Marblehead Stan Cleal Trophy at Three Rivers Radio Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 22 Nov 2016 06:45 GMT
20 November 2016
Marblehead Stan Cleal Trophy at Rickmansworth © Tom Rodger
The BBC weather report and forecast was gale force winds and heavy rain. When competitors arrived at Three Rivers Radio Yacht Club sailing water on the Aquadrome, Rickmansworth, fortunately they were met by only slight drizzle and a good B rig wind.
Racing got underway promptly at 10 on a windward/leeward course with a windward separating mark and a gate at downwind end. David Adams took the first race with his newly acquired PRIME NUMBER, with Rob Vice then taking a 1,2,1 with his UPROAR in the next 3 races up to coffee brake, only letting Colin Goodman beat him in Race 3. David and Colin won again in Race 5 and Races 6 & 7 respectively.
This put Colin top of the lunchtime leaderboard with 12, Rob 13 and David 16 points.
After lunch the remainder of the 16 races were sailed in a lightening wind with boats now powered by their A rigs. The wind became more southerly and was strong enough to blow a few strands of weed from the top corner of the lake onto the course, which was very annoying. Race Officer, Peter Popham moved the course taking out the gate and realigned the start for the course, now of 2 triangles.
Roger Stollery, sailing his UPROAR, made a very late charge, winning 4 races and caught up with 37 points and tied with David Adams. This result was decided by discards.
The countback showed Roger with 1 more win than David with 3 wins and took him into 3rd place. The final scores were very close and after a recount and a recheck Colin Goodman, sailing a borrowed 'F3' won of the Stan Cleal Trophy with a score of 33, despite his last 3 races being handicapped by weed. The winner was closely followed by Phil Holliday sailing a QUARK with 34 points; he was the most consistent skipper of the event winning only one race, but finishing second in six races and third in three others! Rob was the next closest with 39 points.
Once again in this class there were few hails of protest with penalties taken immediately after incidents; this is the gentlemanly behaviour that Marblehead skippers are renowned for. My thanks go to race committee members, John Male and Tom Rodger who kept everything running smoothly.
Overall Results:
1st Colin Goodman, Coal House Fort 'F3' 33pts
2nd Phil Holliday, Datchet 'QUARK' 34pts
3rd Roger Stollery, Guildford 'UPROAR' 37pts
4th David Adam, Three Rivers 'PRIME NUMBER' 37pts
5th Rob Vice, Clapham 'UPROAR' 39pts
6th Martin Crysell, Guildford 'PRIME NUMBER' 55pts
7th Alan Viney, Guildford 'PRIME NUMBER' 85pts
8th Dick Grainge, Three Rivers 'STARKERS' 88pts
9th Keith Allen, Three Rivers 'STARKERS' 105pts
Race Officer, Peter Popham