Marblehead National Championship at Burghfield Sailing Club

A dry spell during the Marblehead nationals at Burghfield © Roger Stollery

A dry spell during the Marblehead nationals at Burghfield © Roger Stollery

This was a very unusual event raced over the late May Bank holiday. If it wasn't for radio racer’s innovative spirit, the desire to race whatever the conditions and the ability to find ways around adversity, this might have being a complete washout.

If the continuous heavy rain and freezing cold were not enough to dampen spirits and screw up the electrics, the weed was the killer. Burghfield Sailing Club's weed cutting during the previous week and the north-easterly breezes spread short strands of the wretched stuff all over the radio racing course near the clubhouse.

Saturday started in light 2-6 mph north-easterly winds with every boat affected by either hitting a big clump of weed and limping to the shore or by collecting short strands and frustratingly slowing these low drag ‘Formula One’ racing machines. Skippers got no pleasure from sailing their boats not performing properly. However like in the Monaco Grand Prix on at the same time, competitors developed a stopping strategy with ad hoc pitstop teams of sailors from the non-sailing heat sportingly wading out up to their thighs to de-weed struggling boats. Competitors learned to develop a one, two or three stop strategy for de-weeding and it had an important part to play in this crazy situation. It seemed unfair to everybody at times, but the results are close to the form predictable without this hazard.

A total of 19 races were sailed in a high quality fleet from 16 clubs that included World Champion, Martin Roberts. He won the first of the seeding races with National Champion, Peter Stollery winning the other. Robert Walsh, John Tushingham, John Cleave and Roger Stollery won races 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. The overall totals gave Peter Stollery the lead with 9 points with Roberts and Aussie 18 ft skiff sailor, Gibson tied in second place on 13.

The forecast strong winds did not materialise on Sunday, but the 8-12 mph easterly winds did create waves, which took some of the weed away and made it slightly less of a problem. However, heavy rain at midday made the sloping banks of the control area run with sheets of water making them dangerously slippery. The event was on the verge of being called off. However 8 races were sailed in full area rigs, either A, B or C and there were 6 different winners. Race 6 was won by Mark Dennis; Race 7 by Roy Stevens, Race 8 by Peter Stollery, Races 9 and 10 by Walsh, Race 11 by Roberts. Race 12 by Gibson and Race 13 by Shaun Wyeth. Overall the leaderboard had changed little with Peter Stollery’s lead (30) cut to 2 points after Gibson (32) had pulled closer and overtaken Roberts (33).

Monday's strong winds from the north were incredibly cold and from an awkward direction, not allowing a windward start. After a triangular course was tried PRO Farquhar Mattheson set a downwind start to a leeward gate. This gave some exciting starts and spectacular flat out planing offwind performances with spray and rudders in abundance. With the wind offshore, weed was much less of a problem, but a few keels and rudders were still collecting it. 6 races were sailed with 5 different winners with Gibson winning the first two races 14 and 15. Race 16 gave Walsh his 4th win of the event from Peter Stollery in second place, pulling out all the stops to defend his title. He won Race 17 and was second Chris Harris in Race 18. Roberts came back to win the last race, but this was not enough to catch Gibson, who finished Race 19 just one place ahead of Stollery, but this challenge was insufficient as he had to win this race to win the Championship.

Overall Results:

1st Peter Stollery ‘Crazy Tube Too’ Guildford 48pts
2nd Brad Gibson ‘Starkers’ Birkenhead 53pts
3rd Martin Roberts ‘Starkers’ Birkenhead 57pts
4th Robert Walsh ‘Starkers’ Fleetwood 72pts
5th John Tushingham ‘Starkers’ Keighley 90pts
6th Market Dennis ‘Prime Number’ Chelmsford 102pts
7th Chris Harris ‘Starkers’ Bournville 106pts
8th Roger Stollery ‘Crazy Tube Too’ Guildford 118pts
9th Chris Elliott ‘Starkers’ Birkenhead 122pts
10th Shaun Wyeth ‘Starkers’ Gosport 131pts
11th John Cleave ‘Skalpel’ Ryde 142pts
12th Robbie Nevitt ‘Paradox’ Yeovil 151pts
13th Roy Stevens ‘Starkers’ Killingworth 153pts
14th Alfie Hart ‘Roar Edge’ Laugharne 185pts
15th David Coode ‘Tiranha’ Guildford 222pts
16th Rick Buxton ‘Rok’ Broads 226pts
17th Peter Crisp ‘Starkers’ Swanley 231pts
18th Peter Sutton ‘Prime Number’ Broads 245pts
19th Vernon Appleton ‘Monarch 2’ Chelmsford 254pts
20th John White ‘Starkers’ Appledore 271pts
21st Craig Humphries ‘Roar Edge’ Leicester 284pts
22nd David Andrews ‘Rok’ Hampton Court 327pts