Please select your home edition
Edition
SOUTHERN-SPARS-AGLAIA-SPARS_728X90 TOP

'Bill the Milk' Trophy 2024 for Marblehead Vane model boats at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club

by Tony Wilson 22 Sep 12:22 PDT 21 September 2024

Initially we had 7 boats registered, but by the off, only 5 were dressed up ready to go. John Sharman was umming and arring to whether he could get Derek's loan boat together for the day, but finally succeeded.

Peter Whiteside, our Marblehead Captain had decided the second suite would be best and soon had us all on our first run in a slightly biased Easterly down the lake, while he was on his bye ready to score at the far end.

Tony sailing one of the Vintage boats 'Ballerina' did well, gaining his points in both directions against John. Eric set off like a rocket against Peter Isles, but came into the seaside bank, which doesn't bode well. Struggling to get away from the wall, Wizzy, our seasoned volunteer pole guy for the day, had him catch Peter up for the final couple of feet and snatched the win. Peter got the return leg as Eric's boat struggled pinching most of the time creeping back up the lake.

On to the second race and John now slowly coming in to trim, gained victory over Peter Whiteside. While the other Peter also took both legs from Tony.

Eric seemed to be struggling on the beats and both himself and Peter W. dropped both sets of points on race 3 respectively.

Lunch break and with a slight drop in wind strength, Peter decided 'Bosun's mate' might just benefit from a sail change to big rig on the old vintage, sailing his lovely terylene canvas. The wind also straightened up to be plumb along the lake.

Peter I. had a slight accident while coming out of the boathouse and dropped his green machine 'Secsea' onto its rudder. A quick exchange for his bye round with Tony, so he could repair and the rest were off for the fourth race. The short lived drop in wind, picked back up to Peter W's. detriment and Tony was able to finish his sailing for the day with another double win.

Eric then was off to one of his rocket fuelled runs in one go against John, that must have taken less than 2 minutes, but again failed on the beat.

Last race of the day and the points for the top three positions were looking very interesting. Tony had more or less packed up, but Peter I. had to get 2 points from John to equal for a sail off. Eric in the meantime was whistling along the lake centre line again in one go against the other Peter. Three goes in one he managed it, but again dropped the beat.

'Secsea' did Tony a favour and lost the run. Now no need for a sail-off, but Peter could still steal victory by a point if he could win the beat. It looked very close and although John had a fair lead by the final tack, he only just managed to scrape through with about half a boat length.

We had had a good day sailing with minimal breakages, although Tony hadn't mentioned his mast foot was wobbly from the word go and had to over compensate with highly strung stays and a slightly deformed sail shape. Our other Peter Guest, couldn't join the start line at the beginning as his mast had goose neck problems. The day had started overcast, but by the afternoon, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Onto more great one dayers for Vane racing, next Saturday 36R's followed by a week later again for the Marbleheads.

Thanks to our Vane captain for organising these sail days and Peter, Bob and Wizzy for manning the far bank.

Results:

1st. Tony Wilson 15 pts
Joint 2nd Peter Isles and John Sharman both on 13pts
4th Eric Auswich 6pts
5th Peter Whiteside 3pts

Related Articles

Marblehead GAMES 6, Nylet RM Challenge Trophy
15 races were run in uncomfortable wind conditions at Abbey Meads 15 races were run in uncomfortable wind conditions changing from southerly to westerly, initially causing strong swirling gusts and lulls and really heavy rain before settling down to even stronger gusts up to the 25 mile an hour forecast. Posted on 23 Jun
Bradford Cup at Fleetwood
Racing nearly abandoned for vane-controlled Marbleheads The forecast was for showers and a wind strength for somewhere in the twenties, straight down the lake. On arrival we had 6 skippers debaating to whether or not they should have maybe just stayed at home. Posted on 10 Jun
Marblehead Nationals at Datchet Water
A tricky weekend for reading the wind Datchet Water or Queen Mother reservoir is one of the main reservoirs for London and a feeder reservoir for the Queen Mary reservoir down the road. It is like a giant saucer with the sides upwards of 60 feet above the ground. Posted on 5 Jun
Marblehead GAMES 5 event at Guildford
Halfpenny Trophy and Summer Series A small but enthusiastic fleet of eight skippers assembled at Abbey Meads lake in overcast conditions, but with an ideal northerly breeze blowing straight down the lake, although it did have a tendency to go a bit easterly at times. Posted on 22 May
2024 Mermaid Trophy GAMES 4 at Guildford
A superb day's racing with 18 races held This was a superb day's racing with 18 races in a limit A rig wind giving some exciting planing off wind in the gusts and providing almost perfect conditions for the 9 competitors from 6 clubs. Posted on 15 Apr
10 Rater Tankard & Marblehead GAMES 3 at Frensham
The day started inauspiciously with no sign of wind The day started inauspiciously with no sign of wind and very little promise of any. By the time racing started there was wind, but very light and very variable. Posted on 22 Mar
M&S Marblehead ranking event at Chipstead
Analyse the results for the top two sailors, and you realise just how well both sailed Thank you to all the participants for turning up at Chipstead on a beautifully sunny if slightly chilly Saturday morning. The quality of the sailors in the fleet was exceptionally high. Posted on 16 Mar
M&S District Marblehead Championship
It was encouraging that there were 8 different designs from 5 different designers Fog, light winds from the east south-east and the forecast of rain put off 3 of the 14 entries, but those who sailed in the 11 races created some exciting, but frustrating racing and stayed dry as there was no rain. Posted on 27 Feb
M&S Marblehead GAMES 1 event at Chipstead
At least it was dry Thank you to all the participants for turning up at Chipstead SC on such a cold Saturday morning. At eight AM the lake was like a smooth mirror, no sign of the forecast North Easterly breeze, but the cold temperature was spot on. At least it was dry. Posted on 16 Jan
Marblehead Brass Monkey at Guildford
Traditional lunch break with hot mulled wine, sausage rolls and mince pies Heavy rain caused chaos on the roads with huge puddles, which caused the Gosport team to turn back when the roads were closed. 6 Marbleheads sailed 11 races successfully in weird conditions. Posted on 12 Dec 2023
PredictWind - Offshore App 728x90 BOTTOMRooster Wetsuit RangeSOUTHERN-SPARS-MISSY-FURLING-BOOMS-728-X-90 Bottom