Tony Edwards sailed his upgraded PARADOX very consistently to win this magnificent silver trophy engraved with winners going back to the1950s. Poole Radio Yacht Club at their superb sailing water at Longham Lakes ran 16 good races in 7-14mph variable WNW winds.
12 competitors from the South-Western, Met and Southern and Eastern districts enjoyed some exciting racing in B or C rigs, plenty of fast planing on the downwind legs and tricky wind shifts on the beats. These wind shifts and the poor visibility of the windward mark made rounding it difficult. Despite the inevitable contacts, penalty turns were carried out without any outstanding protests.
This event was a good example of how competitive older Marblehead designs can be if carefully prepared and upgraded. Robbie Nevitt’s PARADOX finished 3rd splitting the more modern boats, John Shorrock’s QUARK and Hugh McAdoo’s PRIME NUMBER, which finished 2nd and 4th. Rob Vice’s seriously upgraded Chris Dicks’ design MAGIC was 5th.
There were a few technical problems and boats going out of range twice caused PRO Peter Wiles to struggle against the wind in the electric powered rescue boat to recover boats sailing beautifully to windward to the far side of the lake. He used the power of the sails of the rescued boats to come back a lot quicker!
The prizewinners thanked Poole’s race team for running a good event and particularly Leslie Wiles for providing some absolutely superb cakes to go with the coffee that was available throughout the day. It is hoped that this event will have encouraged more sailors in the South-Western district to take up Marblehead racing and boost the numbers for the SW district Marblehead ranking event at Yeovil on 3rd of October. The next GAMES event is at Rotherham on 13 September.
Results:
1st Tony Edwards Yeovil PARADOX 22, 2nd John Shorrock Guildford QUARK 34, 3rd Robbie Nevitt Yeovil PARADOX 47, 4th Hugh McAdoo Guildford PRIME NUMBER 49, 5th Rob Vice Clapham 66, 6th Roger Stollery Guildford UPROAR 69, 7th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford PARADOX 73, 8th Dick Jobbins Solent CONSTELLATION 73, 9th John Bennett Eastleigh PARADOX 89, 10th Philip Udall Eastleigh CRAZY TUBE FREE 149, 11th CJ Vice Clapham 157, 12th Alan Veal Guildford ROAR EDGE 169.
