M&S District Marblehead Ranking Acorn Trophy at Guildford MYC
by Roger Stollery 30 Apr 2014 08:10 BST
27 April 2014
An excellent entry of 22 competitors for this Marblehead event from 15 clubs sailed 13 races in light and variable winds on the Guildford club's water at Abbey Meads. Three did not show up, so racing was in a single fleet of 19 boats. Commodore, Hugh McAdoo welcomed competitors from all over the country and before the initial briefing, announced that the 'best improver' at GAMES 4 was Alf Reynolds,
It was good to see several new faces on the Marblehead scene and Jess Collier did well first time out with the SKALPEL that he had recently purchased from John Cleave. John Tushingham is another good skipper who had not been to Abbey Meads before and was sailing the DREADNOUGHT that Tony Guerrier raced last season. Pete Ferguson, who travelled up from Dorset was unable to sail more than 3 races as his winch packed up in his PARADOX. Dave Potter made a welcome appearance with a most unusual boat, which had a 'canard' rudder at the bow; his CREAM CRACKER is a Creed design resurrected by Dave and it will be interesting to watch this idea through the whole range of wind strengths.
Hugh, as PRO, set a simple windward/leeward course with a leeward gate and windward mark spreader. However to keep the course beyond the changing wind shadow line and make the starting line and gate as fair as possible he re-laid it three times as the easterly wind, initially parallel to the southern control area, became more 'over the right shoulder'. The long starting line gave boats plenty of room to avoid collisions, but such was the eagerness of the starters that there were many general recalls, which only added to the excitement of the racing! There were a few collisions, but all were resolved on the water and there were no formal protests.
Peter Stollery who was trying a new Creed keel on his CRAZY TUBE FREE for the first time, set down the challenge to the fleet by winning the first 3 races. Race 4 was won by John Tushingham ahead of Graham Bartholomew sailing a ROK and Roger Stollery sailing CRAZY TUBE FREE. Tony Guerrier, who had a technical problem with his QUARK in the previous race, came back to win Race 5. There was then a battle of world champions in Race 6, which Rob Walsh sailing CRAZY TUBE TOO led for most of the race until overtaken by Peter at the end. In the next race there was another tight battle in which Roger Stollery beat his son into 2nd place. Peter came back to win Race 8 and then alternate races until winning the last 2. John Tushingham won Race 9 from Roger and Peter and Tony Guerrier, who had sailed very consistently throughout the event, won Race 11 from last year's Acorn winner, Roy Stevens.
In the results below IOM World Champion, Rob Walsh borrowed the 2002 CRAZY TUBE TOO, but was only able to sail 2 races in which he was 2nd and 4th, so the results below do not reflect his performance.
Overall Results:
1st Peter Stollery, Guildford, CRAZY TUBE FREE, 15pts
2nd Roger Stollery, Guildford, CRAZY TUBE FREE, 42pts
3rd Tony Guerrier, 3 Rivers, QUARK, 47pts
4th Jess Collier, Eastbourne, SKALPEL, 51pts
5th John Tushingham, Keighley, DREADNOUGHT, 54pts
6th Roy Stevens, Tri-Services, QUARK, 62pts
7th Alf Reynolds, Chelmsford, PARADOX, 80pts
8th John Shorrock, Guildford, QUARK, 82pts
9th Graham Bartholomew, Chelmsford, ROK, 88pts
10th Peter Crisp, Swanley, STARKERS, 93pts
11th Martin Crysell, Guildford, PRIME NUMBER, 98pts
12th Alan Viney, Guildford, PRIME NUMBER, 111pts
13th Terry Rensch, Guildford, QUARK, 119pts
14th Dave Potter, West Kirby, CREAM CRACKER, 122pts
15th John Townsend, Guildford, ROK, 137pts
16th Phil Holliday, Watermead, GOTHIC, 155pts
17th Rob Walsh, Fleetwood, CRAZY TUBE TOO, 186pts
18th Peter Popham, 3 Rivers, GOTHIC, 186pts
19th Pete Ferguson, Woodspring, PARADOX, 209pts
Attention now turns to the National Championships being held at the Keighley MYC over the weekend of May 17th & 18 where a large fleet entry is building in a warm up to the July Magic Marine Worlds in Gouda, Netherlands.
For all Marblehead Class news and Nationals information in the UK go to our class website at marbleheadsailing.wordpress.com r follow us on twitter at @MarbleheadUK.