Marblehead Nationals at Birkenhead Model Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 24 Jun 2008 18:12 BST
21-22 June 2008
40 races, baffling winds & slamming gusts for the Marblehead nationals at Birkenhead © Roger Stollery
What a fantastic radio sailing event; a record 40 races, baffling winds, slamming gusts, high speed offwind legs right on the edge, incredibly close finishes and high drama right up to the end decided the Championship!
Birkenhead MYC were hosts to 19 entries from 10 clubs at their well known model yachting lake in Gautby Road. A cold mid summer day with heavy rain greeted competitiors, but the warm welcome in the club house made up for this and the rain soon passed over.
Saturday
A 6-8mph SE breeze from the clubhouse end with occasional sharp gusts up to 15mph blew straight down the lake giving an ideal beating and running course in the biggest 'A' rigs. Offwind there was plenty of fast planing with the odd rudder showing at times and the occasional capsize!
PRO Jeff Hill set a cracking pace for the racing, wasting no time between races. Andrea Roberts sailing her pink world-beating 'Starkers' showed that she had not lost her touch after a long break from racing and won the Race 1 easily. She would have won the second even more easily if a plastic bag had not slowed her down to allow Roger Stollery's 'Crazy Tube' to win. Her form looked unbeatable as she took Race 3 and from then was only out of the top 3 in 5 races. John Cleave won Race 4 and 7, with reigning champion Peter Stollery winning Race 5. At this point 22 year old Rob Walsh arrived, having overslept and proceeded to win the first of many races. The next 3 races were a Roberts family benefit with World Champion Martin winning Races 8 and 9 and Andrea, Races 10 and 12, with Roger Stollery winning Race 11. Races 13 and 14 were won by Peter and Martin respectively with local skipper, Colin Smith winning Race 15. Rob Walsh had a second win in Race 16 before Peter Stollery dominated the next 4 races. At the end of the day everyone retired to the local pub with Andrea leading, Peter 2 points adrift and John Cleave a further 42 points behind.
Sunday
The 50mph SW winds blew down trees in some exposed places, but the lake is in the lee of Bidston Hill and nearby terrace houses and only about half that wind speed was experienced. Despite the howling in the trees on the lee side of the lake the wind was on average only about 12mph. However it was incredibly variable with massive slamming gusts followed the next second by no wind at all! B or C full area rigs coped with a basically close and broad reaching course that could instantly become a beating and running course. Both ways the Marbleheads’ speed made it great fun, but when planing absolutely flat out right on the limit offwind, with any increase driving the bows under and the boat out of control. There were quite a few collisions as a result, but remarkably little serious damage. What was really scary was that the boats were not safe to be left lying on the grass when not racing, as the wind would pick the rigs up and throw the boats around. The only safe place was on the water!
It was a very difficult wind to understand and racing was hard work apart from just the physical effort running to keep up with the boats planing flat out over the 500 metre course. Despite the wind variations the finishes were very close indeed with boats crossing the line as fast as the sail numbers could be called out.
Peter Stollery won 2 races with John Cleave, Mark Dennis and Martin Roberts winning one each, along with a rare win for Vernon Appleton with his Italian made ‘Monarch’. However Rob Walsh with his yellow ‘Starkers’ put up an astonishing performance to win 14 of the 20 races. The large number of races with discards every 8, helped him to discard the 100 points he scored before even starting racing! Tension built up to a climax as there was some doubt as to whether there was time to start the 40th race within the racing time. However with a few seconds to spare this was achieved. It ensured that Rob was able to discard the last DNC score to become the youngest ever and very worthy winner of this Championship.
Overall Results:
1st Rob Walsh Fleetwood ‘Starkers’ 103
2nd Peter Stollery Guildford ‘Crazy Tube Too’ 110
3rd Andrea Roberts Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 141
4th Martin Roberts Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 156
5th John Cleave Ryde ‘Skalpel’ 162
6th Chris Elliott Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 220
7th Roger Stollery Guildford ‘Crazy Tube Too’ 224
8th Mark Dennis Chelmsford ‘Prime Number’ 239
9th Colin Smith Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 255
10th Colin Galvin Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 279
11th Roy Stevens Killingworth ‘Starkers’ 282
12th Vernon Appleton Chelmsford ‘Monarch’ 291
13th Ernie Rice Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 398
14th Peter Crisp Swanley ‘Starkers’ 405
15th Damian Ackroyd Fleetwood ‘Starkers’ 433
16th David Wayt Birkenhead ‘Starkers’ 444
17th David Gunson Leicester ‘Starkers’ 502
18th Craig Humphries Leicester ‘Roar Edge’ 513
19th Mark Mortimore Guildford ‘Roar Edge’ 598