Model Yachting Champions Cup at Guildford Model Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 5 Oct 2012 08:37 BST
29-30 September 2012
Guildford MYC hosted this event for the country's top skippers, with national champions of all the MYA classes, Marblehead district champions and the top skippers of both the Marblehead and IOM ranking lists invited to take part. The format of the racing is one round of match racing on Saturday and a few fleet races and fleet racing on the Sunday. Everyone gets plenty of racing and this year 33 races were sailed! Although the standard was high with 4 world or ex-world champions sailing, entries were low as a result of a very full programme of top-class racing in September, all involving the top skippers.
Saturday
A light basically west north-westerly wind was incredibly variable, both in strength and direction, such that it was a challenge just to sail, let alone match race. Race Officer, Terry Rensch set a simple windward leeward course and a tight starting gate. Despite the patchy wind there were some good match races with some very exciting finishes. Most consistent was Trevor Binks who borrowed a PRIME NUMBER and beat every opponent to achieve 100% score. Peter Stollery, who dominated the starts, had a technical problem while sailing Trevor and also met his match sailing his Dad, who after an even start was able to maintain a small lead all the way round the half kilometre long course.
After the match racing, a further 8 fleet races were sailed. These were much more exciting for both competitors and spectators, not only because of the greater number of boats on the water, but also because there were some stronger gusts from the North, which allowed the occasional plane on the downwind legs. The racing was dominated by the CRAZY TUBE FREEs with Roger winning 3 and Peter 4, with John Cleave reinforcing his reputation for winning the first or last races by winning the last.
Competitors, officials and spectators alike retired to the local pub for a debrief, which was much appreciated by the visiting skippers.
Sunday
Race Officer, John Townsend, set another half kilometre long windward/leeward course with a leeward gate, which was reset after the first race when the wind veered to the forecast south-westerly. This produced a variable wind in strength and direction with frustrating 'holes' adjacent to quite strong gusts, which later in the day were able to give some really fast planing off wind legs, to the limit of the tall A rigs with rudders in the air at times.
The racing started with a win for Hugh McAdoo, who went on to produce a very consistent set of results followed by a win for another PRIME NUMBER sailed by Roy Stevens in Race 2. Peter Stollery won the next 2, before Colin Trower, with another PRIME NUMBER won Race 5. Roy came back to win Race 6 before the racing was dominated by CRAZY TUBEs, who's swing rigged power allowed them to tack downwind at amazing speeds when the gusts allowed. This helped Peter win the next 11 races with the exception of Race 8, won by Roger and Race 14, won by Hugh McAdoo.
Peter retained the Champions Cup with very consistent percentages, scoring 95% in both match and fleet racing. Trevor Binks 75% fleet percentage was the second best of the day securing his second place overall and Guildford Commodore, Hugh McAdoo was delighted that his 74.9% fleet percentage was sufficient to gain third place. At the prize-giving the Race Officer and Keith Parrott from Frensham Pond Sailing Club and visiting skippers were thanked for providing a good days sailing under difficult circumstances after the starting machine broke down. Hugh McAdoo, Martin Crysell and John Cleave will be competing in the Marblehead World Championship in Ploermel, France in a few weeks time and were wished the best of luck.
Overall Results: (combined match and fleet racing %)
1st Peter Stollery (Guildford) CRAZY TUBE FREE 95.4
2nd Trevor Binks (Eastbourne) PRIME NUMBER 87.5
3rd Hugh McAdoo (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 82.5
4th Roger Stollery (Guildford) CRAZY TUBE FREE 81.3
5th John Cleave (Ryde) SKALPEL 77.4
6th Roy Stevens (Killingworth) PRIME NUMBER 76.8
7th Colin Trower (Hampton Court) PRIME NUMBER 75.2
8th Martin Crysell (Guildford) 70.2
9th Alan Viney (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 61.6
10th Alf Reynolds (Chelmsford) PARADOX 25
11th Tony Guerrier (3 Rivers) DREADNOUGHT 25