Micro Magic Nationals at Southwold Sailing Club

The top three boats overall head around the windward in race 6 of the Micro Magic nationals © Micro Magic class

The inaugural radio controlled Micro Magic national championship hosted by Southwold SC were held on Saturday (June 16) with a healthy entry of 15 which is excellent for a class that only officially started in the UK six months ago. The small Micro Magic, as seen on the pool at the Dinghy Show each year, is taking the world of International Radio Yachting by storm due mainly to its low price of £89 for the basic starter kit, and is due to hold its first European championships in Holland later in the year where the Dutch have built up a staggering 2,000 boat fleet over the past few years.

In a pleasant Force 2-3 class webmaster and local Southwold Javelin skipper Mike Pickles won race one followed by Benfleet's Buzz Coleman, Swanley's Mike Weston and Y&Y's Peter Spence. This was to set the scene for the day's racing with the same four boats jostling for the winner¹s gun in most of the subsequent 13 races.

Coleman, in his trusty MKI hull, continued to score well with a 1,3,1, with Pickles counting 2,6,3, Weston 3,2,2, and Spence 4,1,4 all in their newer MKIIs.

The wind continued to build and three of the leading boats changed down to B rigs but Coleman only had his A rig with him and started to struggle to handle the downwind legs in particular, dropping to a 4,4,6,4,4 over the next 5 races to relinquish the overall lead. That went to Pickles with a 3,1,3,1,2 followed by Spence 4,2,1,2,3 and Weston 2,3,2,3,1.

Coleman borrowed a C rig but that was slightly too small and he lacked power (but at least could get down to the leeward mark in safety) but could only manage to score 4,4,4,5 while Spence took over the leaderboard with a 2,1,1,1, followed by Pickles 1,2,2,2 and Weston a consistent 3,3,3,3.

It was in race seven that Tom Needham, a local Wroxham Oppie skipper sailing in a borrowed Micro Magic for the first time nabbed a creditable 4th place to break the top four boats' monopoly and Southwold's Cath Fox also bagged a couple of top 4 positions in races 12 and 13.

Conditions became calmer for the last two races and Spence, Pickles and Coleman changed back up to A rig but 'Micro Mike' Weston stayed with his trusty B rig and to the amazement of everyone had two bullets in the last two races even though it was quite clearly A rig winds... or was it! He was followed closely behind by Spence 2,2, Pickles 6,3 and Coleman 3,4.

At the end of the day only two points separated the two leading boats after 14 races with Spence just taking the overall title followed by Pickles, with Weston only 4 point behind with Coleman in fourth. The class will now select a team of six boats for the Europeans in November where there will be a fleet of 45 boats competing for the European title.