Marblehead GAMES 4 for the Canada Cup at Poole Radio Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 24 Jun 2015 12:35 BST
21 June 2015
Marblehead Canada Cup at Poole © Andy Mciver
GAMES 4 for the Canada Cup
Tony Edwards sailed his upgraded PARADOX very consistently to win this magnificent silver trophy engraved with winners going back to the 1950s. Poole Radio Yacht Club at their superb sailing water at Longham Lakes ran 16 good races in 7-14mph variable WNW winds.
12 competitors from the South-Western, Met and Southern and Eastern districts enjoyed some exciting racing in B or C rigs, plenty of fast planing on the downwind legs and tricky wind shifts on the beats. These wind shifts and the poor visibility of the windward mark made rounding it difficult. Despite the inevitable contacts, penalty turns were carried out without any outstanding protests.
This event was a good example of how competitive older Marblehead designs can be if carefully prepared and upgraded. Robbie Nevitt's PARADOX finished 3rd splitting the more modern boats, John Shorrock's QUARK and Hugh McAdoo's PRIME NUMBER, which finished 2nd and 4th. Rob Vice's seriously upgraded Chris Dicks' design MAGIC was 5th.
There were a few technical problems and boats going out of range twice caused PRO Peter Wiles to struggle against the wind in the electric powered rescue boat to recover boats sailing beautifully to windward to the far side of the lake. He used the power of the sails of the rescued boats to come back a lot quicker!
The prizewinners thanked Poole's race team for running a good event and particularly Leslie Wiles for providing some absolutely superb cakes to go with the coffee that was available throughout the day. It is hoped that this event will have encouraged more sailors in the South-Western district to take up Marblehead racing and boost the numbers for the SW district Marblehead ranking event at Yeovil on 3rd of October. The next GAMES event is at Rotherham on 13 September.
Overall Results:
1st Tony Edwards Yeovil, PARADOX, 22pts
2nd John Shorrock Guildford, QUARK, 34pts
3rd Robbie Nevitt Yeovil, PARADOX, 47pts
4th Hugh McAdoo Guildford, PRIME NUMBER, 49pts
5th Rob Vice Clapham, 66pts
6th Roger Stollery Guildford, UPROAR, 69pts
7th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford, PARADOX, 73pts
8th Dick Jobbins Solent, CONSTELLATION, 73pts
9th John Bennett Eastleigh, PARADOX, 89pts
10th Philip Udall Eastleigh, CRAZY TUBE FREE, 149pts
11th CJ Vice Clapham, 157pts
12th Alan Veal Guildford, ROAR EDGE, 169pts