“It is now halfway through our 8 event Wednesday Winter Series and we have enjoyed some really good racing at Abbey Meads Lake. We are very lucky not having had any weed problems and the lake is completely clear of any weed that would affect the racing. As you can see from the Series results there is all to sail for, so you, your friends & clubmates are most welcome to come and create even more fun! The invitation to the next event in a fortnight’s time on 2 November is attached, along with the current Series scores and report of event 4.”

Look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers, Roger

https://guildfordmyc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/2022-11-02-GMYCs-DF95-Wednesday-Winter-Series-event-5-invite1.pdf

A warm welcome to all DF95 sailors this Wednesday 19^th October!

The Winter Series started well a month ago with 8 entries, so let’s do even better to enhance the entries and enjoy some more good racing and more fun. Encourage your friends and clubmates to come along. You know that this is a fine open water, with two control areas on different banks to allow setting of the very best courses for racing. Emphasise to your friends that access to these Control Areas allows cars to park within yards of the steps for dry-foot launching. You will always get a good welcome and our extensive expertise is offered to help you to set up your boat, giving tuition in setting your sails to the best trim and other technical advice etc.

Of the 8 events in this Winter Series, your best 4 results will count to decide the series and the prizes which will be awarded at the final event. In addition at every event planned, the leading visitor will win a ROF (Roger’s One gram Flag) which is specially designed to clip onto the backstay crane to help show wind variations. as Illustrated above. This is a really good piece of design for an essential tool for good sailing that you cannot buy from DF suppliers –  you have to win it here!

We need to know that you are coming so you must contact Roger by phone (01483) 421801 or Martin on 07836 250261 the day before – i.e. Tuesday 18th October to confirm access information etc.  The report & results of WWS 3 & more information about the club is available on www.guilldfordmyc.co.uk. 

The next event 5 in the series is on Wednesday 2^nd November

Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled as a result of the lack of support.

Another fabulous morning at Abbey Meads Lake! The forecast was for 24 to 30 mph from the south south-west, which  is straight down the lake and gave perfect conditions for the DF 95 in B rig. The gusts probably reached this strength on occasion, but there were also lulls and holes in the wind which was incredibly variable, particularly near the windward mark. So much so that without moving your rudder you could make a perfect tack and keep going in a straight line!

The off wind legs were very exciting with great bursts of speed, spray, bows submerged, rudders in the air, broaches etc. A lot of concentration was also needed on the beat to avoid getting head to wind. This was tricky because the wind could vary 30° or more in an instant, leaving your sails shaking and no speed to get back on course. We each found a way of dealing with this and Martin fared best initially with 3 straight wins and then except for the last race every result was a podium place, as can be seen from the score sheet below.

It was good to see Simon Johnson sailing at Abbey Meads and getting a couple of 2^nd places. Roger’s BOTTLE boat looked a bit scary with the cantilevered 6 mm diameter mast bending a lot and whilst this flexibility helps the windward trim by opening up slot between jib and main, the 24-year-old carbon arrow shaft mast gave up under the downwind pressure and snapped at the bottom where it comes through the deck. Roger didn’t mind rowing the rubber dinghy against the fresh breeze to rescue it, as he had of good practice going out laying and collecting the marks and on quite a few occasions rescuing several different boats that had ‘strayed’ into the bushes. One thing about today was amazing and that was there were no patches of weed, in fact no weed visible at all, except a few bits pulled up with the buoy weights. While there a couple of patches a fortnight ago the lack of weed today was remarkable and bodes well for sailing Marbleheads on Saturday, so long as we get enough entries!!

Roger is very pleased to report that David got home safely after his drive back to Herefordshire. He is a very dedicated model yachtsman & Guildford member who puts to shame those who are local who don’t support events such as this.

When we arrived, the lake was like a mirror reflecting the clouds and trees in the background looking absolutely beautiful. Despite the apparent lack of wind the first boat launched sailed away OK, but there were big holes where making progress required the utmost concentration and a lot of patience. Mid-morning the forecast southerly wind actually started to come in gently from the south-east and at least created a reasonable windward leeward course. All 5 competitors found the racing frustrating as there was an element of luck needed to grasp that vestige of wind, but nearly all won one of the 8 races. 

David Coode, who had travelled 2 1/2 hours from Herefordshire to Abbey Meads was pleased that his patience paid off allowing him to win the event with 4 wins. He said, “I released all the tension on the forestay and allowed the sail to respond to what little wind there was”.

The lake was quite sailable apart from two clumps of weed, which required the rescue boat to retrieve the DF and like fishing, bring aboard the ‘trawl’ of all of that isolated clump.

Dear Members,

Once again we are getting to the end of our summer season, with 2 events before we close down for the August holiday period. The first is this Saturday, the Marblehead event for the Arcadia Trophy which we hope will get good support like last month’s Nicklin Trophy, when we had 10 boats sailing practising for the National Championship the following weekend. The club had 6 members competing in the Nationals, which must be another record! Congratulations to Peter for coming 2nd to Brad Gibson and CJ Vice in 11th, the only 2 in the top half. Martin, in particular would like this event to be well attended to put on a good show for someone new to radio sailing, who won Martin’s prize of a day radio sailing that he offered at his bowls club. The weather is continuing to be good so should be a good day at Abbey Meads. Please let me know whether you are coming or not.

The 2nd event is the final event of the Wednesday Summer Series which should be very exciting as any one of the top 4 as shown in the attached Summer Series results could win. This set of series is a great success building up our numbers. In the first winter series last year we started with events with 4 or 5 boats with a total of 10 taking part in the series, where as now there are 15 who sailed and an average close to 9 taking part. Let us hope that this continues and with Mike Wilkie’s helpful communication with Hampton Court DF 95 sailors who cannot sail because of weed we hope to expect more whilst this continues.

For those members who didn’t attend our 90th Anniversary there is the history booklet of GMYC and the Marblehead Class written for the anniversary event at the Mermaid Trophy and now extended in version 4 available from Roger. 10 of these were printed and given away as a prize to the top 10 In the National Championship.

What has given me great excitement this week is waiting for the results of the 5.5 metre World Championship in Hanko, Norway.  My friend & designer colleague, Dave Hollom has used the example of my idea for the revolutionary CLOCKWORK ORANGE model A class, that I designed in 1971. This was to sacrifice sail area for a more easily driven lightweight bulb keeled hull, which now has come to fruition at full size level by the boat, Jean Genie GBR 42, winning both the Scandinavian Gold Cup and the World Championship in the final race last Tuesday. Neither of these events have been won by a British boat before, so it is quite a coup. The photographs of these 5.5 metre yachts are superb taken by Waldringfield Sailing Club OK sailor, Robert Deaves and are well worth a visit on the Sail-World website. In particular there are 2 short bits of video showing the boat surfing down the waves, one on a 5.5 metre Facebook page and another more or less at the end of the Day 2 Scandinavian Gold Cup video.

I look forward to seeing you at these coming events.

Cheers, Roger