Mustang Tuesday Sailing at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 15 Apr 2017 07:52 BST
4 & 11 April 2017
Tuesday 4th April
With a 15MPH North West wind it was looking like I might be able to try out the B Rig for the first time, even though it was coming from the former stadium seating sand hills direction. This is what I was hoping for before setting off from home, although it was still looking quite windy.On arrival no way, it was stronger and again it was out with the C rigs.
Ken Crabtree Df65 captain was with us today along with ex Laser guy Graham Ardron another great chap, and it was for their first outing this year. Mike had decided to give it a miss this week, as he hadn't charged his batteries after glancing out the window. Says it does too much damage to his boat when it's wild, although 7 others had turned up for the challenge.
Tony and Peter both managed the first 3 races then both had winch failures. Peter was now out of the racing, but Tony wanted to try his second hull for a trial and was getting his Blue boat ready while the third race was on.
Jim's boom then broke on the fourth race, but was able to borrow Tony's spare Blue C rig and John P. had a small wire failure putting him out of the fifth race.
Ken had had some good consistent races that had put him behind Jim in the finishing order and Graham had also managed to complete all five races.
As no discards are given you really need to make all five races count, so with us thinking John would have clinched the day, we were all quite surprised.
Until next week, please enjoy the energetic video.
4th April Results:
1 Jim Lydon
2 Ken Crabtree
3 Graham Ardron
Tuesday 11th April
With a 22MPH wind straight down the lake, optimum direction but no wind shifts to take advantage and play with.
Scottish Jim had joined us this week to join in the fun, but tied himself up with the windward mark on the first lap. John P arriving a tad late as the traffic had played him up managed to dip out of the first race and all count towards a descent score.
Peter had his repaired submersible winch land on the doorstep just as he was setting off,( 1 week turn around service is good ) so made do like the rest of us with the standard budget Hitec.
Some were beginning to think that the wind was slightly more than the previous week. Not really going into Irons but just the slight hesitation on tacking sometimes if you had let your boat slow down.
Tony had a couple of slack line on the winch issues, but nothing too great to sort out. And John P on race 4 while being tide to Jim's favourite buoy had put himself to the back of the pack. After a couple of naughty words to his Mustang, he went on to actually win that race.
Race 5 had us down to just 4 Boats from the 7 that had started in the beginning.
Ken although leading this race from nearly the start decided to pull out his Mast while fending his boat off the wall, and let Jim Lydon take victory of the last race.
Kens consistency of 2 firsts and more low points gave him the day. John P had also had 2 firsts, but with missing out the last race as well as his first put him low down. Peter suffering from tired legs had let Derek have a go with his boat to gain the other first.
11th April Results:
1 Ken Crabtree
2 Jim Lydon
3 Tony Wilson