Marblehead Vane UK National Championships at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 17 Nov 2022 08:48 PST
With only four or five of the super flying ultra modern Marblehead boats entered, it makes more of a competition to add a couple of the not quite as quick older boats. Resembling something like a flamingo, these sleek ships have nice long keels and slick slim rigs. The Older Marblehead hulls being stubbier pond boats, shorter keel and have slowly dieted over the years, keeping their overall length.
We had the Wyeth's and Robert's clan and also David Geldard, ready for some running. While our Eric and David Mathers were sailing Classics for a jog and Tony and Alan Bell with the Vintage for a gentler plod.
The wind was to be mid range from an Easterly direction, sweeping more South as the day went on. But it was the light rain that could potentially spoil the day. As we had no radio to consider, a little fresh water from above cleans the equipment. Two points out and three for return, Race Officer David G. planned for a complete round with a good pace for the Saturday.
Our Peter had cleared the lake from any buoy-like obstacles and the whistle for the first pair was blown. Alan Oxlade at the start and Peter made his way to the finish line to perch himself on the bench for scoring. Eric had topped up the lake good and proper, so we had only a little bending down for making adjustments and it saves on the scraping of keel bulbs for the flyers.
We'd had about three ups and downs before lunch and David was trying to feed in the r-esails as we went along. Martin R had broken his mast early on so he had a fair bit of catching up to do. Some were helping pole for others and it looked as though they were doing more running round the lake for both sides than a long distance runner.
The younger guns were in really good form and would burst into sprint mode before a dreaded crash with the bank.
The day was long, but we had completed a full round with Lewis well ahead on points. The night would have the BST drop back hour and we had planned for an earlier start of 09:00 to help the Sunday go well.
Sunday and the wind had veered a degree or two slightly. We were now on from a South Easterly direction, moving More South West as the day went on. As usual the score cards were reversed with choice of weather berth and it was off to do business.
It was drier than the previous day, with only a slight spot of rain through the afternoon which was good. Again lots of good sailing and the occasional Southerly swirls of confusion down the bottom end of the lake, but a really good day for all.
We had a good weekend overall and no complaints. Thanks to the scorers/starters and Fleetwood maintenance crew.
More pics and Info on the Fleetwood Model Boat FaceBook page.
Results:
1st Lewis Wyeth
2nd David Geldard
3rd Shaun Wyeth
Vintage winner - David Mathers
Model Maker Trophy - Zac Roberts