40th Mermaid Trophy at Guildford Model Yacht Club
by Roger Stollery 26 Mar 2019 05:03 GMT
24 March 2019
A beautiful sunny day at Abbey Meads was the scene for the 40th Mermaid Trophy celebration of Marblehead racing. The only thing missing was the forecast steady north-westerly breeze. Full of holes and variation from north to west, the unpredictable wind provided a real challenge for the 14 competitors.
Darin Ballington sailing his GRUNGE handled this brilliantly in the morning with an amazing scoreline of firsts, with Peter Stollery and his UPFRONT chasing.
After lunch the wind became stronger and more westerly and Peter copied Darin's performance with 5 firsts and his overall consistency won the day and the beautiful Mermaid Trophy.
Other race winners included John Cleave, who like Peter was at the first Mermaid and Colin Walton, who was sailing his GRUNGE out of his skin to finish third and take the Vic Cooney Trophy, as the best veteran.
New radio racer, Phil Elford, who was sailing a Marblehead for the first time also won a race sailing Roger Stollery's UP, which was quite a remarkable achievement in such company. He is a full-size sailor and thoroughly enjoyed the excitement of sailing 13 very competitive races.
Overall Results:
1st Peter Stollery (Guildford) UP 17pts
2nd Darin Ballington (Manor Park) GRUNGE 27pts
3rd Colin Walton (Manor Park) GRUNGE 40pts
4th John Cleave (Ryde) GRUNGE 55pts
5th Martin Crysell (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 57pts
6th Phil Elford (3 Rivers) UP 78pts
7th Roger Pearce (Frensham Pond) PRIME NUMBER 80pts
8th Les Thorn (Hawley Lake) PARADOX 82pts
9th Rob Vice (Guildford) UPROAR 88pts
10th Tim Townsend (Medway RYC) ROAR EDGE 89pts
11th Alan Viney (Guildford) PRIME NUMBER 92pts
12th David Coode (Guildford) PIRANHA 114pts
13th John Townsend (Guildford) ROK 119pts
14th Nick Royse (Frensham Pond) CRAZY TUBE FREE 138pts