Footy Class Freds Big Toephy at Guildford Model Yacht Club

Fred’s Big Toephy at Abby Meads Lake © Roger Stollery

Fred’s Big Toephy at Abby Meads Lake © Roger Stollery

Fred’s Big Toephy at Abby Meads Lake © Roger Stollery

The first Footy Class open meeting of the 2010 season started well with 21 races for a beautifully sculpted wooden trophy. 11 skippers from 7 clubs enjoyed some excellent racing in a light, but gusty Northerly wind blowing basically straight down the lake and slightly off shore on Guildford Model Yacht Club’s Abby Meads Lake, Chertsey.

PRO Martin Crysell set a simple windward/leeward course with a leeward gate, which was also the starting line, to give 2 beats and a run. With the variable 0-6 mph wind most boats were using their biggest rigs, but the gusts forced some to change to smaller rigs. The young Vice boys, CJ 10 years old and Lachlan 8, both put up impressive performances with podium places. Lachlan’s best was 3rd in Race 3 sailing a ‘BUG 3’, whilst CJ, sailing an ‘ANT’, boasted at the end of having one of each place, including a win in Race 8, 2nd in Race 15 and 3rd in Race 5.

Everyone enjoyed at least one podium place, but Gordon Edmondson was not pleased when his radio burnt out halfway through the event. However apart from David Wilkinson’s win in Race 4 with his balanced una rigged ‘IAMBUS’ design, the wins were shared between Rob Vice’s brand new ‘ICE’ design, a moulded round-bilged version of the fast 5 plank chine ‘AWK’ design, with the same 500gram displacement, Swing Rig, cassette radio gear etc. There was a lot of interest in how these two designs would compare. Their performances were very similar as the results show, but ‘ICE’ (41) did have a little bit of an edge and assistant RO Hugh McAdoo caught this well in his photos of Race 18, shown with the other top boats (17 and 49) on the second picture page.

As well as presenting Fred’s Big Toephy and the winners’ prizes, two other trophies were presented. The 2009 Footy Travellers’ Trophy with a new base, again beautifully made by Fred Shepherd, was presented to Gary Sanderson by last year’s winner, Charles Smith. Gary shared the honours with David Wilkinson with the same number of events attended, but the tie broken by the biggest mileage.

The MYA’s Chris Dicks Award, normally presented at the MYA AGM was presented to Nick Burden, for winning the Footy design competition with his design ‘HOTFOOT’.

Overall Results: