Marblehead Eastern District Ranking Events at Chelmsford
by Roger Stollery 2 May 2015 10:15 BST
11-12 April 2015
Lots of wind and one of the best radio racing lakes in the MYA's Eastern District made for superb high-speed racing over 2 days.
Chelmsford Radio Yacht Club's water at Wheelers Hill is right at the top of a hill with no adjacent obstructions, so prolonged gusts up to 25 mph had 24 Marbleheads absolutely flying off wind with clouds of spray everywhere! Modern Marbleheads are light, narrow and very powerful with deep keels and achieve spectacular speeds, which every competitor of these F1 boats enjoyed; that is assuming that they could keep them under control without broaching or overpowering them to let the rudders wave in the air!
Saturday's Ranking Event
A simple windward leeward course with a spreader and leeward gate gave everyone a chance to test their boats against the best in ideal sunny conditions, starting in B rig and ending in C2, which is one bigger than the smallest in the bag.
The racing soon showed the quality of the fleet with last year's leading design, Brad Gibson's GRUNGE out in front in every race except Races 7 and 8, which were won by Graham Bantock. A few boats had technical problems, but all recovered to race again after repair.
At the end of this event after sailing 8 races, Brad was 1st with 6 points followed by Graham Bantock sailing his modified QUARK tied with Peter Stollery with his brand-new UPROAR launched at the event for its first sail. Both were on 14 points with Chris Harris sailing a STARKERS on 17, Mark Dennis sailing a PRIME NUMBER on 26 and Darin Ballington sailing a ROK on 39.5 points.
Graham and Lorna Bantock hosted a party in the evening for all competitors and race team, which was much appreciated.
Sunday's Ranking Event
Even stronger winds developed during the day and required the smallest rigs to cope with the prolonged gust strikes. The photos given an idea of the spectacle created on the off wind legs. The wind was not in such a favourable direction, blowing diagonally across the lake, requiring PRO Graham Childs to set a zigzag course in order to achieve acceptable windward and leeward legs.
Brad was in his element again leading nearly every race, except where he had a battery problem in Race 3, which allowed Graham Bantock to win. There were one or two hold-ups as a result of damage and subsequent repair and 7 races were sailed in the most spectacular conditions.
Once again Brad finished 1st with 6 points with Graham Bantock 2nd with 13 points, Mark Dennis 3rd with 27, Tony Guerrier 4th with a QUARK on 29, Darin Ballington 5th on 30 and Peter Stollery 6th on 39 points.
At the prizegiving Brad thanked the Chelmsford club and all of the race team for putting on a superb weekend's racing. Sadly, we have heard from the club that this was the last big event at this water, which is to be drained and developed for housing.
The next ranking event will be on May 31st hosted by Guildford Model Yacht Club at Abbey Meads, Chertsey - see www.guildfordmyc.co.uk