2019 BOTTLE boat Championship at Waldringfield
by Roger Stollery 21 Sep 05:58 BST
11 August 2019
Good winds, tide and sunshine allowed this unusual and spectacular radio sailing event on the tidal River Deben to be thoroughly enjoyed by competitors and spectators alike.
17 entries travelled from 3 MYA districts to sail 16 races in almost perfect conditions in front of the Waldringfield Sailing Club, who were hosting the event.
The BOTTLE boat is a simple high-performance one design radio boat that allows keen competition between juniors and sailors of several dinghy classes and there were seven different winners.
The Stollery race team set a simple windward/leeward course parallel to the beach, which gradually increased in size as the tide went out. Starting with the tide against the southerly wind was not a problem for these competitors and there were very few general recalls at the starts.
Previous winner and Wayfarer sailor, Mike Pert set out his stall by winning the first race with junior Topper sailor Jos Glen in 2nd and Graham Viney 3rd. Graham then went on to win Race 2.
There were a few technical problems with the wind increasing and several competitors changed to the small rig. Bernard Kufluk won Race 3 and OK sailor Jonathan Fish won the next, after having repaired his technical issues. This was a similar story for RS200 and Laser sailor, Stephen Videlo, who won Race 5. Young Topper sailor, George Moss finished the morning sailing with a win.
At the lunch break Bernard was top of the leaderboard with 20 points followed by Graham 25 and Mike 26 with last year's winner, Matthew Lake with 27 in 4th.
In the early afternoon there was more spectacular planing speeds as the brisk sea breeze filled in. Jonathan won both Race 7 & 11 and in Race 8 top Footy sailor, Peter Shepherd beat his fellow Abington Park clubmate, Peter Jackson from Northampton into 2nd place. However in Race 9 Peter S was beaten into 2nd place by Stephen. Mike came back to the top in the next and last race before the tea break was won by Bernard in the first of his hat-trick of wins.
The top of the leaderboard had not changed except for the William Ogden/Giles Themans team moving up to 3rd with 50 points and a tie between Jonathan and Peter Shepherd on 52 in 4th.
There was all to sail for in the last few races with Bernard's six-point lead being challenged by Graham's consistency, finishing with 2 seconds and a win. As the tension rose Bernard had a 7th in the penultimate race and he could so easily have lost the championship, but in the final race his 4th place tied his points with Graham. The tie was broken with Bernard taking the championship trophy as on countback he had 4 wins to Graham's 2.
At the prize-giving WSC Commodore Ian Videlo thanked the family race team of Roger, Susan, Peter, Linda and Adrian for organising another successful event.
With the limit 'big rig' wind conditions Adrian Price was a key team member and not only recovered boats in trouble, but throughout the event filmed the racing with a camera attached to the bow of his inflatable kayak. He put together a film:
Overall Results:
1st Bernard Kufluk (WSC) 45pts
2nd Graham Viney (Guildford) 45pts
3rd Jonathan Fish (WSC) 48pts
4th Stephen Videlo (WSC) 60pts
5th Peter Jackson (Abington Park) 61pts
6th Peter Shepherd (Abington Park) 65pts
7th Mike Pert (WSC) 79pts
8th Giles/William (WSC) 87pts
9th Noel Fraser (WSC) 134pts
10th Joc Gwen (WSC) 152pts
11th Matthew Lake (WSC) 152pts
12th George Moss (WSC) 157pts
13th Steve Hill (Frensham Pond) 164pts
14th Graham Whitehead (Frensham Pond) 169pts
15th John Fish (WSC) 174pts
16th Alan Viney (Guildford) 200pts
17th Keith Parrott (Frensham Pond) 228pts
Junior BOTTLE boat champion Joc Gwen