Chipstead S/C Radio Sailing invite entries to their Marblehead Open meeting and Games 1 on Saturday 20th January 2018. First Race at 10.00am. Full details in the NOR Marblehead Open – Games 1 2018.

The weather lived up to the name of the event and this Marblehead event was sailed at GMYC’s Abbey Meads Lake in atrocious freezing conditions that were not forecast.  Instead of small amounts of rain and 20 to 40 mph westerly winds there was continual rain, sleet or snow and very little wind from almost every direction.The heavy snowfall further north prevented Phil Holliday from setting out from home, but did not prevent Alf Reynolds and David Croom getting to Abbey Meads through the snow in Kent.

This did not put off the Guildford team, who erected two linked gazebos close to the edge of the southern bank to act as part of the control area for protection from the worst downpours. A ring of specially laid marks allowed windward legs to match the wind variation at some point around the course.

Rob Vice, who had upgraded his UPROAR with a new Robot keel and new bulb, set the pace to win Race 1 from Roger Stollery’s UPROAR. He won again in Race 2 from Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER. Then it was the turn of Peter Stollery to win from Roger, who then won Race 4. After another 2 races won by Rob and Roger there was a welcome break for lunch with the hot mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies helping to warm the frozen fingers to thaw out.

As it began to snow harder, all agreed to do another couple of races to end the madness and thaw and dry out properly on the way home. This was a wise decision as it was becoming difficult to see the boats through the blizzard conditions in the final race.

As is traditional for this Christmas event, the prize-giving consisted of selecting by the order of finishing places, a wrapped prize, which was the entry fee. As this was the finale of the GAMES’ events it was hoped to present the Midgley Memorial Mug to the winner, but the cold and wet was not conducive to doing the necessary calculations. The top 3 are shown below.

The Marblehead events for 2018 are already on the Guildford Model Yacht Club website at www.guildfordmyc.co.uk

BRASS MONKEY Results:

1st  Rob Vice Clapham UPROAR        11

2nd Peter Stollery Guildford UPROAR 11

3rd Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR       12

4th Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 19

5th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 27

6th Les Thorn Hawley Lake PARADOX 31

7th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford PARADOX 33

8th Keith Bullard Guildford  ABEL’S 41

9th David Croom Chelmsford STARKERS 49

GAMES results – 

1st Peter Stollery 378.9

2nd Rob Vice 348.8

3rd Roger Stollery 336.5

The furthest travelled competitor, Bill Culshaw from Shropshire, sailing a GRUNGE, won this event with seven wins from the two UPROARS that were successful last week at the Mermaid.

Three Rivers RYC’s wasted no time and gave competitors 15 races, an amazing number considering the start in no wind and very little during the day, with the constantly varying wind coming from every direction from south-west to north-east and creating a constantly course setting headache for Race Officer, Peter Popham and his team.

As well as the wind problem, the water level was low and so launching was sometimes difficult for deeper keeled Marbleheads, which grounded just out of reach of the launching area. This problem was aggravated because after every race most boats had to come ashore to check for weed, as just small strands were picked up by everyone in the majority of races.

Despite the problems everyone enjoyed the event, which started by a win for David Adam sailing a PRIME NUMBER from Rob Vice’s UPROAR. Races 2 & 3 were won by Roger Stollery sailing his UPROAR from Rob and Bill Culshaw. David came back to take Race 4 from the consistent Rob again. Bill, with some good starts found his form to win three races on the trot from Roger, Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER and John Carter sailing a ROK.

At the brief lunch interval Bill was top of the leaderboard with 12 points followed by Roger with 17 and Rob with 18.

There was a little bit more wind after lunch, but still very variable allowing Roger to make a perfect port tack start as the wind backed during the start sequence and lead to the finish in front of Rob and Martin. Bill took Race 9 from the consistent Rob.

In Race 10 there was an amazing 90° wind shift allowed the leading boats to change tack without any change in their course and without any rudder movement!  Roger won from David and Bill. At last Rob’s consistency paid off with a win in Race 11 from Bill and Alf Reynolds sailing a 25 year old upgraded PARADOX with a fancy bow, a permanent version of his usual parcel tape construction, and the hull painted in camouflage colours.

Bill succeeded in avoiding any weed to win the next three races, maybe by following pretty well exactly the same course each time. Finally, Roger won the last Race 15 from Martin and Alf.

At the prize giving Peter Popham thanked competitors for making his job easy as there were no raised voices, no protests and the sailing was very much more gentlemanly than the IOM racing he is used to. The winner of the Stan Cleal Trophy, Bill, thanked Peter for running a good event in difficult circumstances. Runner-up Roger reinforced Bill’s thanks to the 3R team of John Male, John Rance and Tom Roger.

This event was the penultimate Marblehead GAMES event and the finale will be at Guildford Model Yacht Club for the BRASS MONKEY event on 10th December.

1st Bill Culshaw Birkenhead GRUNGE 25

2nd Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR 40

3rd Rob Vice Clapham UPROAR 42

4th David Adam Woking PRIME NUMBER 57

5th Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 58

6th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford PARADOX 78

7th Terry Rensch Datchet QUARK 80

8th John Carter 3 Rivers ROK 87

9th John Shorrock Datchet QUARK 2 108

10th David Croom Chelmsford STARKERS 114

11th Max Lenbke 3 Rivers PJ2 114

This was a fantastic event. Not only did the wind blow straight down the lake for most of the three days, but the 48 boat entry, including 13 competitors from overseas, was of a very high standard. Many of the top boats and skippers from last year’s Marblehead World Championship at Lake Garda travelled to the exposed Lancashire coast to compete on probably the best lake in the world for more top-class radio racing. Racing started on Friday and allowed 18, three heat races to be sailed with two or three lap courses using the whole length of the 250 metre lake for the simple windward leeward courses.

 Friday
An 6 to 14 mph wind greeted competitors allowing B or C rigs to be used and generating some spectacular downwind speeds, which gave some competitors a problem keeping up with these speed machines. The racing was dominated by Brad Gibson, who was taking a break from his foiling Moth sailing and returning to radio race his GRUNGE design with his usual finesse. Other skippers enjoying the conditions and getting podium positions were Martin Roberts sailing his elderly, but still very quick pink STARKERS, Tony Edwards, also with a GRUNGE, Matteo Longhi from Italy sailing a NIOUTRAM and Graham Bantock sailing his QUARK design.

Saturday
Light and more variable conditions coming off the sea created a problem for Race Officer, Derek Priestley, who was forced to create a zigzag course up the 70 metre wide lake. Aided by Peter and Judith Baldwin they called for an early lunch as the wind was dying, which was a good call as after lunch the wind came straight down the middle again and gave some good light airs racing in A rig.

In the morning it was Brad Gibson who once again won every race, but in the afternoon James Edwards won Race 10 with his GRUNGE, with Frenchman Arnaud Toureau sailing a SISCO taking Race 11 and Martin Roberts winning Race 12.
After racing had finished a team race using DF one designs it was organised and was followed by a Lancashire fish and chip supper in the clubhouse, followed by a quiz and a good time was had by all.

Sunday
The RO and race team were delighted that the wind was another north-westerly straight down the lake between 8 and 10 miles an hour, giving perfect A rig conditions. Graham Bantock got his only win of the event in Race 13, but then let Brad Gibson take all the remaining races, except the penultimate Race 17, which was won by Frenchman, Gilles di Crescenzo sailing another SISCO design.

This was another amazing performance by Brad and his GRUNGE, scoring under one third of the points of second placed Martin Roberts, whose performance was also remarkable and very encouraging for club sailors, as he was racing his elderly pink STARKERS, which is still available from designer/builder Dave Creed. He was squeezed between Brad and the two GRUNGEs of Darin Ballington and Tony Edwards, who finished ahead of the Italian, Matteo Longhi.

Boats

There was a great deal of variety in the 17 designs racing, but the common factor in the light airs was the use of the swing rig, for all except four competitors. The most interesting design was ROCKET from the board of young designer/builder Mike Cooke because of its wave piercing ‘dreadnought’ bow and neutral T foil on the bottom of the rudder to keep the boat stable when pressed hard.. Whilst there was insufficient wind to demonstrate the boat’s ability Mike will be developing more designs to improve the breed. Already there is a phenomenal standard of boat and equipment and this made the racing very close indeed, wherever you were in the fleet.

Prize-giving

Brad Gibson thanked Derek and his race team for creating a great event and also Maureen Priestley whose team of friendly helpers behind the bar kept competitors fed and watered throughout the event. Competitors not sailing in the 10 racing National Championship which followed were pleased to stop racing which on this lake is quite physical, as in following your boat up and down the lake you will be walking or running at least 10 kilometres a day!

Results of the top 10

1^st Brad Gibson Birkenhead GRUNGE               17

2^nd Martin Roberts Birkenhead STARKERS         58.5

3^rd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE       81

4^th Tony Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE                  84

5^th Matteo Longhi NW Garda ITA NIOUTRAM 96

6^th  Graham Bantock Chelmsford QUARK         101

7^th Peter Stollery Guildford UPROAR               103

8^th Gilles di Crescenzo FRA SISCO           111

9^th Colin Goodman Coalhouse Fort QUARK     112

10^th James Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE                121

Roger Stollery 2017-07-14