Mustang and RC Laser experience day at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 27 Apr 2019 06:49 PDT
20 April 2019
Mustang radio controlled yacht © Tony Wilson
Saturday's weather was looking fine for our meeting again of the Mustangs and Lasers sailing together. The plan for the day was nothing too serious, but come lunchtime after a play if there's enough of us present, then maybe we could enjoy a couple of races. Play it by ear.
One or two of us have both boats, so we had spares. Some guys are Laser only, others are Mustang trained Skippers, but it would be good to swap.
The wind what little we had at times was actually turned 180 degrees and coming from the shoreline and sheltered from the sand hills, but not to worry.
As we seemed to be the regular guys sailing and only had Kevin as a bit of an outsider we set sail into a couple of races. We had a clean sweep of four Lasers and four Mustangs. Eight skippers to sail the boats, so we had like last time a four boat Mustang race followed soon after by a four boat Laser race and then we swapped transmitters and sailed which boats that we hadn't done before.. This is fine when all are in agreement to let others sail their beloved crafts.
It soon became evident that even though the Lasers had started a good two minutes after the Mustangs, they were soon catching up and it was not long before they started to overtake. The course was from about a third from the bottom end of the lake. Then sail diagonal, back across and to the near side, a dog leg back towards the start, continue right to the bottom and finish on the start line. Two starboard turns followed by two to port.
Eric Reid won the first Mustang race but got caught up when his turn came to sail the laser and had to retire that race. Peter won with the Laser by over taking the whole fleet and Tony won with the Mustang.
The wind suddenly moved right round, so we reversed the course and the last mark from before was now the first buoy down by the log cabin cafe.
Trevor was back with us for lunch, scores had already been totted up and the winner for the morning was our Peter.
Back out on the water and two skippers had left us, so we counted the afternoon as a separate event. Three Lasers and three Mustangs, same format as the morning although we could now use the top part of the lake as all the water was usable due to the wind direction. We sailed a figure of eight pattern course so had a crossover in the middle on the return, but this was fine with there only being six boats. Some of the races had been similar to the morning with the occasional drifting episode.
Again the Lasers seemed to fair better in the lighter winds, unlike last years experience days when the Mustangs were tops and the Lasers were being driven under the waves. It was good to compare. The Mustang is a far heavier boat at about 17 pounds, while a Laser at a guess is probably a mere quarter of that weight.
The format for racing was not as difficult as it sounds as these were just four boat races, two of each. On to race 5 now and we had the mixed race, where all boats were sailing the same race. Race six and again we exchanged controllers and sailed the other vessel.
Again Peter seemed to triumph for the afternoon's session. It had been a good day. some prefer their old boat, while others were a bit indifferent to which sailed better but usually the wind dictates.
Lasers today were king and we had a great day with exceptional great weather that brought everyone out to enjoy the lovely sunshine.
Morning Session Results:
1. Peter Isles, 9 pts
2. Walter Audley, 11 pts (on countback)
3. Bob Jolly, 11 pts
Afternoon Session Results:
1. Peter Isles, 5 pts
2. Tony Wilson, 11 pts (on countback)
3. Walter Audley, 11 pts