Marblehead Mermaid Trophy at Guildford Model Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 5 Nov 2013 17:35 GMT
3 November 2013
A fabulous spectacle was created at the penultimate event in the GAMES series, which attracted fifteen competitors from 8 clubs in 4 MYA districts to Guildford MYC's Abbey Meads lake, Chertsey. The strong gusty WSW winds allowed the light and narrow 'Formula One' speed machines to demonstrate the high performance of the Marblehead, which is enjoyed so much by competitors.
17 races were sailed over a 600 m windward leeward course in winds that were forecast to be 15 to 30 mph. This allowed the use of B rigs initially and C rigs when the wind blew up in the middle of the day putting bows under pressure and allowing rudders to wave in the air. There were holes in the wind and the inconsistency and lack of predictability allowed 6 different competitors to win.
Race 1 set the scene for the day with Peter Stollery sailing his CRAZY TUBE FREE finishing ahead of Darin Ballington's ROK and John Shorrock's brand-new QUARK. John Arundell with his trusty STARKERS led Race 2 all the way after a good start, finishing ahead of Hugh McAdoo's PRIME NUMBER and Tony Guerrier's DREADNOUGHT. Hugh stepped up his performance in Race 3 to win from Darin and Roy Stevens sailing a PRIME NUMBER.
Peter came back from gear failure and used his C rig in the strengthening wind to win, after giving a perfect demonstration of swing rig power by tacking downwind and overtaking most of the fleet and finishing in front of John Shorrock and Hugh. Tony moved up a gear in Race 5 to win from Darin and Martin Crysell sailing a PRIME NUMBER. Hugh came back to form to win Race 6 ahead of 2 Guildford clubmates, Martin and Roy Pearson sailing a ROK. Everyone's keenness to start in Race 7 resulted in a general recall and in the new start Darin's consistency paid off and he won ahead of Peter and Roy Stevens. The scores at lunchtime put Hugh in the lead with 25, one point ahead of Darin and 9 points ahead of Peter.
The afternoon started well for Peter with a win in Race 8 over John Arundell and Tony. However he started last in Race 9 after a penalty at the start and made the most amazing recovery downwind by gybing onto port immediately after rounding the windward mark and taking a gust out to the left hand side of the course and gybing back in the same patch of strong wind to overtake all but Darin, who went on to win. Disappointed with his 3rd in that race, Hugh made an excellent start in Race 10 and was never challenged by Darin or Peter, who finished 2nd and 3rd.
John Shorrock, who has just had his QUARK keel 'refined' by designer/builder Graham Bantock, won Race 11 a long way ahead of the following group of 5 boats headed by Peter and Hugh, who all finished within seconds.
Darin came back to win Race 12 ahead of Roy Stevens and Peter and then repeated his win in Race 13. Dave Andrews sailing a PRIME NUMBER made an excellent start and led for much of Race 14, but was overtaken by Peter and Darin who finished in that order. These 2 finished in the same order in Race 15, but were beaten by John Shorrock again.
By this point the strong wind had blown itself out and most competitors changed into their A rigs. Peter won both of these races with Darin 2nd, but in Race 16 Rob Vice, who was sailing a 20-year-old Chris Dicks' MAGIC design and had been struggling for speed throughout the day, took 3rd place. At the other end of the timescale it was good to see the Jeff Byerley designed DREADNOUGHT, introduced last year from Australia getting into the top placings and also the new Frank Russell designed budget boat, GOTHIC MX making its first appearance on the Abbey Meads lake.
Once again the GAMES series will reach a fitting climax at the Stan Cleal Trophy at 3 Rivers on Sunday 24 November. The annually awarded MIDGLEY MUG for the series could go to 3 competitors, Roy Stevens who already has completed 5 qualifying races, but could improve his total to over 400 points, as can Hugh and Darin, who have only completed 4 races, but they all have to win to achieve these scores. All potential scores are within 6 points of each other, so it is all the sail for at 3 Rivers!
Overall Results:
1st Peter Stollery (Guildford) CRAZY TUBE FREE 26pts
2nd Darin Ballington (Manor Park) ROK 28pts
3rd Hugh McAdoo (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 43pts
4th Tony Guerrier (3 Rivers) DREADNOUGHT 57pts
5th Roy Stevens (Killingworth) PRIME NUMBER 64pts
6th John Shorrock (Reading) QUARK 66pts
7th Dave Andrews (Hampton Court) PRIME NUMBER 84pts
8th Martin Crysell (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 93pts
9th Roy Pearson (Guildford) ROK 98pts
10th John Arundell (Reading) STARKERS 119pts
11th Rob Vice (Clapham) MAGIC 123pts
12th Alf Reynolds PARADOX 123pts
13th Peter Popham (3 Rivers) GOTHIC MX 130pts
14th John Townsend (Guildford) ROK 153pts
Ted Gearey Improver's Trophy - Tony Guerrier
Vic Cooney Trophy (best veteran) - John Shorrock