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2018 Marblehead Stan Cleal Trophy at Three Rivers Radio Yachting Club

by Roger Stollery 21 Nov 2018 18:48 GMT 18 November 2018
Colin Goodman 61 gets the best start during the 2018 Stan Cleal Trophy © John Male

A sunny but cold day with brisk easterly wind greeted ten competitors from five clubs for the penultimate GAMES event. This was an A rig wind, which increased to B rig for some boats later in the event.

The 3 Rivers race team set a good long course parallel to the bank with 2 laps of a windward leeward course with a separator forming a triangle on the first lap.

Colin Goodman, who has been house renovating rather than sailing his GRUNGE this year, showed that his great sailing skills have not been lost and he won the first 2 races. Roger Stollery sailing his UP won the next which interrupted Colin's run of wins, as he went on to win the next 5 races on the trot!

Newcomer to Marblehead racing, John Howell sailing a VICKERS V1, won Race 9, only to let Colin win again in Race 10. John Shorrock sailing a QUARK was by now becoming tired and despondent about his poor showing in the morning, but cheered up when he won Race 11 and went on to win Race 13! His wins were only interrupted by Roger, who won Races 12 and the last Race 14.

The breeze was far from steady with a very calm area created by the trees near the windward mark, where an element of luck was needed to get round with any sort of speed on. There were some very short strong gusts, which whilst allowing these fantastic oats to plane very impressively off wind, also led to boats going out of control by broaching. Phil Holliday, sailing his NIOUTRAM was unlucky in one vicious gust in Race 4 to break his mast at deck level. Sailing with his B rig, was then not so much of a disadvantage, as it suited the increasing wind strength.

The 3 Rivers race team showed their usual efficiency in running this GAMES event and were thanked by the prizewinners.

In addition, the club are generating both new ideas and building new Marbleheads themselves. Max Lembke had an interesting variation of an offset pivot swing rig on his own design hull, which was very simple and applied to the A rig sail proportions. Peter Popham was sailing one of the 3 UPROAR designs built by club members using Roger's moulds, which with the copious instructions are available for DIY enthusiasts to borrow.

It is not just making new boats, but their existing Marblehead fleet is being upgraded, with John Male's new sails making a big difference to the performance of his 18 year old STARKERS.

Overall Results:

1st Colin Goodman (Chelmsford) GRUNGE 16pts
2nd Roger Stollery (Guildford) UP 31pts
3rd John Howell (Watermead) VICKERS V1 42pts
4th John Shorrock (Datchet) QUARK 53pts
5th Phil Holliday (Datchet) NIOUTRAM 53pts
6th John Male (3 Rivers) STARKERS 54pts
7th Dick Grainge (3 Rivers) STARKERS 65pts
8th Trevor Innes (3 Rivers) STARKERS 87pts
9th Max Lembke (3 Rivers) MAXLEM 89pts
10th Peter Popham (3 Rivers) UPROAR 115pts

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