Vane 'A' Boat Bradford Cup and Jim Rose Bowl at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club

by Tony Wilson 6 Sep 2018 18:12 BST 1-2 September 2018

Vane 'A' Boat Bradford Cup at Fleetwood © Tony Wilson

Well it all seems to be happening at Fleetwood. In contrast to last weekend with nearly a hundred skippers enjoying the championships, which was the highlight of the year, this weekend we were down to just a handful of guys. Maybe not such as great an event, but our boats are a lot bigger. The colourful buoys still in the lake resembled a snooker table, but were in no way going to hinder these huge vessels.

Five entries for the Saturday that included the two local Fleetwood lads Eddie and Peter, two skippers from Yorkshire and Rob Bell from Anglesey North Wales.

The forecast for the weekend was dry with just the occasional tiniest amount of drizzle but nothing enough to spoil the fun. The wind direction was from the roadside to start and would eventually swing to the top end to enable the use of spinnakers for the return run.

Damian was the first to drop out of the initial race on a bye and it was Peter and Rob that won both of their legs respectively. The morning dragged on a little in the light breeze and we had only sailed the four legs of the lake by lunchtime. Some would think of this an old man's class, but you certainly have to be reasonably fit to keep up with these beasts.

The far bank was the focus for getting the boats over to the Skippers for all the adjustments and giving the Mates an easier walk down the near side for a change with just the occasional pole off if needed.

Peter scored another double hitter in the afternoon and had already got rid of his bye earlier, so was on his way to good points, while Rob had a breakdown to attend to. Damian made his way onto the score board with a repeat score but Eddie seemed to be really struggling with Fleetwood's 'Dark Horse' and David was fairing only a little better.

Sometimes model yachts require trim adjustment (Vane 'A' Boat Bradford Cup at Fleetwood) - photo © Tony Wilson

David was now on a bye for the last race and was it really an adjustable spanner or a pipe wrench that he was taping to the back of his boat. He was hoping to do some technical testing at the end of the day as his boat just didn't seem to be laying level in the water.

Rob and Damian had caught up a little to Peter's end score by the close of the day, but not quite enough to clinch the cup. Peter had only dropped one run and one beat, so had a firm grasp on the metal. It had been a good fought battle with only the odd point separating the top.

Self-steering gear on a model yacht (Vane 'A' Boat Bradford Cup at Fleetwood) - photo © Tony Wilson

Sunday

We were down to three boats on the Sunday as Rob had family commitments and Eddie had been promised a day out up in the Lake district. Tony and Bob had volunteered with a bit of persuasion to Skipper Eric's borrowed boat the 'Dark Horse'. Were they really going to let us loose on a boat that's so big and can nearly fill the size of your living room. After yesterday's events could it fair any worse. At one time Eddie was seen to be relieving it of at least a bucket of water from all the on board leaks, maybe we should rename it after a submarine 'Nautilus'.

Race officer Eric not being as focused on entertainment value, thought it would be a better idea to split the chuckle brothers up and put each one of them in more capable hands. Bob Joined Damian on Pandora and Derek was to keep an eye on Tony.

It was hoped for us to get in two full rounds with the lesser number of crafts and the better time management, due to not having to refit spinnakers on every other leg. A very slight increase in wind at times and again the action was to be on the far bank as we would be reaching up and down the lake. At first it looked fairly quiet lakeside as numbers of public were at a minimum with just the odd crabber or dog walker.

With fewer boats it's not as hard to do well as you're more or less guaranteed a top place and the gamble comes more down to luck of the draw or to the wind and vane Gods.

Tony got off to a flying start and by the end of the first four legs was winning. The race against David looked like he had cheekily done a victory role as 'Dark Horse' did a 360 degree turn up the top part of the lake before finishing. David's boat then did the same, which also looked similar or more like a penalty turn as he circumnavigated around a buoy. A couple of friendly words came from Bob's way to quench Tony's excitement into not letting it go to his head.

By lunchtime we had completed a full round and Peter had nudged in front. Damian had qualified for a re-sail later in the day against Peter.

Down to the final race and it seemed that Tony and Peter were on equal points of sixteen as Tony had just pinched the beat. The run went to Peter to give him an extra 2 points although Tony was also waiting a re-sail with Damian. It was this last race with which I wish I'd caught it on camera. Heading along the far bank on the run, the boat suddenly decided to veer straight to the boathouse corner where a family of crabbers had just released three buckets of about fifty crabs from each on the bank to return back into the water. Tony not wanting to bash the boat into the wall was seen playing hopscotch amongst the commotion with crabs on board and streaky bacon dangling from the mast.

Peter's sail off for the beat against Damian clinched the win and no further sailing was required. Well done to Peter on winning both trophies.