead racing, John Howell sailing a VICKERS V1, won Race 9, only to let Colin  win again in Race 10. John Shorrock sailing a QUARK was by now becoming  tired and despondent about his poor showing in the morning, but cheered up when he won Race 11 and went on to win Race 13! His wins were only interrupted by Roger, who won Races 12 and the last Race 14.

page 1 of 2

The breeze was far from steady with a very calm area created by the trees near the windward mark, where an element of luck was needed to get round with any sort of speed on. There were some very short strong gusts, which whilst allowing these  fantastic oats to plane very impressively off wind,  also led to boats going out of control by broaching. Phil Holliday, sailing his NIOUTRAM was unlucky in one vicious gust in Race 4 to break his mast at deck level. Sailing with his B rig, was  then not so much of a disadvantage, as it suited the increasing wind strength.

The 3 Rivers race team showed their usual efficiency in running this GAMES event and were thanked by the prizewinners.

In addition, the club are generating both new ideas and building new Marbleheads themselves. Max Lembke had an interesting variation of an offset pivot swing rig on his own design hull, which was very simple and applied to the A rig sail proportions. Peter Popham was sailing one of the 3 UPROAR designs built by club members using Roger’s moulds, which with the copious instructions are available for DIY enthusiasts to borrow.

It is not just making new boats, but their existing Marblehead fleet is being upgraded, with John Male’s new sails making a big difference to the performance of his 18 year old  STARKERS.

Results:

1st Colin Goodman Chelmsford GRUNGE 16 points

2nd Roger Stollery Guildford UP 31

3rd John Howell Watermead VICKERS V1 42

4th John Shorrock Datchet QUARK 53

5th Phil Holliday Datchet NIOUTRAM 53

6th John Male 3 Rivers STARKERS 54

7th Dick Grainge 3 Rivers STARKERS 65

8th Trevor Innes 3 Rivers STARKERS 87

9th Max Lembke 3 Rivers MAXLEM 89

10th Peter Popham 3 Rivers UPROAR 115

Martin, Alan, Peter and myself welcomed our Canadian visitor, John Ball to Abbey Meads on Sunday on an incredibly hot day, with a light and variable northerly wind. It was almost too hot in the full sun, but Alan brought his umbrella which gave a

Martin Crysell & Peter Dunne at Arcadia 2018

little shade in the morning shared by as many of us who could cram underneath it, when we were not racing. John is used to sailing IOMs and so it made a change to sail my UP.

Arcadia June 2018

John Ball, Alan Viney, Roger Stollery, Peter Dunne & Martin Crysell.

Peter Dunne presented with Junes MEMBERS Trophy, by Alan Viney

Apart from the disappointing wind, there were loose strands of weed picked up by every boat in every race and this problem, presumably accelerated by the hot weather has arrived a lot earlier than its normal appearance in the early autumn and casts doubt on the running of our ALE series from now on.

Arcadia Trophy

Dear All,

Whilst it was very disappointing to receive only one entry from outside the Guildford club, we were delighted that Peter Popham came from the Three Rivers club to enjoy a warm sunny day with the wind blowing most of the time straight down the lake from the North, although somewhat spasmodically. Peter was excited, as he brought his brand-new boat which he and Max Lemke had been building over the last few months using the UPROAR moulds and copious instructions that now go with it. This is remarkable in itself, but is part of a scheme originally to build three new boats and update the Three Rivers club fleet. The plan has now been extended to 4 new boats, so this is very encouraging for the Marblehead class and in the future we hope to see more of these boats coming to GMYC open races.

GMYC GAMES 4 & Interclub 3 – for the Members Trophy – Roger Stollery

Although part of a learning curve, with a difficulty with using a coloured gelcoat, Peter’s new boat UPROAR 71 looked magnificent, as it wasn’t just black but sprayed bright orange and with some fancy lettering. This and a few photographs of the racing itself is shown on the PDF pic page. I helped set up his rig and he enjoyed some good racing despite controlling the boat from his chair in just one location and he enjoyed winning three of the 12 races, as you can see from Alan’s results spreadsheet.

GMYC GAMES 4 & Interclub 3 – for the Members Trophy – Roger Stollery

As this was also an event for the GMYC Members trophy on a handicap basis, we assumed that the merit winner of the event would also win the trophy on handicap and we did present Alan with the trophy on this assumption as Alan had done really well. However we hadn’t worked out the handicap in detail and such is the brilliance of our handicap system, it was Peter Dunne who did best against his handicap. He will be delighted by this result as his performance with his STARKERS, which is also new this year has been steadily getting better each event and allowed him to win the trophy.

GMYC GAMES 4 & Interclub 3 – for the Members Trophy – Roger Stollery

Not to be disappointed, Alan Viney’s win on merit is satisfaction enough, but it does allow him to rocket up the GAMES leaderboard into fourth place as the 100 points at this event boosts his average score that he gets from being part of the race committee for the Mermaid Trophy.

GMYC GAMES 4 & Interclub 3 – for the Members Trophy – Roger Stollery

Whilst it would be nice to have more local club sailors and particularly the ex-GMYC members who sail at Datchet, everyone enjoyed the event and those who didn’t come, missed out on some good sailing. There were other attractions this weekend and the IOM ranking event at Southport took away a couple of likely sailors, and holidays took away several of our members, but this is no excuse for the other 60 local sailors who were invited to take part in this event. I don’t believe that the football World Cup or the Formula One Grand Prix really made that much difference.

GMYC GAMES 4 & Interclub 3 – for the Members Trophy – Roger Stollery

However the question has to be asked how these Marblehead sailors can be persuaded to travel, for some very short distances, to increase the level of attendance and enjoyment at these Interclub events?

Cheers, Roger