Mustang and RC Laser Open at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 10 Jul 2018 06:05 BST
7 July 2018
The day wasn't looking too promising. The weather was on our side, although probably only a light breeze, but more importantly were there going to be enough sailors?
The Dragon Flight 95 Nationals was on over at Keighley, so that took a good handful, and the England Quarter final match was on in the afternoon so that would also lure the faithful away.
Bob J. had printed off a couple of sheets for a similar knockout competition, where you would end up with the best of the day. To emphasize this was just for fun.
Like last time we had the first hour or so for familiarization for those that hadn't sailed the boats. It took this time to decide how many sailors were present and if we had enough yachts. Eight skippers had turned up; five Lasers and five Mustangs to start.
All eight names were noted and numbers were drawn randomly to go against each name. By the start of the first race the wind had filled in quite nicely and there were no flat spots. The first four sailed Lasers and the last two to finish in the race were dropped. This was then repeated with the remaining four, until we had a four person final for later in the afternoon. We then did the same and had two heats of four Mustangs to end with the best for the Mustang final. All carried the 'A' sail.
We had a short lunch break and then it was time for the mixed race. Many have said that the Mustangs were quicker boats and now was the time to settle the issue. Each sailed a Laser or Mustang and then swapped over for the next race to give a combined score. By the afternoon the wind had picked up just enough for the Laser skippers to warrant using the B sail, but not all did.
John had the best of the day's sailing, winning the majority of his races and also David Foster did quite well, until being overpowered with the big rig on the Laser in the last race.
It was a good day considering it looked like everything was going against us, as well as the televised Formula 1 and the Wimbledon tennis that we forgot to mention. This has paved the way nicely for the RC Yacht Open Day down at Fleetwood, where Uncle Derek has invited all down for a fun day with a good variety of sailing craft on Saturday 21st July. I'm sure there will be Dragon boats as well as Lasers for family members and interested ones to come and have a play.
It looks like the Mustang was definitely the faster boat, and we did have enough wind and all had an enjoyable day.
Overall Results:
RC Lasers
1 John Plant
2 Peter Isles
3 Bob Jolly
RC Mustangs
1 John Plant
2 David Foster
3 Tony Wilson
Joint Mustang and Laser mixed race
1 John Plant, 1pt + 4pts = 5pts
2 David Foster, 6pts + 1pt = 7pts
3 Walter Audley, 5pts + 3pts = 8pts