News & Reports

DF95 Day Series results please click here

DF95 Evening Series results please click here

DF95 Evening Series results please click here

A lot has happened since the 2025 event when Guildford had no lake and hosted the event at Frensham Pond. The link up with Littleton Sailing Club has been a great success and the seven visitors were able to enjoy marvellous facilities at Littleton and a big open lake to sail on. The forecast wind was southerly blowing parallel to the clubhouse. However it was the varying wind speed and direction that that created a big problem for race officer, Roger Stollery.

Ten sailors with seven visitors arrived to what was best described as a flat calm. Despite this twelve races were sailed initially on a course for the southerly wind, however every now and again the wind became more southeasterly and the course was relayed with the beats in that direction. Even during a race in a reasonable breeze the wind would suddenly disappear and make progress difficult if you were in the wrong place.

In Race 1 experienced dinghy sailor Dave Adams from East Kent picked the right shifts and sailed into a good lead from John Darbyshire from Emsworth with local sailor Alan Viney third. John was seen sheeting in and out to prevent his sails stalling on the offwind legs, whilst Alan had the benefit of wind indicator clipped to the backstay crane.

Mike Wilkie took Race 2 after a good start from the port end of the line and finished with a big lead from Jim La Roche from Datchet and John in third place.

The course was then changed to suit the more SE breeze, which brought the start closer to the control area and made it easier for competitors and the race team to see the boats and their sail numbers. Moving the innermost marks closer to the control area caused a problem as the depth of water was shallower and the blue polyprop mooring line floated higher and caught two boats keels in Race 3. Mike and jim were awarded redress, hence the three scores of 3 in that race.

After finishing last in Race 2, Andrew Wigley from Huntingdon got it dead right to win Race 3 from his clubmate, Phil Davenport with John again third.

Race 4 produced another winner, Jim with John second and Peter Townsend from Hampton Court third. The SE breeze was now of reasonable A rig strength and Mike with really good boat speed got his second win in Race 5, from Phil and John. The results of Race 6 predicted the event result, Dave, Mike with John third again.

John had been very consistent all morning and in Race 7 he turned that into a win from Jim and Mike. Local sailor Mike Barnes had been struggling to find a trim, but when he did he turned it into a win in Race 8 in a very tight finish with John with Dave in third.

In Races 9 -12 Dave was only beaten once in Race 11 by Mike’s extra boat speed.

As the wind had dropped to virtually nothing all competitors agreed to do just one more race, which was won by Dave, very pleased with his light weather performance not experienced on his exposed seaside lake at Barton Point.

At the prize giving Roger thanked competitors for their fairness in the racing and providing a marvellous spectacle with incredibly close racing, as only five points separated the first four competitors. Dave thanked Roger and ARO Martin Crysell for setting up this event and giving everyone a good day’s sailing.

Results:

1st Dave Adams, East Kent 22 points, winner of the Ash Trophy

2nd Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court 25

3rd John Darbyshire, Emsworth 25

4th Jim La Roche, Datchet 27

5th Peter Townsend, Hampton Court 57

6th Andrew Wigley, Huntingdon 58

7th Phil Davenport, Huntingdon 58

8th Alan Viney, Guildford & Littleton 60

9th Mike Barnes, Hampton Court 70

10th Andrew Granger, Datchet 72

Ashes match results please click here

After a couple of trial days back in the summer it seemed that both GMYC and LSC were keen to join up and Littleton S C could not have been more welcoming and helpful. Whilst our previous home at Abbey Meads lake had been good to us for some thirty years or so, and we did have some great races there but we had no facilities whatsoever, and I’m sure this had a counter effect on some of the entries that we got for open events, it was always hard work getting things set up with marks launching platforms etc. Once the break ins started happening regularly it was obviously time get out and  move on.

We started racing at LSC properly at the beginning of September with DF 95 boats on Thursday mornings. There is a core of about six of us who are mostly regular and the really good news is that in a relatively short space of time we have three new members that are also LSC members and  have bought themselves DF 95’s and are now MYA affiliated.

In October we held a Marblehead open meeting and although it was a fairly small entry of eight boats they were all experienced skippers who regularly race all over the country and the general consensus of opinion was that we not only had an excellent stretch of water, we now had facilities that were second to none. I’m sure this news will soon get spread around the Radio Yachting fraternity and will do the club a power of good.

So, I think we can look forward to 2026 with new enthusiasm and we now have the ability to be able to grow the club into a venue that can be used for major radio yachting events, with all the facilities.

What we need most is some younger members who will step up and help with the running of the club

The finale of the 8 GAMES events attracted a big entry this year with 10 Ms and 6 small boats, which Guildford Model Yacht Club were delighted to welcome at Abbey Meads Lake on a cold but sunny Sunday morning on 14 December.  Many thanks for boosting the numbers must go to Phil Holliday, who like the wise men at Christmas brought gifts and the three F6 Marbleheads that he brought for others to sail could well have been named Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh!

It turned out to be a quite superb event of 11 races that everyone enjoyed immensely despite a light fluky wind that demanded ultimate concentration.

Race Officer Martin Crysell decided to run 16 boats on the water together, with Marbleheads starting a minute before the small boats, which sailed a shorter course. This worked well and it was amazingly quiet on the southern control bank with no shouting nor formal protests to be heard; just quiet words with everyone doing their penalty turn.

Race 1 set the scene for the event with Phil Holliday and his F6 winning from Peter Stollery’s UP and his 14-year-old son Oliver’s UPROAR. This was the first of Phil’s 4 wins with the runner up either being Peter or Barrie Martin’s STARKERS in Race 2. However Barrie, who was leading the GAMES series up to now broke the mould by winning Race 5 after a very good start. The small boats racing was dominated by Mike Wilkie with 4 wins up to lunchtime.

RO Martin now took on an extra job after starting and finishing the races by lighting the cooker for the sausage rolls, mince pies and mulled wine which is an essential and traditional part of this Christmas event and again was enjoyed by all.

The afternoon session changed the pattern with straight wins for Peter in Races 7 to 9 before it reverted to Phil to take the last 2. The wind which had been getting lighter and lighter finally died away and Martin appreciated the frustration and started no more racing half an hour before the official deadline. This allowed the time before it got dark to check the scores before the prizegiving, backup the safety boat, marks & gear.

Another tradition for this race is that there is no financial entry fee, but instead you enter by handing in a wrapped present. This always works well as there were generous prizes and one leftover was presented to Martin as thanks for running such a good event. The winners each got a trophy, Marblehead’s Brass Monkey and a separate trophy for both BOTTLE boat and DF 95 winners. The trophy for winning the series, the Midgley Mug was not presented,  but an indication of the winner was announced – Peter Stollery, with Niger Barrow, Barrie Martin second and third.

Marblehead results:

1st Phil Holliday, Datchet Radio Sailing, F6                 11 points  – Winner of the Brass Monkey

2nd Peter Stollery, Guildford, UP                                  16

3rd Barrie Martin, London MYC, STARKERS                35

4th Oliver Stollery, Guildford, UPROAR                       35

5th Niger Barrow, Frensham Pond, F6                         40

6th Graham Hetem, Datchet RS, F6                             47

7th Jim La Roche, Coalhouse Fort, F6                         59

8th Nick Fezer Brown, London MYC, F6                      59

9th Colin Harper, London MYC, GRUNGE                   64

10th Chris Watkins, Royal Temple YC, ROAR EDGE    69.

Small boat results:

1st Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court MYC DF95,              16 points – winner of DF 95 trophy

2nd Roger Stollery, Guildford, BOTTLE boat,              16 points – winner of BOTTLE boat trophy

3rd Alan Viney, Guildford, DF95                                   19

4th Celia Greetham, London MYC, DF 95                   32

5th Richard Baldey, Frensham Pond DF95                 37

6th Keith Parrott, Frensham Pond, BOTTLE boat,       73

Click Here for Results: 2024-12-14 Brass Monkey

Unfortunately we had only three skippers for this event, some others were away or not feeling good.

Getting to the club took far longer than usual because of the heavy overnight rain which had caused widespread flooding.

For this reason we decided to sail from the south bank despite the northerly breeze so that we could park on the road and not get stuck in the mud.

It actually worked out well because the wind went slightly round to the west and amazingly one of our old marks which had been lost in the trees for best part of a year suddenly reappeared presumably courtesy of storm Bert.

Anyway this buoy anchored itself it the right place for us to use it as a windward mark so with two other marks laid for a start line these were used as a gate on the intermediate lap and a finish line on the last lap, and this worked well.

The racing was almost at the top end of A rig but we held on with only a few nose dives and did 12 races before we decided we were too cold to carry on.

As is becoming usual each of us had wins but it was Simon Johnson who had the most so gave yet another winner to the series.

Full results are attached and the final event of the series is on 11^th December and the final position is still wide open

Report by Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-11-27 DF95

We extend a very warm welcome to you to come and have some competitive fun at our Christmas Open meeting for Marbleheads and DF 95/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. This is very much a fun event, with festive dress for self/boat 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. 

This year the event is again the finale of the 2024 GAMES Marblehead series With the MIDGLEY MUG, Improver’s and Junior Prizes to be awarded along with the Brass Monkey itself and the special trophies for DF95 and BOTTLE boat winners. There is all to sail for as well series winner 

the GAMES improver’s prize (best improver outside the top 10) are presented at this event. The current leader is Barrie Martin by his consistent GAMES results of 324.7, but Peter Stollery & Nigel Barrow are close behind on 290 & 287.5 respectively and despite two wins each need good scores to take the MIDGLEY MUG; an exciting spectacle! The latest 2024 GAMES schedule is attached.

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!   The racing will be organised for Marbleheads and DF 95/BOTTLE boats starting using the same countdown, but at different times. The Marbleheads will start first and the smaller boats shortly after. The latter will have a course handicap with the intention that all will finish together, but the small boats will be competing within their own classes.

The racing will be conducted using the RRS 2021-2024 modified by the MYA SSIs & the IRSA Short Penalty. 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 the event is midnight on Thursday 12^th December 2024. Please enter Marbleheads using the MYA entry system, but please ring Roger if you are entering a DF 95 or BOTTLE boat on 01444 523053 or e-mail him on stollery117@gmail.com and include your MYA number if you have one.  

ABBEY MEADS Lake is easy to find. From wherever 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. After a few hundred yards turn left off the road after you see the Chertsey Water Board sign. The what three words location is same-fame-cabin. If you arrive late and the inner gate is locked, put 1617 into the circular GMYC number padlock, slide the button at the bottom to open and just slide the horizontal bar back and replace this after entry. Please make a note of this or print this NoR and refer to it when you are at the gate. We look forward to seeing you! 

5 of us turned out on a lovely warm November morning, sadly only one thing was missing namely the wind.

It really was drifting conditions although it produced three different race winners it was Barrie Martin who managed to drift faster than the rest of us to win four of the six races. Mike Wilkie kept up his good form by following his last win with a second place.

There is no clear leader in this series so it’s still all to play for. The next race is on 27^th November.

Martin Crysell

Click Here for Results: 2024-11-13 DF95