News & Reports

There was keen competitive racing, despite the uncooperative winds over Guildford’s Abbey Meads Lake on 5^th of June. 11 entries from 8 clubs enjoyed some really close racing in which there were 8 different winners in the 17 races sailed. Light to moderate A rig northerly winds greeted competitors and provided good racing over a long windward leeward course parallel to the west bank control area.

In the morning’s racing the two most successful skippers were Dick Jobbins, sailing a Martin Houlton designed CONSTELLATION ll and John Smith sailing a QUARK, with 2 wins each. Other winners included John Shorrock also sailing a QUARK in Race 2, John Cleave sailing his SKALPEL 14 in Race 6, Les Thorn sailing a PARADOX in Race 7 and Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER in Race 8. John Smith was at the top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 28, closely followed by John Shorrock with 29 and Martin Crysell with 30 points.

Over lunch the wind became much more easterly and in Race 9 there were lots of holes and swirling winds making the north-south course unacceptable. However, Dick Jobbins skilfully picked up the windshifts in that race to get his third win.

Race Officer, Roger Stollery then moved the whole operation to the south bank control area and re-laid the course to suit the developing east north-easterly wind direction. Alan Viney sailing a PRIME NUMBER made the best start and won Race 10, whilst John Cleave was getting some consistent results and in Race 11 scored his 2nd win. The next 2 races were won by John Shorrock, but not by much because in Race 13 the chasing pack of 7 boats crossed the finishing line within a couple of seconds! John Smith kept up the pressure by winning 2 of the last 3 races, only interrupted by Alan Viney scoring his 2nd win in Race 15. However the Manor Park skipper’s 4 wins was not enough to overtake John Shorrock who was very consistent, not dropping below 5th in any of his counting races and so becoming the M&S District Marblehead Champion. The final race was won by John Bennett sailing his modified and upgraded PARADOX.

At the prizegiving the RO thanked the competitors for their co-operation in moving to the other bank and for their sportsmanlike behaviour on the water. In turn, competitors thanked Roger and assistant race officer, Keith Parrott for putting together a good championship and despite the difficult conditions they said that they enjoyed the racing.

The next GAMES event is another Interclub event, Interclub 4, again at Abbey Meads on 9 July.

Results:

1^st John Shorrock Datchet Water QUARK 40

2^nd John Smith Manor Park QUARK 44

3^rd Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER 48

4^th John Cleave Ryde SKALPEL 53

5^th Dick Jobbins Solent CONSTELLATION II   60

6^th John Bennett Eastleigh PARADOX 73

7^th Alan Viney Guildford PRIME NUMBER 79

8^th Les Thorn Hawley Lake PARADOX 83

9^th John Townsend Guildford UPROAR 93

10^th Colin Walton Manor Park STARKERS 110

11^th Peter Popham 3 Rivers CREAM CRACKERED 124

What a fantastic championship! The wind blew hard on Guildford’s Abbey Meads water, straight down the lake and was strong enough to give some exciting planes off the wind as well as wipeouts in the strongest gusts. Close racing throughout the fleet was thoroughly enjoyed by both competitors and spectators alike, as much as the battle for superiority at the top.

The GMYC race team set a simple two lap beat and run course with a windward mark, spreader and leeward gate that took about 13 minutes. The windshifts in the 8-20 mph winds gave plenty of opportunity to demonstrate skipper ability, both tacking on the beat and gybing on the run.

18 races was sailed with Dave Andrews, sailing a RAPTOR 5, kicking off with 3 wins in the first four races, only interrupted in Race 2 by Martin Houlton and his special, beautifully moulded, narrow RAPTOR 6 design. Then Peter Stollery sailing his 33-year-old swing rigged TAXACHUN found his form, winning the next 4 out of 5 races, only interrupted by Dave winning Race 7. At the lunch break Peter was top of the leaderboard with 17 points followed by Dave with 21 and Peter Moore sailing a Martin Dovey designed SABORA with 31.

After lunch the gusts became stronger and most skippers changed down to a smaller suit of sails. Dave’s sail change was slow and he started Race 8 a whole windward leg behind the fleet, but such was the speed of his new set up, he pulled past all but the two Peters to finish 3^rd. For the next 6 races he remained unbeatable, except in Race 12 when Peter Moore got his 2^nd win.

The dull greyness of the day turned to drizzle, which became more persistent and heavier as the afternoon wore on. After Race 16, RO Roger Stollery called all skippers together to ask them whether they wanted to continue racing, as there was three quarters of an hour left before the official end of racing. However it was agreed by all to sail a further 2 races, each of which was won by the one of the two Peters.

At the prizegiving, the smile on Dave’s face was a picture, as he was quite delighted to have won his first 36” national championship. The winning competitors thanked the race team of Roger, Hugh McAdoo, Martin Crysell, John Townsend and Alan Viney for running a very good championship. 36” Class Captain, Alf Reynolds, who had a few technical problems during the racing, on receipt of his ‘Guildford traditional last prize’, said that he would love to bring the class here again for further events. As well as the prizes for the top 3, every competitor was pleased to take home a specially commissioned GMYC mug.

These boats are built to the 36” class ‘box’ rule, which is very simple as the hull, keel and rudder just have to fit into the special measurement box, 37 x 9 x 11 inches. There is plenty of opportunity to experiment with design and what is really good about this rule and the more recent Footy ‘box rule’ is that good designs stay competitive for a long while.

The current designs from designer/builder Martin Houlton are the RAPTORs weighing in at 8 pounds. His latest RAPTOR 6 has only a 7” beam as opposed to the full 9”, but it still displaces 8 pounds. Although quick off the wind it suffered from a lack of power to windward in the strongest gusts.  The Austin/Stollery swing rigged TAXACHUN designed in 1983 is still very competitive at 10 pounds despite its age and well used sails.

The latest rigs have big jib areas and equal booms, compared to the one third jib area swing rigs, but the jury is out as to the merits of each, as the ragbag of 30-year-old TAXACHUN sails was not a fair comparison in this fleet of beautifully made Houlton sails.

Results:

1^st Dave Andrews Hampton Court RAPTOR 5    26

2^nd Peter Stollery Guildford TAXACHUN          30

3^rd Peter Moore Bournville SABORA                37

4^th Dick Eastleigh RAPTOR 5                  60

5^th Martin Houlton Solent RAPTOR 6               73

6^th Dave Kent Dartmoor RAPTOR 5                 73

7^th Martin Hunt Hampton Court RAPTOR 5     88

8^th Rob Walsh Fleetwood TAXACHUN             103

9^th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford RAPTOR 5          139

Novice Bowl – Dick Jobbins

Report by Roger Stollery 2016-05-28

Eastleigh Marblehead Interclub & GAMES 4 NOTICE OF RACE

http://www.edmbc.net/sailing/

Dear All,
Although it was disappointing not to have sufficient entries to run the match racing for the Courage Cock, myself, Alan Viney and Rob Vice turned up at Abbey Meads for a tuning session, which I must say was tremendous fun and at times quite hilarious.

Alan arrived first and found that our normal KASP lock with a normal hasp had indeed been moved back to the inner gate and so access we did not need to rely on the contractors black number lock. The culprit was UK Power Networks, the electricity board requiring 24 hour access, who had kindly returned our padlock to the inner gate. Still wanting to know who operates the remaining unknown padlocks, I tackled a guy coming in, who happened to be from the Runnymede Angling Association. He didn’t know about the other locks but we moved the contractors padlock around in order that our lock is on the same bar as Runnymede. I said that we would be putting a chain round our lock as they do and he was happy with that. We just need to purchase a small padlock to make our chain loop continuous. There is a chain in the clubhouse which could be used for this.

Does anyone have a small padlock with a 3 or 4 mm hasp that you are not using?

It was a beautifully sunny day albeit a bit chilly, with a cracking 2-9 mph easterly wind blowing through the trees and giving the very best of sailing conditions, albeit a bit variable in direction and strength. The objective of our sailing was to improve our speed by trials to windward, starting three abreast 10 foot apart and sailing as long as possible on each tack and then improving the trim on the slowest after three goes. Having plenty of time without rushing to race was very useful and I found several bits of my A rig that needed attention and received it. There were things that we learnt that require attention after some workshop work, so once this is carried out it should help to keep the Guildford fleet up to speed.

Good luck to the Guildford team at Norwich next week!

Having trialled to windward we also came back downwind, starting level and did some useful experiments. Running dead downwind with a swing rig is not the most efficient use of the rig which likes to be an angle to the wind, but one is never too sure whether gybing and searching for the wind slightly off the rhum line is going to pay or not. Obviously it depends on the wind variation, but on one specific test run I sail dead downwind between the marks had ‘Uproar’s sails right out at 90° to the boat, whilst Rob with his ‘BlimBlachBlahoo’, gybed a lot but sailed not far off the rhum line to get the best out of the wind. In the light flukey wind there wasn’t much in it but dead downwind seemed to be a slight advantage, which is not what you would expect.

After a bit we decided to have some racing but using a ‘gate’ start. This is supposed to be the fairest way of starting where the ‘pace’ boat sails on port from the start mark and the others approach on starboard to take the pace boat’s stern. Whilst this sounds easy it proved a bit more tricky, particularly when the pace boat got hooked up with the start mark causing some hilarity when the second boat hooked up with it trying to free it. Anyway it was a very rewarding day and for me the first time that I have set out from home without any 27 MHz radio gear. It all worked as anticipated and I even found out what happens when the batteries run down on my Saturn TX, it makes a horrible beeping sound, but does not appear to affect the range, which is good to know.

You have probably had enough by now, but this is reporting that a really good, different and worthwhile event is possible even when the entries are small.

The final evening workshop of the session will be on Friday, 25 March, on rules and tactics so see you there. Beyond that there is the Elstead Cutter on 3 April, so please put this in your diary. It is a handicap event for one of our best trophies so come along and enjoy some good racing.

Cheers, Roger

Four teams of 3 came together at Guildford Model Yacht Club’s Abbey Meads lake in a good westerly breeze to enjoy some fun. There is a schedule which allows 2 teams on the water at once and the schedule is completed when each team has sailed against each other team, a total of 6 races, with each team sailing 3 times. 2 rounds were sailed before the rain started to come down heavily and bring the racing to a close.

Team racing is much more of a game than the normal run of racing, because team members have to sail well together to stay ahead of the opposing team; both teams try to go fast, but also slowly at times using the rules to slow down the opposition and try not to have a team member coming last. It is a tactical game where knowing the rules is important and therefore it is a good platform for learning.

First on the water was the Vice Squad consisting of father, Rob and his 2 sons, CJ and Lockie. They have been team racing before with Footys and really enjoyed the racing helping each other round the course. Their opponents were Datchet’s Holliday and Thorn who had to borrow a competitor from another team as one of their team didn’t turn up. Datchet lost, but stayed on the water to race Frensham’s Stollery, Royse and Wilkinson, who finished in that order to win. They stayed on the water to sail the Vice Squad and there was UPROAR at the front of the fleet with Rob and Roger having a tight match race to get the first place, which went to Roger, which gave the win to Frensham. The Vice Squad stayed on the water and were again in a tight battle and only just lost to the Guildford team of Hugh McAdoo, Martin Crysell and Alan Viney, with CJ going particularly well to beat his dad. Guildford, then had to sail Datchet and won quite easily, before doing the same to Frensham.

After lunch the wind got up a bit and brought some exciting gusts down onto the water to test the B or C rigs being used. The schedule was repeated with almost all results being opposite to the morning. Datchet did particularly well, mainly because the substitutes were very good and they won all their afternoon races. In particular, they were behind until right near the end of the final beat against Guildford, when substitute, Roger, picked up some amazing lifts and passed the whole fleet, which had gone too far off the rhum line to give Guildford, their only loss of the day.

Guildford won with 5 wins, Datchet was 2nd with 3 and the other 2 teams tied for last place with 2 wins. At the prizegiving the competitors thanked Keith Parrott for acting as race officer for the day. Guildford always encourage those who are last to come back for more, and in this case gave the 3 small prizes to the Vice Squad. It was great to see these young kids enjoying the racing. In particular CJ sailing his CRAZY TUBE always made good starts and put lots of pressure on the more experienced sailors at the head of the fleet.

Three boat team racing is such great fun that more clubs need to be encouraged get a team together and to take part in next year’s entertainment.