M&S District Marblehead Championship and GAMES event at Three Rivers Radio Yachting Club

Three Rivers RYC hosted the 2023 M&S Marblehead Championship at the Aquadrome, Rickmansworth on 26 February. The Three Rivers race team created a very good day's racing in almost ideal sunny weather conditions with the north-easterly wind generally blowing straight down Bury Lake, but with big variations in both strength and direction.

A good entry for this class of 19 boats enjoyed 8 races sailed in 2 heats with RO John Male setting a simple windward leeward course with a windward spreader mark and a leeward gate. 'A' rigs were the order of the day with only a few wipeouts & rudders showing in the strongest gusts on the fast downwind legs.

After a couple of general recalls the starting line was reset to spread the entries along the line and both Darin Ballington sailing a GRUNGE & Phil Holliday sailing an F6 got off to a good start by winning their seeding heats.

Skippers concentrating hard to get the best out of the wind shifts - M&S District Marblehead Championship and GAMES event at Three Rivers - photo © Gillian Pearson

In Race 2 Tony Guerrier sailing an GRUNGE beat Darin into 2nd place, with Paul Tickner also sailing a GRUNGE in 3rd. Rob Vice sailing his UP took Race 3 from Phil with David Adam sailing GRUNGE 3rd. Darin came back to win Race 4 from Roger Stollery sailing his UP with Paul 3rd.

Darin was top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 4 points followed by Tony with 7 and Paul with 8.

Rob came back in Race 5 win from Tony & his brother Austin both sailing a GRUNGE. Their places were reversed in Race 6, but they were beaten by Darin. In the next race Austin came to the front to win from Nigel Barrow sailing a STARKERS and Darin. In the final race Tony scored again from Rob & Darin.

At the prize-giving Darin thanked RO John and his team for running a really good event and encouraged competitors to come to the Marblehead Ranking weekend at his club Lincoln at the end of March.

M&S District Marblehead Championship and GAMES event at Three Rivers - photo © Gillian Pearson

Results:

1st Darin Ballington Lincoln GRUNGE - 11pts
2nd Tony Guerrier 3 Rivers GRUNGE - 13pts
3rd Rob Vice Guildford UP - 16pts
4th Austin Guerrier 3 Rivers GRUNGE - 21pts
5th Paul Tickner Guildford GRUNGE - 24pts
6th Roger Stollery Guildford UP - 29pts
7th David Adam 3 Rivers GRUNGE - 32pts
8th Nigel Barrow Frensham Pond STARKERS - 33pts
9th Phil Holliday Datchet F6 - 37pts
10th Barrie Martin London MYC STARKERS - 57pts
11th Rohan Williams Datchet GRUNGE - 64pts
12th Tom Rodger 3 Rivers PRIME NUMBER - 67pts
13th Graham Hetem Datchet QUARK - 68pts
14th Martin Crysell Guildford PRIME NUMBER - 70pts
15th Bob Pearson Gosport STARKERS - 70pts
16th Bob Iles Poole STARKERS - 76pts
17th Dick Grainge 3 Rivers STARKERS - 78pts
18th John Carter 3 Rivers ROK - 99pts

Overall GAMES leaders after two events:

1. Nigel Barrow 161.2pts
2. Roger Stollery 117.8pts
3. Rob Vice 116.2pts

Darin Ballington (L) receiving his prize from RO John Male - M&S District Marblehead Championship and GAMES event at Three Rivers - photo © Gillian Pearson