Hydonia Trophy 15th November2009
After a Saturday of gales and heavy rain, Sunday brought the most perfect conditions to Abbey Meads Lake. It was such a surprise to feel warm, even down to teeshirts and sunshine so low and bright that it was difficult to see the windward mark.
A light south south westerly wind 4-8mph, with the odd gusts that gave a bit of planing offwind, allowed 6 Marbleheads to use the leeward gated course set for the Mermaid. There was some cracking racing with close finishes. 16 races were sailed with Martin winning again by just 2 points. Hugh is getting to grips with his new Prime Number and had a couple of wins and loads of seconds.
After lunch the Footy Internet Course was set but the wind was dying and the chance of getting a good time with either Paul’s special or Roger’s AWK was slim.
After a few goes Hugh and Roger achieved times in the early 4 minutes, 4.08 and 4.05 with the AWK, but star of the afternoon was Geoff Sutton who made 3.32 and beat his previous best by nearly half a minute!
Click Here for the Hydonia Picture Page in pdf format
Click Here for the Hydonia Results Page in pdf format 
30th Marblehead Mermaid Trophy at Guildford 1st November 2009
This end of season Marblehead open event attracted a big entry of 26 from 11 clubs for a special celebration of not just the 30th anniversary of the event, but also of heat racing, pioneered at this event in 1979.
Guildford MYC’s Abbey Meads lake near Thorpe Park, Chertsey was the venue for 12 races sailed in the most variable and initially very wet and windy weather, to decide the winner of the beautifully sculpted bronze Mermaid. All past winners were invited and 5 took part including the first winner, Tony Owens using the original winning boat, which together with a few other older boats added a special design interest.
The Club set up the market stall shelter in the pouring rain tying it down against the violent gusty winds to the roof rails of an estate car. Shortly after, a strong gust ripped the roof covering off the steel structure causing absolute havoc for the race team and competitors alike!
Race officers Roger Stollery and Paul Midgley laid an 800-metre long upwind/downwind course with a leeward gate related to the SSE 15-20mph wind blowing obliquely onto the west bank control area. Acknowledging the advances made in 30 years of Marblehead design, two windward marks were laid with the shorter course allowing the older boats to stay in contention.
The two World Champions from Birkenhead with their powerful ‘C’ rigged ‘Starkers’ won the 2 seeding races with Martin Roberts also winning Race 2, demonstrating why these light, narrow, stable, Formula 1 machines, are such good sailing boats. Marbleheads are able to carry full sail to weather in these conditions and fly downwind at amazing speeds. The IOM World champion, Brad Gibson then took Race 3, whilst in the B heat Tony Owens was getting good places getting into A heat but not staying there. He seemed to be determined to sail in every heat and was thoroughly enjoying it!
As the front passed, the rain eased and the wind went more westerly giving more difficult wind conditions with big eddying slams hitting the water from every direction. This did not seem to phase Brazilian Denis Astbury sailing the Sails etc team ‘Rok’. In a bold move he changed to his A rig for Race 5 as the wind started to drop and won with a big lead. This put him into the lead overall by lunchtime with 11 points with Brad Gibson 13 and Martin Roberts 14.
By this time the wind had settled in the west and the PRO moved the control area to the south bank where a better windward-leeward course could be in clearer wind. It was still gusty and variable, but less vicious and some skippers changed to their A rigs, although most were in B rig. The appalling morning’s wet weather had taken its toll on radio gear and the remaining 18 boats sailed as one fleet. Mark Owens, who had taken over from his dad to try and sail in every heat sailed his best in Race 6 after a good start with a borrowed ‘Crazy Tube’, but was just pipped on the line by a sister ship sailed by Peter Stollery.
Martin Roberts won Races 7 and 9, but was beaten in Race 8 by Tony Owens sailing the original winning ‘Trapper’ over the slightly shorter windward leg. He started well again in Race 10 sailed the beat perfectly to open up a big lead, which was whittled down on the runs by Peter Stollery’s swing rigged ‘Crazy Tube’, but not enough to catch Tony who picked all the right shifts on the final beat. Another past winner, John Cleave, made it to the finish line first in Race 11 and was in the lead in the final race, for which he has a reputation for winning, but was overtaken on the line by Peter Stollery. By winning this race Peter retained the trophy by just one point from Martin Roberts whose consistency at the beginning of the event deserted him in the last three races.
At the prize giving everyone received an engraved glass to mark the 30th Mermaid. Peter thanked his dad and the Guildford team for running the Mermaid for 30 years and his nanna for sculpting the beautiful trophy. As well as prizes for the winners GMYC awarded the Vic Cooney trophy for the best veteran to Mark Dennis. As Peter had poor results in the first 3 races, he was embarrassed to win the Ted Gearey award for the best improver, which is awarded for the best improvement on the results of those early races. Hugh McAdoo was disappointed to get radio problems in his brand new boat in the first race, but then did sterling work in the rescue boat and won the ‘Tail end Trophy’ for finishing last. There were two special prizes for older boats from two distinct development periods, won by Tony Owens and Tim Townsend.
It was interesting to see very well sailed Marbleheads from different periods. The modern boats are much lighter and faster offwind, accelerating fast and marginal planing in a much lower windspeed, but there was less of a difference on the beat. The slightly shorter course for these slower boats did allow them to compete as their small advantage allowed them to be chased down the run and be in the thick of the racing.
Results:
1st Peter Stollery Guildford ‘Crazy Tube Too’ 25, 2nd Martin Roberts Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 26, 3rd Brad Gibson Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 31.1, 4th Denis Astbury Chelmsford ‘Rok’ 37, 5th Mark Dennis Chelmsford ‘Prime Number’ 52, 6th Roy Stevens Tri Services RSA ‘Prime Number’ 65, 7th John Cleave Ryde ‘Skalpel’ 70, 8th Martin Crysell Guildford ‘Rok’ 70, 9th Tony Owens Swanley ‘Trapper 1’ 73, 10th Colin Trower Hampton Court ‘Starkers’ 83, 11th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford ‘Paradox’ 88, 12th Vernon Appleton Coal House Fort ‘ ‘ 90, 13th Mark Owens Swanley ‘Crazy Tube Too’, 14th Tim Townsend Swanley ‘Slick’ 107, 15th Craig Humphries Leicester ‘Starkers’ 113, 16th Roger Pearce Woking ‘Paradox’ 125, Geoff Sutton Frensham Pond ‘Roar Edge’ 159, 18th Paul Tickner Guildford ‘Roar Edge’ 183, 19th Rob Owens Swanley ‘No Secret’ 187, 20th Alan Viney Guildford ‘Roar Edge’ 2008, 21st Hugh McAdoo Guildford ‘Prime Number’ 209.
Ted Gearey Award for Best improver – Peter Stollery
Vic Cooney Trophy for best veteran – Mark Dennis
Best pre 1980 boat – Tony Owens
Best pre 1991 boat – Tim Townsend
Report by Roger Stollery
Click Here for the Mermaid Trophy Picture Page in pdf format
TEAPOT TROPHIES 4th October 2009
Marvellous warm sunny weather and an unsteady 2-5mph westerly breeze gave seven members and some visiting sailors some good racing, despite the sometimes frustrating windshifts from SW to NW on the same leg!
A simple windward leeward course with a leeward gate for the 3 Marbleheads and a handicap leeward mark for the 3 BOTTLE boats half way down the run, allowed two big and two little boats to win races. All boats started together. After completing 12 races interspersed with a dozen or so practice starts, merit results were declared at lunchtime with two discards: Marblehead order - Roger Stollery, Hugh McAdoo, Geoff Sutton and BOTTLE boat order - Alan Viney, Paul and Alan Morgan. Handicap results are as the merit results.
In the afternoon young Paul organised more informal racing in even more fluctuating strength winds for himself, Hugh and cyclist repeat visitors Kevin and son Conor Stewart who very enjoyed the Marblehead/BOTTLE boat sailing. Enjoying watching the racing were also Jim McDonald and visitors, Robin and June Lovelock with discussions about Transatlantic Robot boat racing.
At the same time Roger and Alan set up the Footy Internet Course and ran 6 races.
Alan had not sailed a Footy before and found it was trickier than a BOTTLE boat and so without any practice his best time was 4mins 31 secs. He thought the whole thing fascinating and exciting just doing the timekeeping. I was delighted to break our FIC record again knocking off a second with a time of
3mins 12 secs. Interestingly the time for the first lap was 53 secs and at the second lap turn was 1.57 secs. It looks as if under 3 minutes is quite possible given a steady wind. AWK was in its biggest 2009 550mm rig with a wind of 2-6mph.
Click Here for the Teapot Trophies Results in pdf format
TED GEAREY 13th September 2009
What a surprise it was to find Abbey Meads lake in such good shape after the holiday period! The landing stages had not been overturned or moved even, the 'stringy weed' that infested the South bank and elsewhere had disappeared, the buoys had not been moved and Mark's beautifully mown grass looked superb.
There was a cracking northerly breeze as well, at the top end of tall rig, 8 -10mph with the max gust at 12.3mph. We were delighted to welcome back Hugh McAdoo to our club racing and he did well with his revamped 'Paradox' Marblehead. However initially he had a problem with his new Spectrum 6 transmitter as the rotating switch failed. However such is GMYC's determination and ingenuity that we managed to drill a hole up the 2mm plastic rod that had failed with a piece of thin wire and bond in another piece of wire so that Hugh could go sailing. Whilst the glue was setting he sailed my 'Tube' whilst I sailed my BOTTLE boat; a real pleasure that proved the halfway windward mark handicap really does work well on a windward leeward course. We sailed 9 formal races as on the attached results sheet, but also about half a dozen more short informal races whilst Hugh was fiddling. The halfway windward and leeward mark handicap also worked for Jim McDonald who won the last race with his 'Starbaby'. As usual the handicap results were close with just one point separating myself and Hugh.
In the afternoon we re-verified the 50ft FIC length as one of the lines came undone, set the course and did about a dozen goes mainly with 'AWK'. The wave build up at the leeward end of the lake did not make for easy Footy sailing as it was difficult to tack if you got the timing of wave/gust wrong, but we recorded the best times this year in the standard 500mm rigs. This did drive the bows under for some time on a few of the runs, but there was no loss of control, but just a plough through the waves.
Paul Midgley managed 3mins 26secs, some 8 seconds off his record, but I was delighted to do the 3 laps in 3mins 13 secs or 5 seconds under Paul's club record of 3mins 18 secs that we have been chasing since July last year. With one of the downwind legs in 20 secs and one first lap in 55 secs the target must be to break the 3 minute barrier. The wind was very variable with swirling holes that left the boat briefly motionless, as well as the strong gusts, but good lifts minimised the tacking at times. Oh for a decent steady breeze!
Cheers, Roger
Click Here for the Ted Gearey Results in pdf format
INTERCLUB and ARCADIA 12th July 2009
The forecast may have been marginal for some but for eleven Marblehead sailors from four clubs it was well worth the effort of coming to Guildford's Abbey Meads lake.
A beautiful sunny day with not even enough spots of rain to warrant putting the radio covers on. Wind from the S - SW gave us some interesting sailing conditions with gusts to 10mph coming from all directions, requiring some superb sailing to keep ahead of the fleet. 16 races were sailed with three discards, results below. Roger Stollery won with a an impressive display of results, 7 first and 6 second places resulting in a final score of 17, 2nd place went to Tony Brailsford and 3rd to Peter Popham.
Interclub racing is for everyone, it's no different to your own club sailing except that you are at a different lake with new friends, come and join us it's great fun.
Click Here for the Interclub & Arcadia Results in pdf format
The NICKLIN Trophy 17th May 2009
A handful of regulars attended today's Nicklin Trophy in weather that kept most in bed on this rather wet and blustery Sunday morning. What a shame because what started as a downpour whilst setting up, turned into a wonderful blue sky morning with plenty of manageable wind ranging from 12 -17 mph, perfect for C Rig sailing. The fleet consisted of three Roar Edges and a Crazy Tube which resulted in 16 action packed and close races which is a good average for a mornings sailing and we stopped for coffee! The 16 races enabled three discards and because this was a handicap race this enabled Mark M to walk away with the coveted Nicklin Trophy which is a glorious Goblet which stands just shy of 17'' tall.
Click Here for Nicklin 2009 Results in pdf format
Evening Series 22nd April 2009
A wonderful start to the evening series for 2009 with beautiful weather and a good turnout of eight skippers. The wind was pretty elusive but this did not stop some close racing with four different classes of yacht competing with close finishes. Five relaxed races made for a pleasant evening with time for everyone to excel at some point. The Evening Series Trophy was won this week by Martin Crysell with a score of eleven with one discard. All in all a great evening followed by a swift pint on the way home, come and join us for some fun evening sailing, next evening meeting is Wednesday 13th May.
| Name |
Yacht |
Sail # |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
Race 3 |
Race 4 |
Race 5 |
Points |
Place |
| Alan Viney |
Bottle Boat |
66 |
1 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
14 |
3 |
| Paul Morgan |
Bottle Boat |
2 |
2 |
4 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
16 |
5 |
| Alan Morgan |
Marblehead |
117 |
3 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
24 |
8 |
| Mark Mortimore |
Marblehead |
34 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
11 |
2 |
| Martin Crysell |
Marblehead |
52 |
5 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
11 |
1 |
| Roger Stollery |
Ten Rater |
17 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
15 |
4 |
| Paul Midgley |
Ten Rater |
76 |
7 |
7 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
20 |
7 |
| Richard ? |
Footy |
17 |
9 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
9 |
20 |
6 |
Elstead Cutter Trophies 5th April 2009
This year we have two trophies, one each for BOTTLE boats and Marbleheads and both awarded on handicap.
This event didn’t start well as I got halfway to the lake and remembered that I had not put rigs in the car for the 2 BOTTLE boats and the Footy. Arriving at 9.35 with no-one waiting I was concerned that there would be no entries. Geoff Sutton didn’t quite wait long enough, but all the other entries turned up later so for them there was no problem.
It was a lovely day starting with a gentle easterly wind and sunshine. Both Marbleheads and BOTTLE boats raced together over a windward/leeward course. The Marbleheads match raced with Mark beating Roger twice after changing boats. The racing identified a problem with Mark’s ‘Roar Edge’ as the rig was not rotating properly. There were some close finishes between the Ms and Bbs at the finish showing that the handicap on the single lap course with the BOTTLE boat windward mark half way up the Marblehead beat works well.
Father and son Alan and Paul Morgan sailed Bb2 and Bb79 respectively with new member Jim McDonald, who made a good job of sailing Bb4 considering that had notraced a radio model before. The new BOTTLE boat ‘Cutter’ was won by Alan, with 6 points to Paul’s 8 and Jim’s 17 (as he only sailed the last 3 of the 6 races. Mark won the Elstead Cutter with a handicap score of plus 12 to Roger’s minus 5.
After lunch the Footy Internet Course was set, but the wind kept going south putting it in the lee of the bank and not providing any chance of good times. However the challengewas taken up by Paul Midgley and Gordon Edmondson fresh from their 2nd and 3rd places in the Frensham Footy Open, plus young Paul Morgan and Roger. The best 3 lap time of 3 minutes 50 seconds was done by Paul Morgan, but with his BOTTLE boat 79! The Footys were not that much slower as what they lacked in straight speed they gained turning round the marks. Roger made the best time of 4.18 with Gordon 2nd with 4.38, Paul Morgan 3rd with 8.42 and finally record holder, Paul Midgley with 9.34.
This is exactly a year since Gary Sanderson brought to Abbey Meads his Footy Internet Course, which has gripped us ever since. Thank you Gary and Brett McCormack whose great idea it was. After this event we look forward to better times!
Report by Roger Stollery
M&S District Marblehead Ranking event 22nd March 2009
Guildford Model Yacht Club organised another superb open event at their Abbey Meads lake near Thorpe Park on 22nd March. Entries from 11 clubs enjoyed 18 races in warm sunny weather, but wildly swinging NW winds blowing diagonally across the lake and varying in strength from 8-10mph, enough for short bursts of planing down to patches of calm.
A simple windward leeward course with 3 beats and 2 runs had a leeward gate, which worked extremely well. Despite going through it 36 times, sometimes in tight packs, there were neither any collisions nor arguments over water.
Racing started with a win by Vernon Appleton. However the racing was the dominated by Peter Stollery, who always started consistently on the line at the gun and never diverted too far off the rhumb line. Although there was a bit of luck involved, which evened out over so many races, his best performance put him over a leg ahead at the end of the second run. Although he won 11 races he didn’t have it all his own way, with wins by Rob Vice in Race 7, Roy Stevens in Races 8 and 17, Martin Crysell in Race 10, Peter Popham in Race14. In the final Race John Cleave, who has a reputation for winning the first and last races of an event did not disappoint and initially pulled out a big lead after a good start. However on the last leg, this was whittled down to nothing by Martin Crysell, Alf Reynolds and Peter Stollery who each took the lead for a short while, but once again the maestro pulled it off!
At the prize giving skippers thanked the Guildford club, scorer/linesman Hugh McAdoo and RO Roger Stollery for their efforts in making such a good day’s racing.
Results:
1st Peter Stollery Guildford ‘Crazy Tube Too’ 21, 2nd John Cleave Ryde ‘Skalpel’ 54,
3rd Rob Vice Clapham ‘Starkers’ 60, 4th Roy Stevens Killingworth ‘Prime Number’ 70, 5th Martin Crysell Guildford ‘Rok’ 75.5, 6th Vernon Appleton Coal House Fort ‘Monarch’ 81.5, 7th Peter Popham 3 Rivers ‘Starkers’ 88.5, 8th Craig Humphries Leicester ‘Starkers’ 95, 9th Peter Crisp Swanley ‘Starkers’ 111.5, 10th Hugh Cripps Canterbury 117, 11th David Wilkinson Cotswold ‘Crazy Tube Too’ 136, 12th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford ‘Roar Edge’ 146, 13th Gordon Edmondson Woking ‘Starkers’ 171, 14th Geoff Sutton Frensham Pond ‘Roar Edge’ 184.
