Sailing Archives - The Guildford Model Yacht Club

The 2023 ICICLE Trophy & Workparty report by Roger Stollery

Whilst the entry was disappointing initially with only 3 competitors, it was good that this grew to 6 on the day after a round robin invitation to local Marblehead sailors. As usual the weather did not follow the forecast and was generally very light, fluky but vaguely in the west north-west direction.

Despite the frustration of running into holes on one side of the course, whilst there was wind on the other side, the close racing was enjoyed whether you were at the front or back of the fleet. As the tide was high after the rain a few weeks ago, we did not need the launching platform and launched directly from the steps.

Quite a long windward leeward course was set to this direction and there was some very close racing as can be judged from the attached results. Rob Vice sailing his UP was the most consistent having to discard a couple of seconds, whilst Paul Tickner sailing his brand-new GRUNGE had the same number of first places. Roger & David Cole had a win each in the first and last races respectively and tied for points, which was broken in favour of David with more 2nd places.

We finished the racing just after 2 PM, by which time Alan Viney had arrived and was working on dismantling the mower that we needed to remove to clear a big space in the clubhouse. It was great that Rob and our friends from Gosport stayed on to help. First of all everything was removed from clubhouse and decisions were made to throw away what we do not need and had not used for years to leave an amazingly clear floor area, which will make it easier to use in future. A photo is attached. In particular the large wooden beams and posts, that were there taking up space for mending the wooden launching platforms were taken away on Roger’s roof bars. Alan kindly brought some more posts which followed the same path and he took away recyclable bits in his trailer. With larger elements of rubbish and stuff to be recycled all went in the back of Roger’s car.

In view of the lack of club member support, we have to give a great deal of thanks to Bob & Gillian Pearson for staying on and helping to move the stuff in and out of the clubhouse. Thanks also to Gillian for acting as Race Officer, starting and recording the scores as well as taking the photographs. In addition thanks go to Alan and Rob for making the task easier.

Do not forget that we have another workparty on Saturday, 29 April for vegetation clearance in cooperation with Marcin, our Polish gardener friend and we hope that there will be a good response to this, whichever class you sail. Please put this in your diaries and come and help.

By Mark|2023-02-18T17:04:53+00:00February 18th, 2023|Categories: Games, Sailing|Comments Off

Marblehead Ranking Weekend at Fleetwood 28/29 September 2019

For Event Phots see Gallery

The forecast for this weekend was for gale force winds from the west, which blows straight down the lake at Fleetwood. Attached is a photo taken in 2004 when the wind was blowing 28 miles an hour and when we definitely had to be in our smallest rigs!

Peter and I prepared for this event, firstly by getting a full length 700 mm draft Hollom designed fin made by David Winder, 40 mm deeper than our usual fins. Peter received this on Tuesday and had it fitted to his boat the following evening. This gave his boat UPFRONT more power, which he said made a significant improvement to the heavy weather performance without affecting the light weather end too much. I modified the 1992 very small ROAR EDGE rig, only 780 mm luff length, to comply with the 2016 class rule requiring a minimum of 990 mm. These are only needed if you go to expose lakes like Fleetwood when there are gales expected. I have prepared a conversion kit and we put it together when we arrived.

It is a long way to travel, but the steady winds at Fleetwood make for fantastic sailing and it is well worth the long drive up on the Friday to sail on what is probably the best lake in the world. I drove firstly to Peter’s in Saffron Walden and then he drove for 5 1/2 hour to Fleetwood. The hotels were full and so we were camping in a ‘pod’, which is basically a wooden tent on a local caravan park, which was very well appointed.

Fortunately, by Saturday morning the wind had abated and it was blowing 18 mph straight down the lake. We started in C2 rigs and as the day went on we gradually changed up until using A rig for the last few races. Derek Priestley ran a very good event and to prevent any hanging about, he used a 5 minute countdown started when the last boat of the previous race finished. This works okay except I felt under pressure as a competitor, especially as I needed to make several repairs, change rigs or batteries etc. Anyway, we sailed 16 very good races in a single fleet, some of them with 3 rounds of the course that went from one end of the 250 m lake to the other. There was a lot of distance to be walked and off the wind we were running to keep up with the boats going flat out. Rob Walsh had a device on his watch, which measured the distance and according to him it was 12 miles on the first day! It probably wasn’t quite that far but it was still quite physically demanding.

Peter had a good day winning the first race and then 3 others later on with 9 results within the top 3. His UPFRONT was going superbly especially in C2 and whilst you might expect it to be fast off the wind, it was going really well to windward. I didn’t have a good day with breakages, silly mistakes etc, but my highlight was to win Race 7 in C rig, most unusual for me in that company! Peter won the event 10 points ahead of James Edwards sailing a GRUNGE and Rob Walsh sailing a STARKERS, whilst I finished in 17th place.

All the competitors got together for a drink and a meal in ‘The Mount’, a traditional place for model yachtsmen to meet after racing for several hours of friendly chat.

At the end of the evening it was raining and this continued throughout the night and all through Sunday until we had finished racing at about 3 o’clock. It rained hard and blew from the east, again about 18 mph through the ‘bridge’, giving a windward/leeward course in the opposite direction to Saturday’s wind. Sailing into the near horizontal rain was not pleasant especially when wearing glasses. Again we started from the middle of the course during 2 rounds and finishing at the clubhouse end; 3 beats and 2 runs.

Starting in C2 Peter and his UPFRONT were in their element and kicked off with the first of his 7 wins of the 12 races sailed. I couldn’t sail in one race and watched Peter’s race carefully with the swing rig contributing to speed off the wind whilst the jib tacks of the conventional rigs hit the waves and slowed the boats down. More impressive was his UP’s windward performance where in a gust there would be a distinct acceleration not to planing speed, but close. He finished this race about 1/3 of the length of the lake ahead of the next boat; very impressive!

Several late starts didn’t help my results and failures of a 2nd rudder servo, C2 rig, entanglements with boats in the wrong, spoiled what was really good racing from bank to bank just as in a vane race with my UP always going well.

At lunchtime Derek asked whether we wanted to continue sailing as some were cold as well as very wet, but the majority voted for 4 more races. As it happened the wind had been gradually going more northerly across the lake and at the end in the last 2 race there was more reaching than beating and so we were all pleased to stop and pack up.

Peter won the event by 11 points from Martin Roberts sailing the infamous pink STARKERS, with which he won the 2006 World Championship at Fleetwood with Graham Bantock 3rd. The full results are published on the Marblehead Class website.

As we were sailing in one fleet and because of the rain, I did not get my camera out at the lake, but the single photograph taken by local sailor Mike Parkington gives a clue of the conditions racing round the spreader mark on Saturday.

Report for GMYC by Roger.

By Mark|2019-10-07T17:26:46+01:00October 4th, 2019|Categories: Sailing|Comments Off

Brass Monkey & GAMES 8 BOTTLE boat Owners

Dear BOTTLE boat owners,

Attached is a Notice of Race for the ‘other’ BOTTLE boat event of the year. Although this event is also designed for Marbleheads, it is for BOTTLE boat enthusiasts also to have a chance of racing together and although many of you are some distance from Guildford Model Yacht Club’s water Abbey Meads near Chertsey, I hope that some of the more local to this area will come along for some fun racing. The notes to the Marblehead owners applies to BOTTLE boat owners also.

If you would like to come please give me a ring or send me an email.

Cheers, Roger

Brass Monkey & GAMES 8 NoR

By Mark|2018-11-29T21:59:36+00:00November 28th, 2018|Categories: Games, Sailing|Comments Off

2018 BOTTLE boat Championship Report

Another good championship on the River Deben on 02 September with sunshine and an ideal breeze blowing up and down the river.

Thanks for your responses both to the request last year for BOTTLE boats that are no longer being used. I have refurbished 3 of these and they are now being used enthusiastically by 12-year-olds at and after the championship. I’m in the process of refurbishing two others and if you no longer want yours please let me know.

One disappointing aspect of the championship was that 2 enthusiasts, who have been looking forward to the event all year, were in a massive traffic jam on the M25 and had to turn back and miss the event. It was suggested that perhaps a ‘BOTTLE boat Inlands‘ event be organised at a suitable venue. Looking at the map centre of gravity of owners outside Suffolk is close to Guildford Model Yacht Clubs lake at Abbey Meads. Since the championship we discovered that our landing stages have been vandalised and currently we are unable to organise any events.

There is always the BRASS MONKEY event on Sunday, 16 December to which BOTTLE boat owners are invited, so perhaps this might attract a bigger entry than normal.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2018-09-26T11:36:46+01:00September 26th, 2018|Categories: Sailing|Comments Off

2018-07-01 GMYC ALE Notice

By Mark|2018-07-05T15:32:41+01:00July 2nd, 2018|Categories: Afternoons, Sailing|Comments Off

Marblehead World Championship – Biblis Germany

Dear All,

This Marblehead World Championship 2018 was a marvellous event and huge thanks have to go to the full-size sailing club Segelverein -Biblis E.V and their hard-working and welcoming members who gave up their own sailing to create this event, which was instigated by Henning Faas, who is well known to GMYC members by his visits to our club.

The weather was superb with hot sun every day, which drove competitors and supporters alike to head for the shade if possible, as shown in the first two photos. Apart from the Tuesday and last day, Friday, there was very little wind and a lot of time on Wednesday and Thursday mornings was spent just waiting for the breeze to fill in.

There were lots of abandoned races as a result of wind speed and direction not being steady enough for long enough to complete a heat. However these periods of waiting were great for putting the world of model yachting to rights and making new friends. In my particular case such a friendship was created out of a rather embarrassing collision between UP and the top Russian, sailing Phil Holliday’s old QUARK, when we were close to the finishing line. This was quite unnecessary as we were both in a promotion position. Fortunately he got redress as I was on port.

As this event was the pinnacle of what is regarded as the Formula One class of radio sailing, the standard of boats, rigs and sails was superb, but it was the skippers who made the difference between boats of the same design.

No doubt you will have seen the results on the 2018 World Championship website, with Peter on the podium in third place behind Christophe Boinault and Brad Gibson on top, both sailing GRUNGEs. The Brits did well with four in the top six with Chris Harris sailing Nigel Winkley’s NIOUTRAM brilliantly and Graham Bantock in 6th. Rob Vice did well and was delighted to pull himself up to 24th by the end of the week, unlike myself as the third member of the Guildford team, who had an embarrassingly poor event just going down from C heat to E heat and then not being able to get out until the last day when I climbed to B heat, but could go no further as we had run out of time and race 13 was abandoned. I was not alone as Martin Roberts had the same problem, only managing to get out of E on Thursday.

There was a great variety of rigs on show with only a few conventional A rigs, mainly beautiful ones on Walicki boats. In particular, there were several with strut attached to the mast a foot or so above the jib boom to hold the clew down in lieu of an offset pivot.

There were a great variety of fin constructions with bulb weights all looking on the light side. Christophe Boinault’s GRUNGE looked very light with obvious overhangs and like Peter his ballast was 3.2 kg as opposed to Brad’s 3.35 kg. Christophe won the first three races in very impressive style, but suffered a bit when the wind got to the top of A rig.

Peter reckoned that I was unlucky having two lots of weed, given two penalty turns by an umpire who had not seen that I was in the right, a battery failure and by a three times delayed start after which the wind died when I was in B rig.

My performance was not impressive, but the UP was and I was delighted that Peter got on the podium making all the effort of creating a new design well worthwhile, after his previous WC’s had resulted in lots of fourth places.

The Guildford Team camped and this was a great success and Oliver and Nathan had an absolutely marvellous time with the Ballington girls, lots of swimming both at the club and the campsite, where there was a real beach down to the water. The only downside was on Thursday night, when there was an almighty thunderstorm, sheet lightning, strong winds and heavy rain. Fortunately our two tents survived, but the open marquee alongside the clubhouse and you can see in first photograph was completely wrecked.

On the way back to catch the Eurotunnel train in Calais, Rob and I had a five hour debrief and put together some ideas for improvements. For Rob it was to improve his rigs which he has been developing whilst sailing the UPROAR over the last two years in order to fit to his new UP, which she didn’t finish in time for this event. For me it was ideas to improve the stability by simple means and possibly to reduce fin drag. There were many new boats which must be good for the class as those that are discarded will benefit those that might like to change their current boats.

Finally, there is just a reminder that we are running GAMES 4 interclub event on Sunday the 10th and I hope that you will give this your support. A Notice of Race will go out shortly.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2018-06-20T23:41:59+01:00June 4th, 2018|Categories: News, Sailing|Comments Off

World Marblehead Championship – Biblis Germany – May 28th – June 1st 2018

Roger is off to the World Marblehead championship this afternoon, meeting up with Rob and travelling with him by car through the tunnel on the first train tomorrow morning and then driving to BIBLIS, which is between Frankfurt and Mannheim. You should be able to see the Guildford team’s performance on the championship website. 10 rater championship starts today and finishes on Saturday and Marblehead start Monday to finish on Friday, 1 June. Good luck chaps!

Link to Site: http://worlds2018.marbleheadclass.org

By Mark|2018-05-24T21:31:11+01:00May 24th, 2018|Categories: News, Sailing|Comments Off

Mermaid Trophy 2018

Compared to the cold wind, rain and mud at the Norwich ranking event two weeks earlier, 11 entries and Guildford race team enjoyed balmy weather. 12 races were sailed in really difficult light weather conditions that varied from calm to just 5 mph and constantly changed direction.

By lunchtime the main direction of the wind had changed 90° and so Race Officer, Martin Crysell, wisely changed to the western control area to give a better windward leeward course up and down the lake for the basically north-westerly wind.

The early races were won by four different skippers, Peter Stollery sailing an UP. Rob Vice sailing an UPROAR, John Cleave with his brand-new GRUNGE and Roger Stollery with his UP. The lunchtime leader board was dominated by Peter and Rob with a score of just seven points each. Mention has to be made of the enthusiasm for Marblehead racing by Vinnie Zammit from the Norwich club. He travelled to West Kirby and competed in their open event on the Saturday and then drove another 200 miles to Abbey Meads for a further 12 races on Sunday, in search of more practice for the coming World Marblehead Championship in BIBLIS Germany at the end of the month. His enthusiasm was rewarded by three podium places for his pink STARKERS with second places in Race 2 and 10 and a special prize for the furthest travelled.

With the variable wind there was an element of luck involved and Roger admitted to having a lot of it! On several occasions on the final beat to the finishing line, he often took an indirect route to find the wind and at great speed catch or beat the leading boats becalmed nearer the control area.

Competitors thanked Martin and Alan Viney for running another good Mermaid under difficult conditions. As well as the Mermaid, the Ted Gearey trophy for the best improver during the event and the Vic Cooney trophy for the best veteran were presented to Roger.

More information about Marbleheads can be found on the website www.marbleheadsailing.wordpress.com.

Results:

1^stRoger Stollery Guildford UP 19

2^ndPeter Stollery Guildford UP 20

3^rdRob Vice Guildford UPROAR 25

4^thJohn Cleave Ryde GRUNGE 39

5^thVinnie Zammit Norwich STARKERS 42

6^thDavid Adam Woking PRIME NUMBER 46

7^thRoy Pearson Guildford PRIME NUMBER 62

8^thPeter Dunne Guildford STARKERS 80

9^thJohn Shorrock Datchet QUARK 83

Roger Stollery, 2018-05-14

By Mark|2018-05-18T14:47:36+01:00May 18th, 2018|Categories: Sailing|Comments Off

News from Roger Stollery

Dear GMYC members,

In view of the forecast of heavy rain tomorrow morning continuing into the afternoon tomorrow’s ALE is put back one week to Wednesday 9th May, when hopefully the weather will be warmer and less wet! Having suffered the cold north-easterly winds and rain over both days of the ranking weekend in Norwich, I have only just dried out all my stuff and don’t fancy another day in the rain!

As the MERMAID is coming up on the following weekend, on Sunday 13th May the committee decided that the morning of the ALE should be a gardening session to get ready for the weekend. The plan is to start at 10 o’clock and run seamlessly into the sailing at 2 o’clock. As it is a growing time of year the grass needs mowing and we need to make an attempt to cut other vegetation like the brambles with our ‘new’ brush cutter, loppers etc. If anyone has any free time in the morning we would be delighted to see you.

The Notice of Race for the MERMAID is available and shortly will have the MYA online entry set up. This event is not a ranking event and is for ordinary club members as well as those treating it as a tuning event by those going to the Worlds. You would be most welcome to come and spectate if you don’t want to sail as I’m sure there will be some good racing to watch. However, if you do want to sail PLEASE get your entry in early using the online entry system.

Although the weather conditions at the Whittlingham lake, Norwich were very unkind, the racing was good and the Guildford entry did well. It was A rig conditions on Saturday and I surprised myself to be vying for the lead with Brad Gibson and his all-conquering GRUNGE design in the seeding race and finished second with my UP. However, it was Peter’s UPFRONT that dominated the day to count six 1sts, a 2nd and a 3rd and beat Brad Gibson’s unbeaten six-year event record with his GRUNGE. This is very encouraging in view of the Worlds in Germany being only a month away.

There was more wind on Sunday and most used B rigs, with some using C rigs in some of the stronger and gusty winds. In the seeding race I was again seeded with Brad Gibson and am delighted to say that I beat him in a one-to-one racing situation. As this was the first race of the day it was filmed and so I hope to be able to show this when Norwich member Eric Curtis completes his editing. From then on, I went downhill and had a few technical problems, but Peter maintained his performance and came 2nd to Brad ahead of half a dozen well sailed GRUNGEs. Rob Vice was also doing well with some good placings with his UPROAR but had to leave early and he performed better than the results on the Marblehead website show.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2018-05-01T22:01:37+01:00May 1st, 2018|Categories: Afternoons, News, Sailing, Work Party|Comments Off

GMYC Mermaid Trophy & GAMES 3 – Sunday 13 May

The Mermaid 2018 is different this year, brought forward to the summer only a couple of weeks before competitors go to BIBLIS Germany for the Marblehead World Championship. This gives you the opportunity for a final tune-up session in good competition, or just a good sail at Abbey Meads, one of the best lakes in the country.

Mermaid 2018

GMYC warmly invite all Marblehead sailors to enjoy the best of Abbey Meads Lake and help us make this a really good event in a keen, yet friendly atmosphere !

The current IRSA Marblehead class rules will apply and the racing will be governed by the RRS 2017-2020 and MYA SSIs. The usual Guildford race team will do our best ensure a well run event on a superb radio sailing water.

The relevant notices are as follows:

REGISTRATION– from 0900 hours. All boats will be checked in the length/depth gauge. Rigs may be checked for compliance with the class rules and certificate.

BRIEFING– this will start at approximately 0945 hours.

RACING TIMES– the first race will start soon after the briefing at approximately 1000 hours – no race will start after 1700 hours and any race in progress at 1730 hours will be abandoned.

In addition to the Mermaid, you will also be racing for the Ted Gearey Trophy for the best improver (best place improvement after Race 3). The Vic Cooney Trophy will also be awarded to the highest placed competitor over 60 years of age. There will also be a junior prize.

Please make your boat and PSN certificate available at the registration table as soon as possible after you arrive. We will inform competitors in advance if there is a requirement to modify sail numbers or add a prefix ‘1’ to avoid clashes.

Please enter preferably online via the MYA website or by email or to Roger on stollery17@sky.comor by phone on 01483 421 801 by of midnight on Thursday 10th May. The entry fee is £7.50, to be paid at registration.

Guildford’s waterat ABBEY MEADS lake is easy to find. From whatever direction you are travelling, follow the brown signs to THORPE PARK and go to the roundabout at their entrance. Travel south on the A320 towards Chertsey. After a few hundred yards turn left off the road, where signposted ‘Chertsey Water Treatment Works’ and where you should also see a sign, RADIO SAILING. If you are coming to watch and arrive whilst we are racing, dial 1617on the black number padlock and press the button on the bottomto open the gate.

By Mark|2018-05-03T00:08:52+01:00April 25th, 2018|Categories: Games, Sailing|Comments Off