See the Club Sailing tab for the report on this Sundays Courage Cock event.

Dear All,
The Courage Cock is a match race, where competitors race every other competitor in turn. As in the America’s Cup races, it can be very exciting to evenly match competitors. It also gives the opportunity for everyone to win a race if they get the better of their opposition.

The event is organised with a schedule, so it is important that we know who is going to take part prior to the event. An example of the schedule for 7 boats is attached and shows that 21 races will be sailed, usually in 3 pairs sailing their individual races, with the bye boat recording the result. With 8 boats the number of races jumps to 28 and for 12 boats it is 66 races!
Please let me know if you would like to sail and a good deadline to aim for is no later than Friday midnight.

I look forward to seeing you.

Cheers, Roger

Five teams totalling 15 boats were greeted by a light breeze which faded as the day wore on ending in challenging drifting conditions.

3 Rivers A
Tony Guerrier. 50 Quark
Austin Guerrier. 46 Prime Number
John Male. 56 Starkers2

3 Rivers B
Peter Popham. 71 Cream Craker
Keith Allen. 77 Starkers3
John Carter. 9 Starkers2

Guildford A
Martin Crysell. 52 Prime Number
John Shorrock. 26 Quark
Terry Rensch. 92 Quark

Guildford B
Roger Stollery. 17 Uproar
Hugh McAdoo. 16 Prime Number
Dick Grainge 181 Starkers

Clapham
Rob Vice. 41 Mystick
CJ Vice. 89 Crazy Tube Too
Lockie Vice 171 Crazy Tube Too

For those who have never had the pleasure of team racing the concept is a great way to open the season as you can happily give and receive coaching from your teams while also sharpening your race craft by thinking who you can position your yacht to benefit your team mates so some deliberately forcing boats over the start line early, wide buoy rounding and even some deliberate incorrect buoy rounding were seen today which helps spice up the racing! The teams race against each other so 6 boats are on the water at any one time with the aim being to secure a winning combination of the 6 available positions to secure a win for the team. The team with the most wins takes the glory with any ties being split by the result of the race between those tied teams.

Roger Stollery was launching his new UpRoar which to my eyes looked like a Roar Edge style moulding to a Crazy Tube dimensions but no doubt there is much more to that story that will be better coming from Roger than me! And a re-launch of Rob’s 25 year old Mystick after a winter diet and refit which removed over 200g from the hull and some updating of the rigs, fin and for today’s light airs a 1m bulb.

Race 1 saw Guildford A against Guilford B with John Shorrock winning from Roger, Hugh and Terry. Meaning that the result relied on the last two boats which Martin tipped in favour of Guildford A by beating Dick to 5th place, after Dick had missed a mark and had to go back.

Race 2 Pitched the Guildford A with Three Rivers A which Guildford took with 1st 3rd and 5th positions from Martin, John and Terry respectively from Austin (2nd) Tony (4th) and John (6th)

Race 3 Brought a change of course and Three Rivers A going up against Clapham Three Rivers took an early domination with 1st ,2nd and 4th but with the first 4 boats sailing the leeward mark in the wrong direction caused a turning of the tables and saw Clapham leading much of the race with a 1st and 2nd before superior boat speed grinding down the gap and forcing an error on the last leg to for Tony to win from Austin then Rob and CJ with John beating Lockie.
During this race Roger got some news from home and saw him leave for the day so further evaluation of his new RM will have to wait for a bit more breeze.

Race 4 Gave us the home club rivalry battle with Three Rivers A taking on Three Rivers B which saw the A team win with the decisive 1st and 2nd places by Tony and John Male.

Race 5 Saw Clapham sail against Three Rivers B where another dominant performance saw Three Rivers win with Peter and John Carter being the first two boats over the line.

Race 6 What little wind we had had started to fade and despite the good progress it was obvious that only 1 round was going to be possible with a further 5 races still to go so the course was shortened and tweaked to retain something of a beat in a fading breeze. Guildford B against Three Rivers B meant that with Roger missing, Martin sailed in his place to good effect helping Hugh and Dick getting 1st and 3rd for a winning combination.

Race 7 Saw another win for Guildford B against Clapham with a dominant result after a close race with Martin winning from Hugh.

So with 3 races to go the overall scores were:
Guildford A 2 from 2
Guildford B 2 from 3
3 Rivers A 2 from 3
3 Rivers B 1 from 3
Clapham 0 from 3

Race 8 Two of the leading teams sail their last and Guildford B beat Three Rivers A by the closest of scores being 1st 4th and 5th after Hugh won from Tony.

Race 9 Guildford A got back into action against 3 Rivers B and after the positions changed dramatically within 5 meters of the finish line when a faint breeze filled from the north side of the course and brought a 1st and 2nd for Terry and John. This maintained their 100% record and took them onto the same score as Guildford B with 1 race to go.

Final race 10 paired bottom team Clapham and Guildford A in the lightest of the breezes. Rob with the 25 year old boat worked into an early lead which despite some delaying tactics he carried to the finish line ahead of Terry and Martin so once again the race went to the wire in the effort to avoid the fatal 6th place. Brothers CJ and Lockie played a savvy team effort to slow John and get the decisive 4th and 5th places and a win for the under dogs!

The count back system settled the day’s result to..
Guildford A 3 from 4
Guildford B 3 from 4
3 Rivers A 2 from 4
3 Rivers B 1 from 4
Clapham 1 from 4

The prizes were handed to the victorious Guilford A team and thanks were given to the host club and their organising team without whom we could not have had such a challenging but fun day’s racing.

Report by Rob Vice

The opening event of the 2015 Footy Traveller’s series was sailed at Abbey Meads Lake, Chertsey and hosted by Guildford Model Yacht Club in glorious sunshine. 12 competitors from 6 clubs enjoyed 12 races in very variable wind conditions, from the lightest of breezes to a steady wind from the North requiring a change from the biggest rigs to 2 rigs smaller just before the break for lunch.

PRO, Hugh McAdoo, set a long windward/leeward course and because there was very little wind to start with, this took over a quarter of an hour, requiring a lot of concentration to get the best performance. Peter Shepherd crossed the finishing line first, sailing his home-made wooden FAT BOY followed by Roger Stollery and his corrugated plastic chine SUPABUG design. The latter turned the tables in Race 2 and this was to become a familiar pattern as between them they won 9 of the 12 races. This was interrupted just before lunch, when Alan Viney sailing his moulded plastic ICE won Race 6 in the increasing wind. Top of the leaderboard at lunch was Peter, just one point ahead of Roger.

The wind seemed to have peaked at lunch and from then on the wind came a bit more from the west and gradually decreased towards the end of the racing. After Roger won Race 7, Peter won the next 2, when the Vice children arrived to join in the fun. They immediately had an impact on the results because 16-year-old CJ Vice showed his mettle to win Race 10 with his brother 11-year-old Gabriel finishing 5^th sailing their ICE boats. The next race required a lot of concentration as there were many holes in the wind and once again CJ came to the front after struggling a bit at the beginning of the race. This time 14-year-old Lockie Vice backed up the ‘family‘ performance with a 6^th. However, it was the narrow designs, FAT BOY and FAT BOY SLIM sailed by the Peters Shepherd and Jackson that took the honours in these light conditions with CJ 3^rd and Gabriel 4^th.

At the prizegiving, Hugh McAdoo thanked the competitors for their sportsmanlike behaviour, as there were no protests and penalties were carried out without needing to be hailed by the observers. As well as awarding Fred’s Big Toephy to Peter Shepherd and the prizes for the event including the junior prizes, the prize for the best novice (never having finished in the top 3 in these events) was presented to Alan Viney.

Also, as is traditional at the first event of the series, the 2014 Traveller’s Trophy was presented to David Wilkinson, who had travelled the most miles competing in all but one of the 9 Open events in the series.

The next event in the 2015 Footy Traveller’s Series is the Mad March Hare at Cotswold Model Yacht Club on 19^th of March where we are expecting to welcome more juniors to sail these super little boats. Details can be found on the really excellent website www.sailfootyuk.com.

Results:

1^st Peter Shepherd Abington Park FAT BOY 18, 2^nd Roger Stollery Guildford SUPABUG 22, 3^rd Peter Jackson Abington Park FAT BOY SLIM 30, 4^th Mike Ewart 2 Islands ICE 34, 5^th Alan Viney Guildford ICE 46, 6^th David Wilkinson Cotswold IAMBUS 47, 7^th Keith Parrott Frensham Pond ICE 61, 8^th Sid Sims Birmingham ICE 67, 9^th Peter Dunne Guildford SUPABUG 78.

As the Vice squad arrived later than expected their scores were not incorporated into the main results but made up a separate junior competition.

1^st CJ 4, 2^nd Gabriel 10, 3^rd Lockie 10.

We extend a very warm welcome to you and your members to come and have some competitive fun at our Christmas Open meeting for Marbleheads and BOTTLE boats.
We hope that you will come and enjoy racing in a relaxed mode at Abbey Meads lake, Chertsey to get you into the party mood. Festive dress for self/boat is anticipated! As usual, we will be stopping for lunch when mince pies and mulled wine will be served. We do hope that you will come and join the party.

Following GMYC tradition there will be no normal financial entry fee. Instead, please bring a wrapped present containing something that you might like to win!

We will be racing mostly Marbleheads, but with BOTTLE boats starting together. The latter will have a course handicap, as we normally do very successfully in our club events to even up the performance difference.

For those of you who have not been before, you will find ABBEY MEADS lake easily. From whatever direction you are travelling, follow the signs to THORPE PARK and go to the roundabout at their entrance. Then travel south on the A320 towards Chertsey and you will see the lake on your left. After a few hundred yards turn left off the road after you see a sign, RADIO SAILING. If you arrive late and the inner gate is locked, put 1617 into the brass GMYC number padlock to open and just slide the horizontal bar back to open and replace after entry.

The racing will be conducted using the RRS 2013-2016 modified by the MYA SSIs. The relevant notices are as follows:
BRIEFING – this will start at approximately 09.40 hours. RACING TIMES – the first race will start soon after the briefing at approximately 10.00 hours – no race will start after 15.00 hours and any race in progress at 15.20 hours will be abandoned.

The closing date for entries for that event is midnight on Thursday 11th December 2014. Please ring Roger with your entry on 01483 421 801 or e-mail him on stollery17@sky.com . If there is more than one boat entered with the same number, we will inform you prior to the event as to the prefix or the modification of your number. If you don’t have a Marblehead or BOTTLE boat, but would like to come for a bit of fun, please ask to borrow a boat.
We look forward to seeing you!