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

Frensham Pond SC Model Yacht Group ran another successful Footy Open Videlo Globe Trophy on Wednesday 11th April and attracted entries from three MYA districts. Despite the foggy conditions with a steady, but cold 8 mph wind, all the competitors enjoyed the day’s sailing with 18 races completed.

Footys are fun

Racing these little boats is always fun and the wind direction allowed the Race Officer, Roger Stollery to set an unusual course with the leeward mark in a narrowing space between two dinghy jetties, which just added to the fun. On the beat the jetty obstructions allowed port tack boats to hail the starboard boats to tack, adding another interest to the strategy at the start and beating back from the leeward mark. Being so close to the racing is a big advantage and caused Charles Smith to comment after the event “quite apart from the jetty work it was so nice to race on a course we could all see easily”.

The racing

As soon as racing started it was clear that the two Peters from Abington Park were going to dominate the event. Peter Jackson sailing his IBEX design won Races 1 and 3 with Peter Shepherd sailing his FAT BOY SLIM coming second and then going on to win Race 2 and another 10 races! The remaining races, except Race 9, which was won by Keith Parrott sailing an ICE, were won by Peter Jackson. Some of the finishes were very close indeed and in Race 16 it almost needed a photo finish between Keith and Peter Jackson; Keith took second place from Peter.

The boats

Footys are popular with model maker sailors, because there are a huge number of free plans on the Footy website including simple competitive chine boats made from balsa that are easy and quick to make. Peter Shepherd designed his own very beautiful little circular section FAT BOY SLIM and built it in balsa five years ago. Weighing less than a jar of marmalade at 410 grams, including 275g of ballast, its lightweight construction and bluff bow has helped to win many events including this one. It is interesting to note that the recent IOM European Champion KANTUN 2 also has this bluff bow feature at the waterline.

FAT BOY SLIM is narrow and fits in the Footy measuring box diagonally whereas the wider and more powerful axially measured boats are usually heavier because of their bigger hulls. The jury is still out on which type is best because both provide really good close racing.

The 2018 National championship

On Sunday September 16, Footys from all over the country will be gathering at Frensham Pond again for the Nationals. In order to encourage young people to race there will be a Junior Championship in the morning run in conjunction with the main event, with the results and trophies awarded at lunchtime. The under 18’s may then continue to sail in the main Championship, which is coming to Frensham Pond, because it is popular and one of the best places for racing these boats. Details can be found on the Footy website, www.sailfootyuk.com.

Top 6 Results:

1^stPeter Shepherd Hollowell SC FAT BOY SLIM 19

2^ndPeter Jackson Abington Park IBEX  26

3^rdKeith Parrott Frensham Pond ICE  41

4^thCharles Smith Frensham Pond ICE  56

5^thColin Robinson Cheddar Steam ICE  70

6^thJohn Haine Frensham Pond ICE  77