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This was a fantastic 2 days sailing on this very exposed lake, with A rig winds from the WNW on the Northern course, followed by mainly C rig, but sometimes B even C2 rig SW winds on Sunday on the southern course. 9 races were sailed on each day in 2 heats to divide the 30 boat entry.

Not having sailed in these big wave conditions since the 2015 Nationals, when we experienced some problems, I was apprehensive as well as excited about how all the improvements made in the UPROAR design would help the performance of UP in these waves. 

SATURDAY

I shouldn’t have worried, as the UPs went well with Peter winning the Saturday event with 4 first places out of the 7 counting, although credit must also go to Brad Gibson who tied on points, was very consistent, but only won 3 races. He was sailing a 1990s PARADOX with the original GB sails and a modern ROBOT fin and bulb. 

My UP sailed well and was quick compared with other boats and particularly against the ‘boat-to-beat’, GRUNGE designs. Downwind, the reduction of drag with the Dave Hollom designed fin sections was significant and worth all the development time and effort put in by the builder, Dave Winder. Unfortunately the results didn’t match that good performance and were not improved when trying to cross Darin Ballington on port when in the lead of the A heat. The tops of the masts clashed and we entangled. 

Whilst it was not advertised, the ACORN Trophy, which was given by Guildford for the M&S ranking events was retained by Peter for winning the Saturday event.

SUNDAY

A stronger wind from the south-west created much bigger and longer waves and was much more exciting on the fast downwind runs. Initially C rigs were used, but the wind varied and lightened enough for B rig briefly and then blew up for C2 rigs for the final Race 9.

The seeding race went well with a third behind Peter and Brad, but I then hovered between A and B heats with technical problems with both my sheeting and steering forcing me to retire in the last 3 races. The good thing about this was that I could take photographs of the boats flying downwind and slicing their way to windward. Peter had some consistent results but not as good as on the previous day. 

Most remarkable was Brad Gibson’s performance, as he gave a masterclass in sailing in those conditions, finishing with only 7 points from 7 races with a boat that is 25 years old! Some way behind were Darin Ballington, Graham Bantock and Peter, with Rob Vice finishing 12th after suffering technical problems with the radio gear in his GRUNGE, borrowed from Phil Holliday.

The progress of racing was interrupted by the launching and the recovery of half a dozen small yachts which halted the racing and created frustrating delays.

At the prize-giving the winners thanked Terry Rensch for organising the event and also the race team with race officers, Graham Bantock and David Isset and their assistants, who were thin on the ground on Sunday. Thanked most of all was Hugh McAdoo, who spent the whole weekend in the rib doing a good job setting the course and also rescuing boats that were out of control or which had gone ashore on the sloping concrete sides. Events are physically hard at Datchet because of the distance walked just to get your boat in the water and back up to the control area at the top. We were used to walking along the rim of the reservoir to get to the start, but on Sunday this was slightly shorter, but you had to look through the galvanised railings where the horizontal bars were just at eye level, which felt really uncomfortable. 

Saturday’s results:

1st Peter Stollery Guildford UP 15

2nd Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 15

3rd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 25.7

4th Phil Holliday Datchet Water GRUNGE 33

5th Rob Vice Guildford NIOUTRAM 39

6th Rob Walsh Fleetwood STARKERS 43 

14th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 75 

Sunday’s results: 

1st Brad Gibson Birkenhead PARADOX 7

2nd Darin Ballington Manor Park GRUNGE 21

3rd Graham Bantock Chelmsford QUARK 25

4th Peter Stollery Guildford UP 37 

5th John Tushingham Keighley VISION 39

6th James Edwards Yeovil GRUNGE 39

12th Rob Vice Guildford GRUNGE 72

19th Roger Stollery Guildford UP 103

The full results can be found on the Marblehead Class website, events, Datchet delivers.