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Midland Marblehead Ranking Event at Watermead Model Boat Club

by Roger Stollery 25 Sep 2012 07:16 BST 16 September 2012

With the Marblehead World Championship, only weeks away this ranking event was the last major event for competitors to sharpen their sailing and get the best out of their boats.

The 17 entries included several new recruits to the class, which has increased in popularity over the last year as a result of the Worlds and the GAMES series. PRO, Clive Bardell, with his race team from Watermead Model Boat Club near Aylesbury did a very good job running the event and sailed 22 heats over a simple windward/leeward course with a leeward gate. Winds at the top end of 'A' rig increased towards the end of the day to become a 'B' rig wind. The wind was gusting between 4 and 10 mph and there was some marginal planing on occasions on the off wind legs.

Brad Gibson was eager to try out his 'A' swing rig in what were ideal testing conditions for his new design GRUNGE. It was good to see newcomers to the Marblehead scene including Darin Ballington, who finished second, Paul Stubbs and young Josh King from the IOM fleet. The GRUNGE was again very quick and although he did not win every race, he did have to count a second in his score of 10 for 11 races with 2 discards! Brad reinforced the superiority demonstrated in strong winds at the National Championship when he won all but one of the races. The GRUNGE is a beautifully made boat, narrow, lightweight with high stability and carefully set-up rigs and well cut sails, as might be expected from one of the world's top sailmakers and Brad must be favourite for winning the Worlds in Ploermel, France in October.

Overall Results:

1st Brad Gibson (Birkenhead) GRUNGE 10pts
2nd Darin Ballington (Manor Park) ROK 31pts
3rd Roy Stevens (Killingworth) PRIME NUMBER 34pts
4th Hugh McAdoo (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 39pts
5th Josh King (Windrush) STARKERS 44pts
6th Paul Stubbs (Manor Park) STARKERS 47pts
7th Martin Crysell (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 51pts
8th Tony Guerier (3 Rivers) STARKERS 51pts
9th Roger Stollery (Guildford) CRAZY TUBE FREE 69pts
10th Victoria McNulty (Birkenhead) PARADOX 69pts
11th Peter Popham (3 Rivers) STARKERS 74pts
12th Agustin Moreno (Chelmsford) PRIME NUMBER 76pts
13th John Shorrock (Reading) STARKERS 96pts
14th Terry Rensch (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 115pts
15th Richard Buxton (Broads) COMPOSITE 116pts
16th Peter Dunne (Guildford) CRAZY TUBE TOO 134pts
17th Alan Viney (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 154pts

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