News & Reports

The objective was to interest local people in our radio sailing at Abbey Meads, planting a seed for further involvement in the future activities of our club, as we are so short of members taking part in our racing. We organised the day around Footys, BOTTLE boats and DF 65s, all small boats under £200. A fortnight or so ago we sent the attached invite to 19 local clubs to gain support, five sailing clubs, the local Scout group, eight schools as well as to Eagle radio, BBC Surrey and the Surrey advertiser, the addresses of which John Townsend had kindly researched. All had been asked to contact myself more details and it was very disappointing not to have a single response from any of these groups.

However Alan, John and myself went ahead and with the help of our friends, Graham Whitehead and Keith Parrott from Frensham and a FEW attendee, Peter Kirby from Woking, gathered together lots of information, Footys etc in case there was some unannounced interest. Unfortunately there wasn’t.

However, we had some good sailing during the morning, firstly sailing five BOTTLE boats and when Graham’s had a problem, we continued racing with four DF 65s and two BOTTLE boats, with an offshore wind and an America’s Cup style reach to the windward mark and then a sausage and back to the start as the finish. This was challenging in the light and very variable breeze and was enjoyed so much that after lunch we continued to race in the pouring rain!

Both designs were a pleasure to sail, light, manoeuvrable and responsive with plenty of stability. I particularly enjoyed sailing the DF 65 that Peter Dunne had kindly loaned for the event and even beat both BOTTLE boats in one race!

It was an enjoyable days sailing even if we didn’t achieve the objective.

Fortunately it was dry, but there was a cold north-easterly wind that really did require proper gloves and not just the fingerless ones. We set a course with two windward marks in an attempt to get a windward beat out of at least one of the two courses, as the wind was flicking around the trees to windward.

Peter Dunne was on the water first trying his new STARKERS without a problem and this helped set the course. However at the start of racing his mainsheet came off the winch and so our first race was a practice race won by Martin. The racing was very close at times with lots of slowing down in the holes and steaming along in the gusts with lots of place changing on the last run to the line.

Soon after the start Alan Viney’s son, Graham and grandson Matthew arrived and so Alan let Graham sail a couple of races with four-year-old Matthew being the official starter! As you can see from the attached results there was a different winner in every race and so the results are very close, with my two victories taking the trophy on merit.

Peter Dunne was absolutely delighted to win the very last race in view of his dodgy start and Alan was delighted to tie with Martin. Martin had to go at lunchtime and so we stopped the trophy race, but continued to race without keeping a record. Again the racing was very close. It was great to see young Matthew having a go at sailing and he obviously enjoyed it and did well, although he did suffer from being cold at the end of the day. The attached photo records the three generations of Viney present.

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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