2015 Fred's Big Toephy at Guildford Model Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 13 Feb 2015 07:30 GMT
8 February 2015
The opening event of the 2015 Footy Traveller's series was sailed at Abbey Meads Lake, Chertsey and hosted by Guildford Model Yacht Club in glorious sunshine. 12 competitors from 6 clubs enjoyed 12 races in very variable wind conditions, from the lightest of breezes to a steady wind from the North requiring a change from the biggest rigs to 2 rigs smaller just before the break for lunch.
PRO, Hugh McAdoo, set a long windward/leeward course and because there was very little wind to start with, this took over a quarter of an hour, requiring a lot of concentration to get the best performance. Peter Shepherd crossed the finishing line first, sailing his home-made wooden FAT BOY followed by Roger Stollery and his corrugated plastic chine SUPABUG design. The latter turned the tables in Race 2 and this was to become a familiar pattern as between them they won 9 of the 12 races. This was interrupted just before lunch, when Alan Viney sailing his moulded plastic ICE won Race 6 in the increasing wind. Top of the leaderboard at lunch was Peter, just one point ahead of Roger.
The wind seemed to have peaked at lunch and from then on the wind came a bit more from the west and gradually decreased towards the end of the racing. After Roger won Race 7, Peter won the next 2, when the Vice children arrived to join in the fun. They immediately had an impact on the results because 16-year-old CJ Vice showed his mettle to win Race 10 with his brother 11-year-old Gabriel finishing 5th sailing their ICE boats. The next race required a lot of concentration as there were many holes in the wind and once again CJ came to the front after struggling a bit at the beginning of the race. This time 14-year-old Lockie Vice backed up the 'family' performance with a 6th. However, it was the narrow designs, FAT BOY and FAT BOY SLIM sailed by the Peters Shepherd and Jackson that took the honours in these light conditions with CJ 3rd and Gabriel 4th.
At the prizegiving, Hugh McAdoo thanked the competitors for their sportsmanlike behaviour, as there were no protests and penalties were carried out without needing to be hailed by the observers. As well as awarding Fred's Big Toephy to Peter Shepherd and the prizes for the event including the junior prizes, the prize for the best novice (never having finished in the top 3 in these events) was presented to Alan Viney.
Also, as is traditional at the first event of the series, the 2014 Traveller's Trophy was presented to David Wilkinson, who had travelled the most miles competing in all but one of the 9 Open events in the series.
The next event in the 2015 Footy Traveller's Series is the Mad March Hare at Cotswold Model Yacht Club on 19th of March where we are expecting to welcome more juniors to sail these super little boats. Details can be found on the really excellent website www.sailfootyuk.com.
Overall Results:
1st Peter Shepherd (Abington Park) FAT BOY, 18pts
2nd Roger Stollery (Guildford) SUPABUG, 22pts
3rd Peter Jackson (Abington Park) FAT BOY SLIM, 30pts
4th Mike Ewart (2 Islands) ICE, 34pts
5th Alan Viney (Guildford) ICE, 46pts
6th David Wilkinson (Cotswold) IAMBUS, 47pts
7th Keith Parrott (Frensham Pond) ICE, 61pts
8th Sid Sims (Birmingham) ICE, 67pts
9th Peter Dunne (Guildford) SUPABUG, 78pts
As the Vice squad arrived later than expected their scores were not incorporated into the main results but made up a separate junior competition.
1st CJ 4pts
2nd Gabriel 10pts
3rd Lockie 10pts