Vane 'A' Class Championship at Gosport Model Yacht & Boat Club

Shaun Wyeth and his mate Brian Smith are again to be congratulated as very worthy winners of the Scrutton Cup with a win over a fleet of 13 other vane A yachts and by a mere ½ point (0.4%) margin over David Bell mated by his mum Margaret.

But don't let the slimness of the margin fool you, as the final conclusion was in considerable doubt right up to the last of the 26 heats. Indeed, most competitors had their moment of glory, with one or two relatively new competitors taking a few much more experienced scalps along the way.

Although sailed in generally bright sunshine but with one brief but heavy rain shower, causing certain less hardy (younger) competitors to try and hide under the one small tree available, there were sufficient variations of wind strength and direction to tax the skills of all the competitors.

Surprise (and pleasure) of the week was to see that in third place was Malcolm Eales, a newcomer to the vane A fleet mated by Paul Edwards, both members of the Gosport club, and Arjan van der Cingel over yet again from the Netherlands and who with his son Eric together managed a very creditable 4th place.

Diversionary excitement for the week came on Sunday when we despatched two competitors by ambulance to the local A&E department. We were delighted to, by chance, have Fiona King and Hannah Vice on hand to attend to them in the first instance - thank you both – and are pleased to report that the injured are now restored to one piece, although with dents here and there.

In the prestigious Yachting Monthly Cup, one of the semi-final windward heats between Peter Stollery and Chris Harris had to be restarted several times such was the closeness of their level of competitive attack, with Chris finally securing success on the downwind tie break.

The final itself was then between Chris Harris, mated by his dad Mike, and Mark Dicks, mated by his son Josh, who were sailing a boat borrowed from Ray Baker.

On the first upwind board Mark narrowly beat Chris, and then on the second it was again up to the wire when Mark just broke free some eight metres before the line, narrowly beating Chris by only about a metre or so.

So many congratulations to Mark and Josh.

Champion of the windward legs was David Bell, and of the downwind legs was Malcolm Eales, Shaun coming second on both, so honours were shared evenly in these particular trophies.

All in all, a very successful week, and GMYBC were delighted to host the event again this year.

Overall Results: