News & Reports

2019 BRASS MONKEY GAMES 13 Event Report

A record 19 Marbleheads and 4 BOTTLE boats from 3 MYA districts entered this Guildford Model Yacht Club Christmas event and enjoyed some wild sailing at times in a gusty variable west south-west wind, which varied from 30 mph down to 5 or 6 mph at the end of the day. It was only then that the tall A rigs were used, as for most of the day the Marbleheads were using C or C2 rigs and the small rig on BOTTLE boats.

All raced together on the same countdown with BOTTLE boats starting at 30 seconds and sailing a smaller windward leeward course, roughly half the 180 m Marblehead course. This proven objective was that both classes should finish at more or less at the same time. During the briefing a strong gust collapsed one of the gazebo legs and created a delay whilst this was packed away and the contents rescued.

Only 8 finished the 2nd race as a massive squall caused a lot of rig and some gear failure. With several new faces to this form of racing, it took some time for them to settle on the right rig and trim and some had to retire permanently where no repair was feasible.

MYA vice-chairman Phil Holliday won the first race followed by multiple world champion dinghy sailor Colin Goodman in the 2nd and Martin Crysell in 3rd place. Colin, who had never used his C rigs before, set up a good trim and went on to win the next 4 races in fine style. In Race 5 Peter Stollery was the runner-up, but only 2 places behind him was his 9 year old son Oliver sailing a refurbished UPROAR and was absolutely delighted to be sailing so fast, especially downwind! The last race before lunch, Race 6, was won by John Shorrock after a really good start taking him to the windward mark first, after which he developed a big lead to the finish.

This didn’t dent Colin’s score by very much and left him top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 6 points ahead of Martin with 15 and Phil on 16 points. As is traditional at this event GMYC served mince pies and hot mulled wine for lunch, which was welcomed to warm up cold hands and provide a central

gathering point for lots of chat etc.

When racing resumed the wind was still blowing hard from the westerly or west south-westerly direction and Colin demonstrating how good he was by winning races all the final 7 races with the exception of Race 9 when Peter beat him and Race in 11 when Phil beat him. During the afternoon the wind lightened and A rigs got an airing for the last 2 races.

The BOTTLE boats changed to their big rig at the same time, but it made little difference to the results as Peter Shepherd continued to win every race, beating either Keith Parrott or 7 year old Nathan Stollery into 2nd place!

Race Officer, Roger Stollery added up only the best 9 scores as he complained that he did not know his 19 times table for adding all of the multiple DNCs or DNFs scores! He first presented the BOTTLE boat trophy to Peter Shepherd and then called on the runners-up to collect their wrapped present, which was the only entry fee for this event. Peter thanked Roger and the Guildford team for running the events in somewhat difficult circumstances.

Colin collected the Brass Monkey for winning this event and also the MIDGLEY Memorial MUG for winning the whole GAMES series for 2019 with a perfect score of 500. He also thanked Roger and the Guildford team for creating a marvellous day’s sailing. One visitor from the Cotswold club, Garry Stephenson, who was new to Marblehead sailing had a smile on his face all day because he was thoroughly enjoying just sailing his Marblehead in such good whizzy wind conditions. His STARKERS hardly ever left the water!

This year GAMES included events in the Midland as well as the Eastern districts, which increased the number of competitors racing Marbleheads in open events to such an extent that the 65 total is nearly twice last year’s numbers and 50% more than those on the current Marblehead ranking list. It is a popular format encouraging average club skippers to go racing and with 10 events next year prospects look good for more relaxed, but competitive Marblehead sailing in 2020.

Marblehead Results:

1st Colin Goodman Chelmsford GRUNGE 13

2nd Phil Holliday Datchet GRUNGE 32

3rd Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 32

4th Peter Stollery Guildford UP 46

5th Peter Dunne Woking STARKERS 59

6th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 89

7th Peter Jackson Abington Park UP 90

8th Oliver Stollery Guildford UPROAR 94

9th Garry Stephenson Cotswold STARKERS 99

10th John Shorrock Datchet QUARK 111

11th Roy Pearson Guildford ROK 121

12th Charles Wand Tetley Guildford WHISPER 165

13th David Wilkinson Cotswold ROAR EDGE 184

14th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford ROCKET 189

15th = Mark Mortimore Guildford UPROAR 209

15th = Graham Hetem Datchet QUARK 209

15th = Andy Davies Cotswold ROAR EDGE 209

15th = Peter Kirby Woking PARADOX 209

BOTTLE boat results

1st Peter Shepherd Abington Park 11

2nd Keith Parrott Frensham Pond 30

3rd Nathan Stollery Guildford 36

By Mark|2019-12-22T19:42:26+00:00December 22nd, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Roger’s Report on MYA AGM & Tradeshow

The tradeshow on the top floor of Datchet Water Sailing Club was very good with the usual traders selling a huge variety model yachting equipment and including a stand for the DF boats, which looked very impressive. I took along my UP and rigged it in B rig, set up a whole Footy stand with two ICE and a SUPABUG with drawings and even cutout hull panels. An interested grandad did take them away!

Of greatest interest was the 1976 BLOODAXE hull, still in 2 parts just as it came out of the moulds. This was en route to Peter Hopkins in Bournville. I took some photos and these are attached on the pic page. BLOODAXE was one of the the top Marblehead in that era and the hull shells weighed 38 ounces as it was quite a big surface area compared with the UP weight of just 14 ounces!

There was a very interesting foiling trimaran made in Australia along with some interesting 3D printing work done for a 6 metre in 4 large pieces and a mould for an A boat.

The AGM itself was a great disappointment not just because the Guildford and other 4-clubs amendment to the MYA motion one was not carried, but because there was no discussion or short introduction to each officer’s subject. We were told that the reports were on the web and that we must have read them by now, so any comments? The only discussion came the scrutineers were counting votes. Chris Durant asked basic questions about the budget and other finances and the Council clearly didn’t have an answer and it would appear there is still no budget for 2020. In previous years there has always been some discussion all through the AGM with officers giving a short summary highlighting the important issues in their report.

So our subscription stays at £14 and juniors are free. (the committee have now agreed that our club subscription should be free also).

By Mark|2019-12-05T23:59:01+00:00December 5th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

GAMES 12 Stan Cleal Trophy Marblehead at 3 Rivers Radio Yacht Club 17/11/2019

GAMES 12 Results

This Marblehead open event is the penultimate event of the GAMES series and attracted 10 entries from 3 clubs. Upon arrival there appeared to be no wind at all and when a boat was launched it took what seemed like forever to get to the nearest mark and back. Race Officer Peter Popham delayed the start of racing by half an hour, by which time there was the faintest of air movement in varying directions. The RO set a short triangular course to take into account this variation and set two laps. Those who had practised and had got their sail settings to work gradually pulled away in Race 1 from the rest to such an extent that Roger Stollery’s UP, Phil Holliday’s GRUNGE and Martin Crysell’s PRIME NUMBER had lapped several backmarkers before finishing!

Weed affected Phil in the next, to let Roger win again with Martin Crysell on his tail. In Race 3 David Adam had got his jib setting properly on his QUARK and won from Roger and Martin. David won again in the last race before lunch to head the leaderboard with 11 points, ahead of Martin 12 and Roger 13.

The single lap races in the afternoon helped the pace of the event and Race 5 allowed Martin to win from David and Phil. Race 6 and 7 were won by Roger. At the start of Race 7 his UP and Phil Elford’s UPROAR showing off their boat speed in these conditions and pulled away from fleet having a private battle of their own. In the last race on the day local skipper John Carter sailing a QUARK was delighted to be able to pull away to win from David and Phil.

At the prize giving Roger thanked Peter for keeping us racing in difficult conditions and the rest of the 3 Rivers race team for having the patience to record the results in the very cold conditions.

The final GAMES event for 2019 reaches a climax at the Brass Monkey event at Guildford on Saturday 14^th of December, when the main contenders for the Midgley Mug will be Colin Goodman, Roger Stollery, Darin Ballington, Martin Crysell and Phil Holliday and with the Improver’s and junior prizes up for grabs.

Results:

1^st Roger Stollery Guildford UP 10

2^nd David Adam 3 Rivers QUARK 12

3^rd Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 16

4^th Phil Holliday Datchet GRUNGE 16

5^th John Carter 3 Rivers QUARK 26

6^th Phil Elford 3 Rivers UPROAR 30

7^th Keith Allen 3 Rivers STARKERS 31

8^th Graham Hetem Datchet QUARK 41

9^th Dick Grainge 3 Rivers STARKERS 44

10^th Hugh McAdoo Datchet F5 62

By Mark|2019-12-13T08:49:20+00:00November 20th, 2019|Categories: Games, News|Comments Off

GAMES 11 – 2019 BROADLAND TROPHY & Eastern District Marblehead Championship

GAMES 11 Results

18 races were sailed on the Little Broad at Filby, hosted by The Broads Model Yacht Club.

Racing started in a very light wind from the North, which is the most favourable direction at Filby, but veered towards the east in the afternoon. There were 3 different race winners, during the day, but Colin Goodman (Grunge), Duncan Ellis (Grunge) and Vinnie Zammit (Starkers Cubed) gradually established a lead over the remainder of the fleet.

In the end Colin’s consistency won the day, after some very close and competitive racing. Colin has now established a big lead in the GAMES series, but the other podium positions and improver’s prize are still to sail for in the remaining 2 events at 3 Rivers and Guildford Model Yacht Clubs.

Results:

1^st Colin Goodman Chelmsford GRUNGE 18.5

2^nd Duncan Ellis Norwich GRUNGE 28

3^rd Vinnie Zammit Norwich STARKERS CUBED 37

4^th Ian Self Norwich STARKERS CUBED 63

5^th David Perkins Cambridge NIOUTRAM 82

6^th Mike Howard Broads PARADOX 83

7^th Mark Quayle Norwich PARADOX 86

8^th Neil Cousins Broads MONARCH 103

Report by the Broads MYC & Roger Stollery

By Mark|2019-11-08T15:06:47+00:00November 8th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Work Party of two Roger & Martin 1st November 2019

Report of Roger & Martins two man band work party, well done chaps!

It was a very gloomy day with drizzle, but that didn’t stop Martin and I taking out more of the willows and removing the last obstructions to the visibility of the north-south course, in a 2 1/2 hour session on Friday morning. Comparing the ‘before and after’ photographs(see Gallery Tab), it doesn’t look as if we have done much and it certainly doesn’t look like the fantastic job that Marcin and his crew made of the bank closer to landing stage last Sunday, where all the brambles have been removed. It is the density of the brambles and the very steep bank that are a real problem, because it is difficult to get close to the willows themselves and even when you cut them they don’t just fall into the water as they are held upright by many threads of bramble!

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-11-01T23:06:28+00:00November 1st, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Work Party 27th October 2019

Dear Members,

I can report that last Sunday there was a really good work party at Abbey Meads. The committee agreed to appoint a gardening firm, Marcin Jankowski, to cut the willows on the south bank. Marcin and his crew of 3 worked for 8 hours and cleared the southern bank of both willows and brambles; a fantastic job as you can see from the ‘before & after’ photograph on the Gallery page. It was a really lovely sunny day and enjoyed by everyone.

They also helped me to clear willows on the west bank and also cleared part of that bank of brambles. Charles Wand Tetley came down to help in the afternoon and rescued the marks which had drifted into the trees as the water level had risen. The freshwater mussels had jammed the rope in the pulley and so allowed the buoys to float away. We also pulled the landing stage up the steps and shortened the chains holding it in place.

As we were putting the boat away in the clubhouse, we agreed that something has to be done, as it is in a mess and Charles is keen to help. We need to remove all the contents, throw away the rubbish and clean the place out. He suggested this Friday, 1 November and so this is the date for the next work party, which Martin is okay with also. I have a little unfinished business with my chainsaw on the west bank and hopefully in a couple of hours will be able to clear all of the offending willows that prevent us seeing our boats properly.

The AGM on Friday 15th November is to be held for the last time at Victoria Halls, this is because the committee has agreed not to hire this hall next year. There will be more discussion about the alternatives at the AGM, so please come along and make your contribution not only to this, but to whole question of GMYC sustainability.

Last year, we made a nomination for the MYA’s SYAN award for Derek Barratt last year for his amazing contribution as M&S District councillor opening up proper communication between clubs in what is in fact the MYA. This is in contrast to the MYA Council’s lack of communication. He missed out on the award last year, but I believe his contribution should still be recognised by a nomination for this award, which is for special contribution to the MYA. So attached is his nomination. We will need to send this nomination to the MYA secretary by the date of our AGM so perhaps we can discuss this then.

Finally, and not reported before, Peter Stollery and Rob Vice sailed in the IOM ranking event at Manor Park a couple of weeks ago, both practising for the coming IOM World Championship being held in Brazil. Peter was 3rd on the first day and one the 2nd day with Rob in 6th place out of 47 competitors. We wish them all the very best of luck when they travel out to Brazil in 2 week’s time.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-10-31T15:46:24+00:00October 31st, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Teapot Trophy 12th October 2019

Link to Photo Gallery

The forecast weather wasn’t good, but a light southerly breeze was going to make for good racing from the west bank. Peter Jackson, our friend from Northampton was first to arrive and together with Charles Wand Tetley we got set up and made good the sideways movement of the landing stage, courtesy of the Abbey Meads lake vandals!! From the bank the weed situation didn’t seem too bad, but it was the rain that was again the feature of the day. It rained continuously until we finished at about 2 o’clock.

The wind was southerly, light and patchy with the odd gusts either more south-easterly or south-westerly to keep one concentrating on getting speed out of this light air. All 5 of us got weed at some point or other, but this evened out and we had some good racing, very close at times and we all enjoyed that. Peter, who was made an absolutely superb job of building his UP from my moulds was learning how to get the best out of his A rig and picked up some tips and took photographs of my UP rig detail. Charles, who hadn’t sailed his WHISPER much was also learning, but his boat was going very well at times, particularly offwind. Unfortunately the relatively new rudder servo in his BOOT developed a fault and he had to retire. However he sailed Martin’s PRIME NUMBER and my UP a couple of times and was delighted to win the last of the 8 races.

Martin, sailing his PRIME NUMBER with a short keel had the best day and won on merit as can be seen from the results, but he also won on handicap. He was presented with the Teapot Trophy, which was kindly brought to the lake by Peter Dunne who was deep into kitchen plumbing and couldn’t stay to sail.

Many thanks to Alan for producing the results schedule and working out the handicap results on the Excel spreadsheet. A photo of the handwritten results is attached is a picture.

Report by Roger Stollery

By Mark|2019-10-16T14:58:05+01:00October 16th, 2019|Categories: Games|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

Ted Gearey Trophy Club Event with the Bart’s Bash – Biggest Little Boat Bash Report

This was event was to be run in the morning as a conventional club race except that we would record the times of each Marblehead at the finishing line. This was in order to take part in the charity event, Bart’s Bash; Biggest Little Boat Bash set up especially for radio sailing by Shaun Priestley, who works for the Andrew Simpson Foundation who are promoting this event. This foundation is for the encouragement of young people to go sailing.

When we arrived at Abbey Meads we were in no hurry because there was no wind. So we made good the damage caused by vandals to the launching platform on the west bank, which we had prepared for following photo kindly taken by John Townsend last Wednesday.

With an easterly forecast we launched our dinghy from the southern launching platform and there was a little bit of wind, but you could barely feel it. So we abandoned the idea of sailing our Marbleheads and set up the Footy Internet Course (FIC), because Footys go amazingly well in light winds as a result of of their big sail area and lightweight the displacement. We sailed 3 times round the course as is required by the FIC rules to complete a race and we raced 6 times, before the wind changed through 180° and destroyed the course.

Race 3 was good because Roger was timed at 3 minutes dead and Martin at 3.03 minutes. It was close racing and much more exciting than it appears on the surface! Our worst period extended Martin’s winning time to 8 minutes and 31 seconds and Roger was unable to finish! Towards the end the wind just died away and turned round making the course collapse.

Guildford Model Yacht Club are donating a minimum of £50 to the Andrew Simpson Foundation.

Our next event is on Saturday, 12 October and look forward to a big entry and getting our Marblehead racing going again.

By Mark|2019-09-22T23:35:19+01:00September 22nd, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

BOTTLE boat Championships – Waldringfield 11 August

Dear BOTTLE boat enthusiasts,

The Championship was held on 11 August, whilst I was on holiday in Waldringfield and unfortunately as I had no computer there this report is rather delayed. I would like to thank Commodore Ian Videlo who borrowed my SD card and some of the photographs were on the Waldringfield Sailing Club Facebook page the day after the event. I would also like to thank Adrian Price who not only did the grand job as rescue boat in his inflatable kayak, but put a camera on the bow and produced a short film, which gives a very good flavour of the action on the water. The link to this is https://youtu.be/YxiInkKdXOI. The report is already on the Yachts and Yachting ‘clubs and classes’ website under ‘model yachts’ and will appear in the Model Boats magazine in due course.

The next event for BOTTLE boats is the BRASS MONKEY event at Guildford Model Yacht Club on Saturday 14th December and I look forward to seeing you there.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-09-22T23:33:15+01:00September 22nd, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off