News & Reports

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

GAMES 9 Marblehead interclub at RADIO SAILING WOKING in Goldsworth Lake.

Short Report by Roger Stollery based on a report by RO Peter Kirby

Link to GAMES Results Page

Sunday 28th July dawned with a cloudless sky, comfortable temperature and best of all, a variable south-westerly breeze for the duration of the first Interclub GAMES event that RSW had organized.

The wind allowed a 200 metre windward/leeward course to be set along the centre of the lake.

Eight Marbleheads sailed 17 races in one fleet in a 3-10 mph breeze with gusts of 15 mph. There was close company in the beats to the windward and spreader marks, followed by runs accelerating into occasional exciting planing speeds to the leeward gate.

The racing die was cast from Race 1 onwards in that Colin Goodman (Grunge) in the majority of cases took the lead from the windward mark , thereafter to rocket down wind with others, notably Dave Andrews (Grunge),Roger Stollery (Up) and Martin Crysell (Prime Number) in hot pursuit, but were seldom able to depose Colin from taking the spoils.

In the wind shifts, local knowledge of the peculiarities of the lake was put to the test by ‘home representatives’ Roger Pearce (Prime Number), Simon Jeffs (Prime Number), Peter Dunne (Starkers), and Peter Chance (Starkers), but to no avail as Colin Goodman claimed a well deserved top place on the podium with 11 wins and this result now puts him at the top of the leaderboard of the GAMES series.

At the prize giving in the Radio Sailing Woking club room, Race Officer Peter Kirby was pleased with the competitors well disciplined conduct, which resulted in no protests and all incidents resolved on the water, as he had requested. The competitors thanked him and the three-man race team for running this event and taking on this GAMES interclub event.

The overall GAMES results are available on the Guildford MYC website www.guildfordmyc.co.uk and more information about activities at Radio Sailing Woking can be found on www.radiosailingwoking.uk.

Results:

1^stColin Goodman Chelmsford GRUNGE 17

2^ndDave Andrews MYSA GRUNGE 32

3^rdRoger Stollery Guildford UP 36

4^thMartin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 47

5^thRoger Pearce Woking PRIME NUMBER 63

6^thPeter Chance Woking STARKERS 87

7^thPeter Dunne Woking STARKERS 92

8^thSimon Jeffs Woking PRIME NUMBER 114

By Mark|2019-08-07T21:20:08+01:00August 7th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

2019 Marblehead National Championship, West Kirby 2019-07-21/22

Report for the GMYC website by Roger Stollery

This Championship followed on from the 10 rater National Championship, which was on the Thursday and Friday. 17 single heat races were sailed and the championship was won by James Edwards sailing a TRANCE. The Marbleheads sailed 15 races in 2 heats and we used nearly all our rigs.

Saturday

We were lucky with the weather with just a little bit of rain on Saturday in marked contrast to Friday’s downpours. Guildford was represented by 4 members, Peter and I, Rob Vice and David Coode and we all had problems at times in the strong wind. David and I spent most of our time in B heat and had some interesting races and often finished close together. The wind was blowing more or less straight down the lake from the west and was on average 16 miles an hour and maybe over 20 in the gusts; it was a day for the smallest C rigs. The photographs were taken in the seeding Race 1, when most were in C2 and show the big waves, which built up at the lower end of the lake where we were sailing. These had a big influence on performance in both directions. Whilst the UPs weren’t bothered off the wind, which we thoroughly enjoyed, but we did have some problems stalling on occasion when tacking, which didn’t help the results. Peter was disappointed that he led one of the races by quite a margin, only to pick up weed and spoil the result. The big waves didn’t help judgement when you were crossing other boats and I made inadvertent collisions when ducking starboard tack transoms, one of which caused a hole in the bottom of the boat which I didn’t notice until the end of the race, by which time it was half full of water! All but one of the races was won by either Brad Gibson, 4 or Graham Bantock, 3 with the other race won by Darin Ballington. Brad was the most consistent counting only firsts and seconds and even discarding a second!

Sunday

The light to moderate breeze was varying from the south or south south-west mainly A rig and occasionally B. However it was the direction that was a nightmare for the ROs Peter Baldwin and Derek Priestley, as when the wind was blowing across the lake it was difficult to set a start. We had to sail from the promenade to buoys that were over 100 metres away, making vision at the windward marks difficult. Reaching America’s Cup style starts and running starts with tried, but were not successful and these races were abandoned. There were constant delays as the courses were reset, but the ROs did a good job under difficult circumstances and 7 races were completed. Martin Roberts was back on form, was very consistent and had the best score for the day, whilst Peter was pleased with having most wins. Even I got out of B and had a couple of races in A heat to boost my rather pathetic scoreline. Rob ended the day well with a win after some pretty poor results in the morning.

This was a pretty good test for next year’s World Marblehead Championship and lots of things were learnt to help future race teams. 3 umpires were used buddied with observers and generally this worked well, although there were very few disputed incidents.

By Mark|2019-07-27T22:56:06+01:00July 27th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW Event 8 – 17th July 2019

For the 3rd time running the WoW! event received no support from local M&S clubs, which is very disappointing particularly today, Wednesday 17th July when there was a nice steady southerly breeze giving the best conditions of all the WoW! event’s. However, well known Footy designer/builder did drive all the way from Northampton and brought his brand-new Marblehead UP, which he had moulded in my UP moulds. He has made an absolutely fantastic job of it and the hull moulding looked really good with a twill carbon pattern. We set up on the west bank and had some really good sailing, which was most enjoyable. After sorting out his trim tensions, Peter’s UPSHOT was going just as well as my UP as can be seen from the attached photos.

As expected the vandals had pulled up the large Danforth anchor, but had not moved the landing stage which is very encouraging in view of the six-week and attended period when you’re not using the lake. The southern landing stage also looked OK, so the chains appear to be a deterrent. Another good thing was that only one small piece of weed was picked up in our 90 minute sailing session. This bodes well for 14 September when we hope to run the Ted Gearey club race as a Bart’s Bash fundraising event. Details of this will follow shortly, but you will find some general information on the MYA website. In addition to running Marbleheads is to be hoped that we can also run the Footy Internet Course in the afternoon and make some connection with Footys worldwide, because this Footy course is the most ideal for comparison of performance because of this unique and accurate 50 foot beat and run course, which is ideal for timed comparisons.

Did anyone see the moon last night? I was quite surprised that in our area of over-lit suburbia, I was able to see part of the eclipse and take the attached photo from the top of my drive.

Regards

Roger

By Mark|2019-07-23T18:54:08+01:00July 23rd, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

Arcadia Trophy 06 July 2019

See Gallery Tab for Photos of Event

Dear All,

This was a very encouraging club meeting at Abbey Meads. It was sunny and there was at times a reasonable north-westerly A rig wind towards the end of the morning. Most encouraging for Roger was to find the gates open, the boat and gear out on its trailer and Mark, who had set this up, raring to go sailing.

However, beforehand we had to investigate vandal damage to the west bank landing stage, where there appeared to be only one of the 2 posts supporting it. The fixing to the stair strings with chains instead of rope had worked and the landing stage had not been moved. Whilst the post appeared missing the vandals had snapped it off above the landing stage and we later found it afloat in the bushes. However the really heavy Danforth anchor on a 5 m length of heavy chain to ensure that the landing stage would not float away had been pulled up. Roger and Martin rode out in the boat to relay this mooring and to leave the buoys that had been pulled ashore moored in the centre of the lake to avoid further repositioning by fishermen.

5 competitors sailed 10 races and whilst these included GMYC members Martin, Mark and myself, we were delighted to have the pleasure of top A boat designer, Jon Simpson and his young teenage son Jeremy, to sail with us and help Jeremy understand a bit more about sailing. They raced Roger’s ROAR EDGE Marblehead alternately and won the first race as can be seen from the ARCADIA Trophy scoresheet and they enjoyed our club event. The only downside was that there was some straggly lengths of weed on the course which made its impact on the initial races in particular. It affected everyone, to some extent during the day, but even with his short keel on his PRIME NUMBER Martin suffered most, as can be seen in the results of the first few races. However Martin was the most consistent and his 5 first places broke the tie with Roger for the trophy.

Not only did Mark put the boat out, but he also put it away and as can be seen from the website was also the official photographer of the day. Many thanks indeed.

Whilst this is our final summer time club event, before re-starting in September, there is the WoW! event 8 on 17 July and an opportunity for more Marblehead sailing at the GAMES 9 interclub event at Woking, which it is hoped will be supported well by GMYC and other district club members. If you are really keen there is the opportunity for a late entry to the Marblehead Nationals at West Kirby on the 20th-21 July. At our club event on Saturday 14 September

for the Ted Gearey Trophy, the club are hoping to be part of Bart’s Bash to create a world record entry for a sailing event. This is to publicise sailing and publicise radio sailing within the full-size sailing world and also to help fund the Andrew Simpson Foundation which funds introductory events for those new to sailing. Details will be advised in due course.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-07-07T13:01:32+01:00July 6th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off

WoW Event 7 – 03 July 2019

Dear All,

WoW! event 7 was warm and sunny, but the wind at Abbey Meads was cantankerous, basically north-easterly 5 mph, but some gusts coming from the north and others from the east. The course was set ensure that one of the legs of the triangle there would be a beat. Four members and an invited guest, Mike Bridges, who worked with Roger at Wimbledon enjoyed 8 races with a mixed fleet of two 10 raters initially, 2 Marbleheads and a BOTTLE boat. Mike was heavily involved in developing the ideas for the folding roofs on Centre and number One Court and making them practical.

Peter Dunne was trying out his new DEFECTOR 10 rater and found a glitch on the steering, so he changed to his new Croatian KANTUM 2 IOM, which performed OK as can be seen from the photographs. New member Charles was able to get his WHISPER Marblehead going, but found control at the distant mark difficult until later in the afternoon.

Roger enjoyed sailing his BOTTLE boat for a change, as it is so light and responsive and on one occasion nippy enough to reach the windward mark first.

The only disappointing thing was that there were no members from other clubs despite every M&S club secretary being emailed with the invitation to this event.

Cheers, Roger

By Mark|2019-07-06T22:52:48+01:00July 6th, 2019|Categories: Games|Comments Off