Selsey Model Boat Club

S.M.B.C. News

 

Basic Sailing Rules for Victoria racing are available here

Changes to Scamp motor and controller specifications are here

 

November

We only had one scamp race today because there was a tiny collision and Kevin's boat somehow got switched off, and, as usual, the top came flying off, it was in a place where there was lots or wind blowing and despite efforts to push it back it got blown to the western side of the island.

Ian's rescue tug was launched and unfortunately just sat on the launch step stuck in reverse powering continuously ! Meanwhile the scamp was now on the far side of the island stuck in a patch of no wind. Eventually Phil used his scamp to get it close enough for a rescue by Colin and Alan. the race result was Alan 1st then Simon, Phil, Linda, Paul B and Ian

It was now 10:30 so we decided to start yacht racing as some of the skippers were getting cold and bored.

We had 11 skippers for the Victoria racing including Keith who is new to radio controlled yachts and having had only one practice session did incredibly well and had some very good starts too.

The first course was a figure of eight with boats crossing paths in areas of no wind, it was a bit of a nightmare; the racers were much happier when we changed to a simpler rectangular course. Top 4 places were Simon 1st, Linda 2nd, Colin 3rd and Alan 4th.

 

October Racing

It was cold with a very light breeze, we did manage to do some Scamps and yacht racing.

Well done to Linda who won the Victoria's and Paul B who won the Scamps.

 

September Racing

In the scamp racing we had 7 boats starting the first race then there was a collision at the first mark, not due to driver error just that the boats had picked up so much scum and leaves on the rudders that they did not want to turn.

Alan's hull got a hole in the side and Paul B managed to get close enough to the reeds that he caught the line from the throw in buoy with such force that it pulled the reel into the water.  Kevin's and David's boats stopped completely and this meant that there were only 2 finishers, Simon and Linda.

The reel was just about floating and a couple of scamps made futile attempts to push it closer to the bank.  Ken and Linda had a good idea and a weight from a spare buoy was thrown in to drag the whole lot ashore.

We then attempted 2 more races; feathers and debris caused problems again.  With only 3 boats left and running late we decided to stop and have a mini coffee break, well done to Kevin our winner for the day.

 

The wind did fill in and was in a good direction for some great yacht racing.  We used a triangular course that was out of the scum and in the wind.

There were still bits of reed about that could ruin your boat speed, the wind was a bit shifty with some flat spots to test the 9 skippers.

We had 5 different winners Alan, Paul, Peter, Linda and Simon; yes Alan was a race winner today with his new boat!

Well done to Richard B who was only sailing his boat for the second time.   He did incredibly well coming 6th overall out of 9 yachts; he will definitely be one to watch once he has gained more experience!

We ended up with Simon 1st, Linda 2nd, Peter 3rd and a good result for Paul B coming 4th.

 

We had a really good turnout today, with club members watching the fun in the sun, well it was sunny in the carpark!

Thank you Paul C for running the races, (he did the last race with my boat and came 3rd).

 

We held our 21st anniversary day recently, the sun was out and lots of club members turned up to support it.

Blustery winds meant that the Victoria racing was done first thing before it got too windy, 8 skippers did 6 races, it was difficult sometimes when a big gust came through, but it was good fun and only a couple of boats needed repairs.

Teams of 2 were picked and so there was just as much action at the back of the fleet as the front, Linda won 3 races Simon won 3 races and they ended up on the same points, Linda got the days win as she won the last race, Peter came 3rd.

For the teams, Alan and Peter were the winners closely followed by a draw for 2nd between Simon+David team and Linda + Ian teams.

In the last race Paul's Victoria stopped responding and was stuck circling on the finish line, scamps were used to stop it going on the island, but we couldn't push it in, eventually the SMBC Selsey Lifeboat was launched and it was brought to the bank.

 

Ian did a grand job running the steering competition, It was a good one today as the wind made it challenging, keeping a straight track was tricky enough and picking up a buoy took an age if you got it wrong and had to have a 2nd attempt.

Tony's go was terminated when the tug stopped and refused to steer, After drifting to the bank it was recovered and a small bag of poo was found wrapped around the prop!, whats wrong with using the poo bins provided!!

Model of the year had 3 entries, the result of the public vote was Chris's super model of the Waverly 1st, Nigel's lovely model of a Dutch tug was 2nd and Ian's terrific tug was 3rd.

A difficult course was chosen by Simon for the Scamp time trials, it involved a slalom section that was tricky as it was easy to misjudge the Blue buoy by the island.

Alan came 1st, Simon 2nd and Linda 3rd.

Overall it was a very enjoyable day and great to meet up with new and old members, you will see that Alan who won most of the prizes today, good work and don't drink it all in one go!

Also thanks to Ian for Judging duties, Caroline for scoring, Paul for organising the voting, Alan for bringing the gazebo and Linda for helping me plus handing out the unhealthy prizes!

 

August Racing

Scamp racing was easier this month as there were less boats, some slight bashes and some marks missed spaced out the fleet. David managed one start before his boat conked out and was out for the rest of the heat.

Well done to Alan who won 3 races, Simon won 1 and Paul came consistently 3rd, Linda's boat was a bit slower than usual, reason unknown.

There was plenty of wind in the car-park but on the pond there were distinct zones, windy, turbulent and light.

Where these zones merged was the biggest challenge, and it was no use watching the yacht next to you as they had their own bubble of wind.

It was difficult at times but good fun as you could catch up with the leaders if you got the right gust.

Simon won 3 races, Linda won 2 and Peter 1.

In one race David’s yacht stalled and ended up stuck on the island, Simon's scamp went to the rescue but got stuck as well!  Thanks go to Richard who ran the scamp starts and finishes.

 

 

Championship races

We used the right half of our racing zone, the wind was coming through the entrance gap.

Ian got stuck in loads of traffic and unfortunately missed a couple of races queuing around Chichester, we reminded him that as there were 2 discards he could still win the championship if no mistakes were made!

7 skippers sailed 8 races, each race was 2 laps of a course that had a nice long beat from black up to a buoy near the steps, there were the usual patches of no wind and unfortunately Simon's yacht got caught on a plastic bag and picked up a few reeds on the way round too.

Well done to Linda who is club champion again, Peter was 2nd, Simon 3rd and Colin 4th, The seal prize was won by Paul B,

 

July Racing

We had some great weather, there was enough wind to make the yacht racing enjoyable and the usual surface rubbish had been blown to one side.

As we had 8 scamps, We tried a system where everyone missed out one race, this gave us 4 races with 6 boats in each, the non racing boat races were chosen at random.

There were a few bashes the most violent ones ended up with capsized boats for Ian and Alan, luckily they were able to continue racing. The top three were Simon, Phil, and Linda. David was surprised by how much water had been taken on board until an underwater hole was discovered!

For the Victoria racing we had 9 skippers and manged to run 6 races.

It was close at the front with Simon and Linda each winning 3 races.

when the wind shifted we had a major course change where we rounded the buoys in the opposite direction, Kevin did extremely well and was battling for the lead nearly all the way round the course, thinking about it this does make sense as where he is from  they race in the opposite direction to us!

The top 3 were Linda, Simon and Peter.

Ian had brought along his new rescue tug which he left out on the pond chugging away going nowhere, I think he was disappointed that no one needed recovering, maybe next time it will get some work.

 

June Steering Competition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June Racing

Wow! 7 Scamps turned up today.  we decided to try heats for the Scamps as we had so many boats.  We had heats of 4 and 3 boats, with 2 from each heat going through to the final. Alan's scamp was super fast and he steered well to win his first ever race. Overall: Alan first, Simon second and Paul B third.

 

In the Yacht racing 12 competitors took to the water.  The course was set to be in the area with most wind, it was wild at times but on average it was light.  There were many reeds floating around and these managed to capture several boats throughout the morning. Other boats got caught by the magnetic Island Buoy, including Paul B who was in the lead at the time.  Phil won one race and finished well ahead of the rest of the field.  Peter won one race and Simon won two as did Linda.  Overall:  Linda first, Peter second and Colin third.

 

Team Relay Racing

We had plenty of wind from a good direction for the relay racing today. There were 3 teams of 3 and each team won 2 out of the 6 races.

Helms had to cope with some big gusts at times, the final points were very close with only one point between each team.

We were pleased with this as we pick the team members for close racing but we did have to slow Linda down in some races, we got her to sail round a distant buoy!

 

 

May Racing

Five competitors started the scamp racing but half a lap of surface rubbish was enough to slow the boats right down, and then it was just a matter of trying not to pick up anything else.

The props got detritus wrapped around them but also we found we couldn't steer as well as we would have liked! The boats were revving away but going very slowly as if racing on treacle.

The final results were mainly down to luck, the winners podium happened to contain Simon, Linda and Paul B.

We waited for a while before racing the yachts to allow some of the debris to be blown out of the way.  Eight skippers sailed a triangular course in the cleanest part of the water.

There was enough wind for some good sailing but, as Phil found out, there was always the chance of picking up a reed.

Well done to the top 3 who avoided most of the hazards, Simon, Linda and Colin.

Alan had the same points as Colin but Colin's 2nd place breaks the tie, Kev did well in race1 and Paul B did well in race 5.

Peter was improving with each race but a retirement and a D.N.S. spoilt his final score.

 

 

April race results are available.

 

March Racing

There were 5 scamp skippers. Phil's boat has been sorted so there was very close, exciting racing for everyone. We were able to use the Island buoy as it has now been returned to the correct location. There were quite a few collisions; the worst one saw Phil's Scamp rendered motionless with a hole smashed in the side.  Linda and I used our boats to push it to the southern side where Alan and Phil recovered it.  The off switch was operated by a scamp that crashed over it.  Some red paint on the switch gave evidence of the culprit!  Another collision ripped off Kevin's top but he continued to race - topless!

If you are on the whatsapp group you will see an excellent video of our scamp racing filmed by Alan.

Race winners were Simon and Linda.  Paul B came second overall and missed out on winning a race by a few mm, very close.

 

Victoria racing was done on the bits of pond which had wind, this meant we had to change the course a few times as it swung around, a few brain cells were exercised to keep track of all this.

We did 6 races and had 4 winners, Simon, Linda, Colin and Phil.

Phil's win was dramatic because he was so keen to stay ahead of Simon that, he didn't tack to avoid the island so he just got through the finishing line and then his boat was sucked into the bank.  Eventually his boat was recovered by International Rescue, Thunderbird 44, which almost got stuck there with it.  Linda had a big lead in one race only to get wrapped around that Island buoy for a few minutes, she also had to retire from another race because of a reed.

Kev also manged to get stuck on the same magnetic buoy.  Well done to the top 3 sailors today, Simon Linda and Colin.

Also thanks to Colin for running the scamp racing.

 

February Racing

Scamp racing was good fun today, Linda won the first race, then Paul B won the next 3 races, Linda's boat had a broken a propeller blade but this didn't stop her from doing the last race.

There were some close finishes, well done to Paul B who won the day followed by Simon, Linda and Phil.

In the Victorias we had 7 yachts racing, we managed 6 races in variable winds, it was not as windy as forecast and most races were 2 laps.

When we did do a one lap race, it was fun to watch the first 3 boats having such a close battle that they forgot the finish and carried on until I finished in 4th and they heard the chicken!

Luckily brand new members David and Graham, were watching carefully and confirmed the finishing order for that one!

Paul C had a great comeback after a year off sailing, he did well and even won the first race! Linda, Colin and Simon were also race winners.

Ian came along and he really enjoyed the day having not sailed for 5 months.

Top 3 were 1st Simon 2nd Linda and 3rd Colin.

David and Graham had brought along a large warship to test, it was launched by Ian and Paul C, it is very impressive but did a good impersonation of our own aircraft carrier HMS prince of wales, it stayed in port!

 

January Racing

Here are the results from Sundays racing, we had a good turnout for the scamps with 5 boats in the first race, we were finishing quite close to each other, poor Colin couldn't keep up with us when writing down the results!

We had 3 different race winners, Paul, Simon and Linda. Linda was competing in her first Scamp race, in race 2 there was a small coming together and Linda's boat stopped, once it was rescued we worked out that the on off which must have been pushed OFF in the collision. Cliff had some rudder problems, maybe he hit something but couldn't continue with a wobbly tiller.

Phil and Paul finished all the races, I had a race where I had accidentally turned my boat off on the start line Doh !

After the fun and games we had Simon 1st, then Paul B, Linda, Phil and Cliff

 

For the yacht racing we had 7 yachts and had to sail in a North westerly shifty light wind, this made it difficult at times and Alan's yacht would drift backwards as the wind dropped.

Paul B was disappointed as his Victoria's rudder shaft was rusted and refused to move. Phil had a range problem that meant his boat had to be Scamp rescued, whilst being pushed back, it was commented that this was the fastest Phil's yacht has ever gone!

Alan was having funny problems in the last race, I saw his boat do a 360 on the spot, then he lost steering and after a rescue Alans rudder fell off just as he picked it up by the steps.

we could see it on the bottom but it couldn't be retrieved with poles, Colin stepped up, rolled up his sleeves and braved the cold to pick it out of the water, it was deeper that he though

so he got his sleeve soaking wet

After the battle against the cold we had Simon 1st, then Linda, Colin, Cliff, Alan and Phil.

 

2023 Prizegiving Christmas party

Here is message from one of the partygoers :-

“I would like to thank you all for a great evening tonight, we really enjoyed ourselves. We laughed, sang, ate, answered festive questions, won raffle prizes and some of us trophies and certificates, all in all an excellent time was had by all!

Jean excelled with the lovely food, and plenty of it!

It was great to see model boating friends socially and talking about a variety of very diverse subjects over a beer/wine or two, or ginger beer if you were driving! Here’s to many more!

Thank you again everyone for a lovely evening, see you pond side soon.”

 

December

The pond's icecap melted overnight so we were GO for racing!

Unfortunately we couldn't run the scamp racing because we only had 2 boats, this is disappointing as the weather wasn't too bad in the end.

We had enough boats for Victoria racing and we managed to get 6 races done.

The first race was in rain but the others were dry and with a good wind for most of them.

Linda won the first race and then a transmitter problem left her yacht going round in circles, I got my scamp out and eventually herded it to the south bank where Colin, got it out with a pole.

It was great to have 4 different race winners,  2nd and 3rd places were so close that both had the same points.

The tie was eventually broken by looking at the last race in which Phil finished ahead of Colin.

It was good fun and nice to be out in above freezing conditions!

 

 

October  racing

Our plan of not taking the scamp starting grid worked again because 4 boats turned up! There was very close racing for all 4 races; as usual there was a coming together at the first buoy and Kevin's boat top was somehow ripped off, it was floating away from the buoy so we decided to carry on racing. The top cover is black with a transparent windscreen so it was not easy to spot, when we recovered it there were chunks of balsa ripped out in a series of cuts, I wonder how that happened!

Simon just managed to win the first and 2nd races but by now Paul had got used to steering and won the next 2 races fairly easily. We think Kev should have done better, after all his boat was now lighter and had less wind resistance!.  Cliff's boat was keeping up with the rest and only went into some reeds once. Final results are 1st Simon, 2nd Paul, 3rd Kev and 4th Cliff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     A great race start from No63.

 

Victoria racing was much more sedate, the wind was disappointingly light and the racing was sometimes slow.  There were 9 yachts taking part and we managed to do 5 two lap races, I tried to make a race shorter by having a smaller second lap but I had a brain fade and we ended up doing 3 laps by mistake whoops.

Phil won the first race, Linda won 3 races,  Simon managed to win one by a few cms, just passing Peter on the line.

Luke showed what he could do by coming 2nd in race 2, very impressive.

The final positions are 1st Linda, 2nd Simon, 3rd Peter, and 4th Phil.

 

September Steering Comp.

Just four skippers were brave enough to risk the forecast storm to pit their steering skills in, what turned out to be, very tricky conditions. Paul B also came along to ensure fair play.

The wind was quite strong and from the shore so leaving the dock was easy but coming back alongside was next to impossible. Only bow and stern thrusters would have saved the day, but no boat had them fitted.

We ran three rounds which at times, involved motoring around the family of swans. No penalties were lost for these course deviations, although wind did create some challenging steering.

In first place was Colin with 281 points, Kev was second with 263 and Peter and Luke were equal third. Well done to all.

 

September racing

The weather was gorgeous, warm and sunny, with an easterly wind so it was quite hard to get a good course.

The wind was very light and fluky making the sailing  challenging, so well done to all the skippers that took part.

Phil almost got entangled with the trees on the island but after warning shouts he managed to escape just in time briefly hitting a branch on the way out.

In a different race Paul B was almost captured by the island but also had a lucky escape.  There were some close finishes giving rise to some very loud groans!

Race winners were Simon, Linda and Peter.

 

 

Championship yacht racing

Here are the results from the Club’s Championship racing, we managed to do 8 races in a very pleasant afternoon.

Well done to Linda who is the new champion, Peter 2nd, Phil 3rd and Alan wins the Seal Prize

thanks to all who entered and it was also nice to see Val and Sarah supporting the event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20th year celebrations July 30th 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We held the SMBC 20th anniversary celebrations at the pond today, it was very good to see so many people at the event, members and partners; we made good use of the Gazebo as it did indeed rain for a while.  Members and guests were treated a to a very special SMBC cake that Sarah and Luke had made, it had the pond, the island, Victorias with sail numbers and even the launching steps! It was very tasty too.

There was a strong SW wind with nasty gusts coming across, we managed to sail 7 races with only a few capsizes and the odd submarine dive. Stalling and sailing backwards was also a possibility at times!

Alan lead a race for a lap but then had trouble at the new black buoy getting spun round in the turbulence from the edge of the island and dropping back a few places.

Paul got a great start and managed to stay ahead of the pack to win another race.

The only damage we saw was to Phil's yacht where the jib attaches to the front fitting, this was repaired with a new bit of string. Before the repair he was lucky enough to sail Dudley for a couple of races and achieved second place both times.

Well done to the other race winners  Linda, Simon and Peter.

Top 4  were Linda 1st, Simon 2nd, Peter 3rd and Phil 4th

We ate our picnic lunches, I think some people cheated by having chips from the cafe, then it was time for more action.

The wind made the steering competition challenging and sometimes a fast boat speed was needed to avoid its effects.  As usual the results were very close, there was an element of beginners luck for the top 3, Judge Richard declared the following results:-

Luke 1st, Simon 2nd and Linda 3rd.

 

Thanks to Alan for the gazebo, Richard for judging the steering comp, Simon for running the sailing and Sarah for recording the finishes.

 

Also many thanks to everyone that came along to celebrate our 20th year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July Racing

6 skippers sailed 7 races in a powerful breeze, there were a few big gusts but most of the time the Victoria's could handle the wind

it was the helmsmen that had the problems!

Race winners were Simon, Peter and Paul, who ended up in 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Well done to all the sailors who took part.

 

June

Team relay Racing

Team relay racing  was run on 18th June, 3 well balanced teams were picked and written out on the whiteboard when there was a cry of

"I haven't  brought my yacht with me" ! Whilst the teams were being rejigged  Cliff turned up so to save time he replaced Chris's place.

The first race took ages as the wind around the first mark had died off, there were yachts circling near the mark but couldn't quite get round, one team even managed to lap the others due to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the remaining races we sailed around a smaller course with more wind and these were much faster. Peter's team got a boost when organizer Simon replaced Cliff who had to go early. The finish line ran to a distant post on the island, this meant that sometimes a quick turn was needed once you had finished, Peter nearly had kittens a couple of times when Ian was finishing!

At the end there were 2 teams with the same points, so we had to look at who had the most wins, final positions were

1st with 3 wins was Luke, Phil and Linda.

2nd with 2 wins was Ian, Peter and Simon/Cliff

3rd Colin, Alan, and Paul.

 

Racing

8 skippers enjoyed today's Victoria racing in a northeasterly wind, as usual there was plenty of wind and sunshine in the car park but on the pond one end of the course had wind but the other end had light shifty stuff.

I briefed the racers on my sailing hack :

Stand near the start line facing the first mark put your left arm out then swing it 45deg forward, your arm is then pointing in the direction to sail for a starboard tack, this is useful to know for good clean race starts and you don't have to try to see which side your sails are on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did actually have some very good starts and close racing, race winners were Simon,Peter and Linda.

Linda did well, her 4 wins put her in 1st place, Simon 2nd, Peter 3rd, Colin 4th,Phil 5th, Chris 6th, Alan 7th and Ian 8th.

An enjoyable morning apart from the sounds and smell of hundreds of scooters!

 

 

May Steering Competition

Four members entered the competition, the weather was sunny, warm but slightly breezy and sometimes challenging!

 

The course was from the launching steps to ‘Island’, ‘Outlet’, small Orange Buoy and back to the steps, all to Port, stopping alongside the small Orange Buoy (touching it). It was fairly gusty wind pushing boats towards the launching steps. Lots of ducklings on the water, so great care was taken by all members, but the bird life kept out of the way and no one exceeded the speed limit!

 

FIRST RUNS

Ian went first, nice take off from the steps and onwards to the Island Buoy, then lost control of his tug, thinking he was out of range, was wandering around trying to regain control, finally managed to return his tug to the steps by manoeuvring it backwards all the way as he had no forward control. On inspection a small piece of decking was jammed somewhere and removed. Ian’s first run was deleted from the score sheet!

 

Peter was second, his lifeboat getting around the course fairly well, but getting caught by several strong gusts of breeze making straight line steering difficult! Returning to the steps to finish parallel to the bottom step.

 

Phil was third with his Scamp, a good run and expertly ‘parked’ his Scamp next to the Buoy, a nice steady speed, enough to control his Scamp back to the steps and stopping parallel to the bottom step.

 

Colin was the final competitor of the first run with his Gentleman’s Racer, a neat take off from the steps, very nicely steering around the Buoys at a steady pace and not too much wind drift. Returning to the steps and ‘parking’ nicely.

 

Ian having repaired his tug, attempted his first run again, making good headway towards the Island Buoy, but getting blown off course due to the wind strengths, but his tug behaved well and returned to the steps to finish.

 

SECOND RUNS

Peter’s second run was good, taking off from the steps at right angles, all went well until he tried to come alongside the Orange Buoy, getting totally the wrong side of it, then lots of forward and backward manoeuvring to come along side the Buoy, the wind not helping much to Peter’s annoyance and mutterings and help from other members! On getting back to the steps, Peter had to reverse his lifeboat towards the bottom step with the wind pushing the bow around, but Peter showing everyone how he controls his beautiful craft.

 

Next up was Colin, a near perfect run, his Gentleman’s Racing cutting through the water really well, only deviating slightly on the ‘parking’ next to the Orange Buoy, overshooting slightly but expertly rescuing the manoeuvre, returning to the steps and finishing perfectly!

 

Ian was on his second run, still slight issues with control, having trouble holding a straight course between buoys, the water was ‘choppy’ and a strong breeze not helping!

Phil was the last member to run, a nice steady run with his Scamp, cutting though the water at a steady pace, nicely stopping at the orange buoy, before returning to the steps to finish, getting blown slightly off course on the approach to the steps.

results are as follows:

First Place: Colin with 180 points.

Second Place: Phil with 160 points.

Third Place: Ian with 150 points.

Fourth Place: Peter with 140 points.

All scores out of 100 for each run (200 in total).

 

A very close competition, great steering by all competitors, some deviation by the shifting gusty winds, I enjoyed hosting the competition, it’s more difficult than it looks judging and trying to give fair points!

 

May Racing

In the Victoria sailing we started with a few one lap light wind races then the wind filled in for the last 4 races which were much more enjoyable.

Race winners were Simon, Linda and Peter

Well done to Colin for his 3 3rd places he should have had more but a few metres from the finish line his yacht stopped and he watched the entire fleet sail past!

As you will see from the results Linda and Simon had the same points with the tie broken in Simon's favour, Peter came 3rd and Colin 4th.

It was then very close with Paul B 5th, Alan 6th Kevin 7th and Cliff, who left early, 8th.

Alan's power boat was needed after the last race to rescue Kevin's yacht which was neatly parked on the island.

 

April

Scamp racing was very close today, Kev and Simon, both with Brush-less motors, were literally chasing each other round the pond for every race, as Kev said afterwards "if you make one mistake the other boat gets past"!  Both racers ended up with the same points. Ian and Cliff  also ended up with the same points. The computer broke the ties and well done to today's winner Kev.

The final positions were Kev 1st Simon 2nd Ian 3rd and Cliff 4th.

 

8 Skippers braved the mud and sailed 5 races with their Victorias, there was plenty of wind across the pond and the sailing conditions were very good.

There were many passing opportunities and some very close finishes.

Race winners were Linda and Simon who also chased each other around the pond but slower that the scamps!

Poor old Ian, his jib attachment broke and unfortunately he didn't have his spare boat with him this time.

Final positions were 1st Simon, 2nd Linda, 3rd Colin and 4th Phil.

 

Colin L was presented with his Cups for 2nd in the Championship and 2nd in the steering competition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March

Steering competition,

The pond water level was just lapping over the top of the steps, so not too bad for those without wellies.

Having cleared away the accumulated floating debris (mainly decaying reeds) Richard moored his barge alongside to provide a rudimentary dock. With light but trickey winds from the north, leaving the dock was always going to be challenging, particularly as it was debatable whether the wind was from the north east or north-west, it being better to start (and finish) facing into the wind.

 

Eight skippers prepared to show off their steering expertise in a variety of craft, including quite a few Scamps. Kevin prepared to use his small fishing boat, but it turned out to be far too twitchy in the breeze so resorted to using his Scamp. His first round was going so well when he completely messed up the final docking - such a shame. One or two other skippers had similar experiences and with 20 penalty points at stake, lost out big time. It was obvious that the bigger heavyweight boats had the advantage.

 

After two complete rounds, Paul C finisted with 168 points to take 3rd place, Peter got 172 for 2nd and Ian took away first prize with a very creditable 177. Big Paul came in 4th which was a very good result considering it was the maiden voyage with his re-engined brushless Scamp.  Well done all who took part.

 

Racing

We had a great turnout of Scamps today, some were brushless (A.C. powered) and the racing was close. Paul B did his first scamp race and did very well coming 3rd overall.

Richard brought the pioneering A.C. scamp which ended up in the reeds in race 1 after gaggle of boats hit a stick, he ended up controlling the wrong boat.

Race winners were Simon and Ken who came 1st and 2nd overall. It was so nice to see Ken and Kev at the pond again.

The Victorias had a fluky NW wind, race winners were Simon and Richard.

Richard had not raced for some time and did very well coming 2nd overall. There were still some branches about and if you got one your race was ruined, I was very lucky only picking one up in the last race, Linda was not so lucky picking up one or two branches, Richard had the same problem.

We stopped after 4 races as the cold was getting to our extremities.

Podium positions were Simon, Richard and Linda.

 

February

6 skippers were keen to go racing today, the wind was from the North, not too shifty and very sunny.

3 extra buoys were deployed and a course within the wind area was devised.

Simon got some good starts and was able to get ahead for the first 3 races closely followed by Linda and then Colin or Alan.

During coffee Paul's boat was checked and it was found to be sheeting in too far, Phils had too much kicker, and Linda's was also sheeting in too much, all were adjusted

After coffee Paul's boat was going well and he had some better results, Linda's was going faster too and she won the next 2 races. In the last race Colin sailed well leading for a while, Simon just getting past on the last lap.

Well done to Simon, Linda and Colin.

 

January racing was cancelled due to problems with the high water level.

 

Christmas Meal and Prizegiving

This was a great event, the food was excellent, the prizegiving and raffle were good fun and we all sang a song about a christmas tree!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December Racing report by Paul C

Once again a lack of Scamps meant no racing, however, there were enough Victoria’s to race and a course was laid suitable for the wind direction. It was a North East wind about force four, gusting five, but the wind direction changed slightly and decrease slightly over the course of the morning.  We put our yachts on the water and Alan was heard to observe that there was a beeping noise coming from the water. Simon suggested that the noise was from 51, Paul C’s yacht. No it’s not my yacht. After a few races another slight panic from Alan, it was his transmitter beeping, his batteries were running out of electrons. He finished the race and dashed over to his car and raided some sort of equipment to find some batteries of suitable size. Meanwhile Linda had a major problem of her own. The main sheet had come adrift due to what was thought to be a lack of super glue on a knot. Linda’s fingers were all numb and ceasing to work, so call in the man who has the big fingers looking like a pound of sausages. I was able to thread the main sheet through a tiny hole in the running sheet and tie a very small knot enabling the main sheet to retain it’s correct length. A bit of super glue sealed the repair.

 

A decision had been taken before the racing started that we may only do about 3 races and then go home because of the cold, however, we managed six races and called it a day at about 11.30.

All in all, a very enjoyable mornings racing with some very close finishing. It was not as bad as we thought and most of us were quite warm after our exertions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November Steering competition

This was the last of this year's series of Power Boat Steering competitions. The weather remained kind to us, if a little chilly, and the pond water level had dropped a little, but was still over the bottom step.

 

An improvised dock was constructed using my model barge, which was moored parallel to the steps this time. This made leaving and returning alongside a little easier, but still quite tricky in the moderate westerly breeze. The course demonstrated how different boat designs coped with the conditions. The Scamps overcoming the windage by running moderately fast whilst the heavey displacement hulls showed their expected seaworthyness; Peter's lifeboat being a good example today.

 

Seven skippers took part and each completed two rounds. When the scores for eact round were added together, Colin was 3rd with 171 points, Paul C was 2nd with 174 points and Peter came first, scoring 175 points. Both Colin and Paul C using Scamps and Peter, his lifeboat. Well done Peter and to all who took part.

 

November racing

Six Victoria yachts were observed on the start line. Richard, our esteemed Chairman was press ganged into observing the line, starting the start machine and recording the finishing positions. I showed Richard the modus operandi which is “just press the button”, clearly marked, on the top of the machine and the machine will look after its self. I pressed the start button for the first race and all was well.

 

The first race proved a difficult start with little wind in the middle of the pond, then a bit more wind up to the windward mark, with further difficulties at Outlet. We did two laps and Peter came out the winner with Colin catching him in the latter states to finish second.

Now I am not sure when this happened, second or third race, but Richard suffered a finger mall function of the greatest magnitude. No matter how he pressed the button the machine would not play the start sequence. So much so that Richard began to press all the buttons, thinking he was playing an accordion. I went over and re-set the machine and pressed the start button for the next race.  Peter won the next race and Colin won the third race. The middle of the windward leg was still proving difficult but there was some close racing.

We stopped for a break just before 11 am for two minutes silence and to allow Richard to rest his fingers!

 

After the break the wind seemed to have picked up and changed direction slightly but we sailed the same course. Peter had suffered a main sail sheet disaster which could not be repaired.

Race 4 saw a repeat of the starting machine debacle with Richard leaping to great heights in the air and threatening to drop kick the machine into the water. (I made that up). Colin won that race which was part of his consistent performance. Alan continued to improve race on race and finished second in that race, he was in danger of wining a race if he carried on like that.

 

Races 5 and 6 saw the wind continue to slightly increase and some very close racing was observed. I continued to press the button on the start machine, Richard had given up, and I managed to clock up two firsts. Peter sailed Kev’s Victoria in the last race and was showing the fleet a clean pair of heels for part of the race, but I think Kev’s Victoria needed a bit of tweaking.

All in all a very good mornings racing, our thanks to Richard for doings the start and recording the finishes. Colin 1st, Paul C 2nd and Peter 3rd

 

October racing

The plan to not take the scamp starting grid worked well as we had 6 boats racing.

Richard had brought along his test-bed scamp, this is so we could compare the performance of a low cost brushless package that we are evaluating for the future of scamp racing, unfortunately he hit the blue buoy and the prop came off!

Only 3 boats finished race 1, because Kev's boat ran straight over the island barriers and Chris's headed for the reeds.

The boat on the island disappeared into some brambles and was never seen again.

The podium was Simon 1st Cliff 2nd and Chris 3rd, well done!

 

11 Skippers sailed around a triangular course that had strong wind at one end and very little at the other, this made it hard work and as the wind was shifty it didn't always pay to take the same route to the windward mark.

Phil had his best day yet, winning a race and coming 4th overall.

The podium was Simon 1st Linda 2nd and Peter 3rd, well done!

 

September steering competition

Five skippers turned up for the Steering Competition on a sunny morning but cool under the shade of the trees. I made up a dock, nailing a piece of long timber to the steps and at right angle to the steps. I figured that mooring along side of the steps would prove difficult leaving the dock due to the North Westerly breeze that was blowing at the time. As well as the entrants to the competition we had a couple of yachts on the pond as well. Prior to the skippers briefing the general public turned up in their droves making it difficult calling the skippers to order through the general cacophony of noise, even with my dulcet tones! I explained the course, so lets begin.

 

Kev went first and managed quite a good run with his Schmitt (Smith) tug. The main difficulty was returning to the dock with what turned out to be a southerly breeze so the boats were blown off the dock. However, Kev managed it OK. Ian went next taking it very steady and finished with the same points as Kev. Peter next with the lifeboat, he managed a good run but managed to mess up with the docking so lost more points. Now Colin was having a superb run but fouled something by the Island buoy and lost all drive. Peter and Ian went out to rescue him and was duly returned to the launching ramp much to the surprise of the gathering throng, there were people all over the place, chattering away.

 

Colin’s drive had come adrift but we had trouble locating an allan key small enough to remove the grub screws. We raided Ian’s tool box and found a tool and managed to remove the connector from the motor to the prop shaft. After a lot of the greatest brains down the pond it was possibly reasoned that may be Colin has filed too much off his prop shaft to create a flat surface, and that the grub screw had gone right through the universal joint leaving it only just gripping the prop shaft. The sudden jolt when he hit the obstruction had been enough to dislodge the grub screw. Any way, that’s the theory!!

Big Paul went next and had quite a god run.

The second run was to sort the men from the buoys. The decision was taken to start off from the opposite side of the dock making it easier to leave and enter the dock. Ian want of first and had a good but steady run, he managed to off set the wind which had increased slightly. Kev went next and was having a good run until he came to dock, where upon all feeling disappeared from his fingers and he resorted to doing the haka!

 

Now Big Paul, who is usually quite calculating, went into melt down with his remaining brain cell.

 

He went round the first buoy the wrong way, then he hit it. The rest of the run seemed OK until he docked, docking on the wrong side of the Dock then he hit the dock whilst attempting to rectumfry the problem.

Peter decided not to enter the last run and poor Colin did not complete the first run and could not take part in the second run due to the gremlins!

The Results are as follows.

1st Ian

2nd Kev

3rd Big Paul

4th Peter

 

September Victoria Racing

The Victoria Yachts had a good turn out, nine yachts in total and some close racing to boot.

A figure of eight course using more or less the whole pond was set out utilising the East to South East wind which started rather fresh but subsided as the morning progressed. By the second race of the morning Peter Fisher’s yacht was to suffer internal gremlins of the servo type with the result the sails would not come in so, sad to say, Peter took no further part in the mornings activities.

Ian suffered from “Fatal Attraction” syndrome.

No, not that Fatal Attraction, the constant magnetic attraction to the trees on the Island. Twice in two races he managed to drive his yacht into the trees and twice he managed to extricate himself without assistance. I think the fear of being pushed? by my Scamp put the wind up him. However all was not lost, a third visit to the trees on the Island, in another race, and getting tangled, saw him REVERSE his yacht out of the undergrowth and continue with the race. Well done Ian.

As for the rest, Simon won every race except one and this was because he did not enter the last race. The racing was a bit difficult but Simon, who was sailing on the same pond showed how to do it. Linda, having recovered from the flu sailed consistently. Colin, who attached the undergrowth with rampant gusto to clear the pond side adjacent to the outlet buoy and the sight of the start line, had a good days sailing. Well done Colin.

 

Chris showed signs of brilliance, Alan is learning fast, keeping out of the way when buoy rounding and attacking the course in a positive way, was seen to be galloping around the pond to get near the rounding marks, a big positive. Cliff, who was suffering from topping lift round the spreaders syndrome gradually improved as the morning went on. Big Paul was finding things a bit difficult due to the fluky wind conditions and suffered a frustrating morning.

Many thanks to Paul for running the day

August Racing

Weather, very hot and very little wind that filtered through the entrance to the pond. Only two Scamps turned up so there was no racing. Kev and Phil had a chase round and they managed to hit buoys and eventually crash into each other with the result that Phil turned his prop into a cabbage, they had the whole pond, what were they on!

Four yachts turned up for a riveting set of 6 races. I would guess that more yachts did not turn up because of lack of wind. However we managed to finish 6 races with two laps on each race. Race One saw Phil manage to get tangled with the greenery on the island just before he started. Kev was requested to launch his scamp and proceeded to plough into Phil’s yacht until it was freed. Big Paul was on fire and showed a very clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet, showing some stealth and the ability to sniff the wind out. Well done Paul. He proceeded to take race two and three adopting the same strategy and was positively jumping up and down whilst we had a break. Was he taking a drink from a small flask containing a special brew that enhanced his performance? Or was this sheer skill on he behalf?

However, Peter Fisher spent his  lunch break tweaking, muttering and putting the ‘fluence on his yacht, and, having done a couple of push ups and deep knee bends proceeded to take the next three races in a mastery show of luck, skill and good fortune. Phil came to life in the last two races taking second place in each of them, and Colin with his go faster sails had two seconds and three thirds.

 

All in all the racing proved to be quite exciting with some close finishes. Well done to all.

First. Peter with 7 points.

Second, Paul with 10 points

Third, Colin with 13 points

Fourth, Phil  with 14 points.

August 21st

We held the second Steering competition and Model of the Year competitions together with a picnic for members and their guests. The weather was kind with a gentle westerly, cloudy but dry.

Seven boats were entered into the Model of the Year competition,  Members and guests were invited to complete a secret ballot and the results were  subsequently announced during the day. The third place boat was an inshore fishing boat built by Paula (with some help from Kevin), shown at the second from the right in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second place boat was the NZ rescue boat built by Kevin, shown on the far right of the group photo. The boat which received the most votes was the pilot cutter built by Richard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloglink

Six skippers entered the Steering competition, which was run over two rounds, with a practice run before the first round. The course entailed leaving the dock and setting a straight course for the first buoy. Marks were deducted for every deviation of course. Skippers then had to round the buoy with a consistant radius of their turn, which most found rather tricky! After negotiating more buoys, the final task was to come alongside the dock in a controlled fashion and stop parallel to and touching the dockside. After some practise, most skippers demonstrated considerable skill in this.

 

The aggregate scores for the two rounds were; Kevin 182, Paul B 183 and the winner with 186 points was Ian. Well done Ian.

 

In between competitions on the water, many boats sailed and it was good to see such a wide variety of craft enjoying the day. Unfortunately, both Paul B and Mark managed to get their Victorias caught in the overhanging trees on the island. Richard launched his rescue tug and attempted to extract Mark's boat, but instead, got caught up as well. Phil very kindly volunteered to wade out to retrieve the boats, which he did after some difficulty in wading around the reeds at the top of the pond. In the meantime, Peter used the rescue hook on his lifeboat to successfully recover Paul's boat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day was punctuated with the usual banter and helpful comments, interspersed with appreciative applause for a particularly well executed manoeuvre. Many members had invited friends and family along for the day and all enjoyed a relaxed few hours together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Club Championship

9 skippers entered the annual championship on a lovely sunny morning, the course made full use of the bits of pond with wind.

Because of the easterly direction the start was between 2 blue buoys half way up the north shore and we sailed up towards the launching steps.

The reeds weren't a problem instead we had to contend with very tall grasses blocking the view!

We managed to get the planned 8 races done, there were 4 different race winners Peter, Paul, Colin and Phil.

There was close racing throughout the fleet, congratulations to Peter who won the day, Colin did very well coming 2nd and Paul C did just as well with the same points but has the 3rd place on count-back.

Well done to Chris who is the winner of the Seal prize.

No boats needed rescuing but a tangle with the trees did affect Paul C in one race and Paul B did well to sail back out of a clump of reeds by the steps buoy.

Many thanks to Nigel who once again did a great job running the starts and finishes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July

We had 4 scamps racing today, there was only one collision but the shock of it damaged the battery platform in Cliff's boat so he missed a couple of races. Places were:- 1st Simon, 2nd Ken, 3rd Ian, 4th Cliff

There was a decent wind blowing from the South for the Victorias, there was close racing all through the fleet.

Race winners were Linda and Simon, but in one race Peter had a good lead and only needed to round the last mark and finish when a big gust capsized his boat and by the time he got going again 2 yachts had got past!

1st Linda, 2nd Simon, 3rd Peter, 4th Colin.

 

June

Here are the results from today's racing,  the wind was swinging around so we used 2 courses that we swapped between.

This sometimes caused problems as it was easy to forget which buoys to round.

There were 3 different race winners, Simon Peter and Paul C, floating bits of reeds were a big problem and could ruin a 2 lap race.

Linda and Simon had dressed their yachts with bunting, surprisingly it didn't slow them down!

The podium positions were:-  1st Simon, 2nd Peter, 3rd Linda.

May racing

Thank you everyone for a great morning’s sailing, challenging at times, frustrating at times and three great rescues by Ken  with his ‘Winebox’, firstly his Victoria in the dangling brambles on the island, then Colin’s Victoria stuck bow first on the island, finally Ians’ Victoria stuck in the new reeds by the swan’s nest. Well done Ken, of course lots of advice from other members. Great Fun!

well done to new member Alan Hart who had an excellent 7th place in his first ever race!

Peter 1st

Simon 2nd

Paul C 3rd

 

April

Steering competition

The conditions were perfect with virtually no wind and the water like glass. Well it was, until the power boats started producing some quite large waves! Boats of all types took part, with both Pauls opting to run Scamps, Alan ran his beautifully refurbished cabin cruiser on it's maiden voyage, whilst Peter sailed his wonderful model of the Selsey lifeboat. Colin treated us to some high speed runs with his gin palace,  finally Andy showed us just how good he was at steering his Pilot boat.

We had two runs each and the final points score for both was then added together to produce an aggregate score. Paul C was doing very well indeed, until he accidently applied full throttle just as he was coming into the dock at the end of his run. His Scamp landed half way up the step!

Andy won round 1 with a score of 83, which was the highest of the day. Well done Andy. The second run produced three joint winners, Colin, Paul B and Paul C, each with a score of 71. Well done to all of you.

 

The final placings were, Colin and Andy in joint first with 149 points, followed by Alan with 138. Only two points separated the final three places.

Monthly Racing

Richard kindly volunteered to run the racing for this one.

The scamps were well behaved with Kevin and Phil winning races.

In the sailing Peter, Colin and Phil were all race winners.

Overall, Peter won the sailing and Kevin won the scamping.

 

March

I had brought along half of the the scamp starting grid as I was refurbishing it, it could only take 3 boats so of course 6 boats turned up!

Cliff did some test running before the race and all was well till the start when a surge of power unscrewed the propeller and his boat was left stationary on the grid.

The 4 races we did had the same finishing order. Phil had finished the last race and then drove into the path of Ian who was still racing so I think its fair to put Phil down for last place in that race. Ian's boat jumped over the top of Phil's scamp and demolished its windscreen!

Positions were Simon 1st, Kevin 2nd and Phil 3rd

 

Before we started sailing Paul C did a great job using a spare buoy to remove a tree branch that had been stuck on the outlet buoy for some time he also manged to throw the spare buoy into a tree and nearly fell in!

8 skippers raced in a shifty NE wind. At the first mark, near the northern bank, it was particularly bad and was different for each lap.

Colin sailed very well and won 2 races, Simon won 2 and Linda was fastest, winning the other 3 races to come 1st overall,

Simon 2nd Colin 3rd Paul C 4th.

Thanks to Andy who did a great job recording the finishes and watching the start line for us today and thanks to Kevin who did a great job doing the same for the last 3 races.

They both received on the job training and have passed the handwriting test!

 

February

We finally did the February races after the storms had written off all the other Sundays

In the scamp racing Phil did well with his green machine and Cliff was looking forward to racing his new boat but he found at the first mark that there wasn't enough rudder movement and headed into the reeds! I rescued his scamp and decided to keep my waders on.

Positions were Simon 1st Phil 2nd and Ian 3rd

In the sailing we found the start-line was in a nasty bit of turbulent air, most skippers struggled to get any decent speed up and at times I thought there was something wrong with my boat.

Surprisingly there were patches of no wind so as the wind dropped the course was changed to the windy half of the pond.

Ian got some good starts and ended up with the same points as Colin, the tie eventually broken using the result of the last race.

Phil's yacht got caught on some brambles on the island and my waders were put to use again!

Linda's yacht had a broken shroud which she repaired with string and superglue!

Phil's yacht was not working well after that and he kindly did the results for the last 2 races.

Positions were Simon 1st Linda 2nd Colin 3rd

 

Reed Clearance 2022

The reeds have been cleared from the northern bank and stacked up on the shoreline this has given us back the space we enjoyed in the past and now we can have good visibility again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2022

The sunny intervals were very welcome today at the pond, the water level was high and got higher as the morning went on.

In the first scamp race Simon's boat was playing up and had a jittering, on off, power delivery which got worse on the second lap with more time off than on!

The bad connection was found and he won the next 2 races, in the last race he picked up a reed and came last again. Well done to Chris who had 2 first places and a second to win the Day.

Simon was 2nd and Ian had 2 second places to finish 3rd.

The wind was in the best direction we have had in ages, it meant we could have a long beat in plenty of wind from the far right of the pond to the island buoy and a long run back from outlet buoy.

6 skippers enjoyed the conditions with some close racing again. Colin sailed very well, his green Monkees hat must have helped . Race winners were Simon, Linda and Colin and the final positions were in that order.

Linda also had a Monkees hat but it didn't stop her from hitting some of the buoys, Simon hit one or 2 also.

There were lots of good starts and it paid sometimes to actually slow down a bit and tack behind the pack to be the first one on port tack.

Phil was having a few problems with his yacht, first a flat battery and finally a pulley came undone, he stayed on to do the results, so thanks Phil!

 

October

Today we used the starting grid for the scamps, It has been modified by Richard, so it will now fit in a car.

It saved lots of time because the boats weren't being blown by the wind. Paul C had not charged his batteries the day before so only had the charge from this morning this gave Simon a chance and he won the first 3 races, Paul changed batteries and won the last one, Ian was 3rd overall and Cliff came 4th, the only collisions were between races!

For sailing the wind was SW and gusty, the average wind was not too strong. Control could be lost for a moment in the gusts but 7 skippers sailed well and no yachts needed rescuing. There were 3 different race winners, Simon, Paul and Peter. In order to do well today you had to be on the right tack for favourable wind shifts, the trouble was you couldn't tack when you wanted to when there were other boats around you.

We managed to complete 6 races and stopped in time to miss the 20mph stuff forecasted for 12:00

Simon 1st, Paul 2nd, Peter (with the same points as Paul) 3rd, Linda 4th, Chris 5th, Ian 6th and Cliff 7th

 

September

First the Scamp Racing. This was dominated by Paul C with his Grunge Boat. However, whilst on demonstration to a potential young member he hit the Swan Buoy and he flipped over. The engine continued to rev indicating that batteries and motor were OK. Eventually the transmitter was switched off and the motor stopped. Simon donned his waders and traversed the top of the pond to rescue the stricken boat. Amazingly, having connected the battery lead up the motor burst into life.

 

Subsequently at home I think the battery has had it, I charged it for about 4 hours and the battery was red hot. Watch this space.

 

The Victoria Yacht Racing was the equivalent the Lewis Hamilton second to last pit stop today, it was slow!! We managed two races before tea break when Grunge performed, and one race after tea. The last race was delayed because the fleet were spread far and wide, unable to get to the start line. When on yacht got to the line another drifted away and so it went on. In all three races one or two yachts managed to get away whilst the rest banded together to form intimate groups whilst rounding various marks. Weed was used as an excuse but on returning to the dock side the yachts were lifted out to find, no weed. (well, may be one or two yachts did have a little weed).

 

Three yachts finished on 6 points with Paul B finishing a credible 4th place. See  results page. I think some sort of count back decided the final places?

 

Poor Phil could not repeat his success of the club championship racing having had dire day and Colin was not up to his normal standard.

 

15th August

Well done to our new club champion Simon, who won by one point.

Linda was 2nd and Peter came 3rd.

Phil won the new Seal prize.

 

August

A good days racing, this kicked off with 3 scamps at 3 different speeds, Paul C won 3 races with his warp speed boat which was for once, controlled very well, Simon came 2nd with a high speed boat and cliff 3rd with a speed boat.

 

We tied black ribbons on our yachts to remember the lovely Harry Stead who died recently.

 

10 skippers raced from a control area near the launching steps, this worked well as we could see the course and hear any hails for "room at the mark" or starboard!

Linda was back in action and did well , she won 2 races, Simon won 3 and Peter, who was having problems with his radio gear won 1 race.

There were some good starts and in the first race Nigel did very well sailing in second and sometimes first place for the first lap, but lost out when he had to sail through one of the windless zones.

Paul B had an excellent second place in race 2 and came 5th overall, Peter came 4th, Paul C had a run of 3rds and came, obviously third overall!

Linda 2nd and Simon 1st

 

July

The Scamps were ready on the start line for their first race when a family of coots suddenly appeared with several young ones.  So no Scamp racing; maybe next month the babies will have grown or flown.

 

For the Victoria yacht racing there was plenty of wind about but, unfortunately,  our tree lined pond provided too much shelter and many parts of the water were totally calm, creating a doldrums effect.

 

8 skippers did well in the difficult conditions with some quite close racing.

 

Colin L had set his boat up well and was very quick downwind, he won the last race and came 3rd overall.

Ian had a couple of good races coming in 3rd on two occasions.

 

We got to coffee break to find Cliff's yacht caught up on the overhanging island vegetation, Paul C volunteered to use his scamp to push it back out.  However, his scamp seems to have a very coarse throttle and Paul lost control so you can guess what happened next!

I put on my waders and got to the stranded scamp, the rudder and prop were still attached but the prop looked like a cabbage, having been run onto the barrier at a high r.p.m. !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In one race Paul C was watching and 'sailing' the wrong yacht (well it looked like his yacht)!  He suddenly realised that his boat had been sailing itself and was aground, stuck on the island.  The trigger happy scamp was dispatched a second time and happily the yacht was successfully recovered with no cabbages in sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Paul doing a self rescue

 

 

Overall it was close at the front with Peter winning 2 and Simon winning 3 of the 6 races.  Most skippers sailed very well despite the flukey wind and many seem to be making positive progress.

 

Final Results:

Simon 1st, Peter 2nd and Colin 3rd

 

 

 

June Relay Races

With 8 skippers it seemed a good idea to have 2 teams of 4 yachts, Simon did the team picking and we were off. In race 1 Peter got a very good lead which made Paul C take some risks, this didn’t work as he hit the same buoy twice. The rest of team B did a great job catching up and it was a very close finish but team A kept their lead.  Actual finish is shown below with Ian, in team A, just crossing the line ahead of Linda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In race 2 Team A had the initial lead but Paul B managed to get ahead and the lead was then held giving an easy team B victory.

In the deciding race team A had the lead for 3 laps and on the last lap Ian’s yacht stalled slightly and Linda sailed to the nearest part of the line. After a photo finish Team B were declared the overall winners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phil hiding behind Team B’s secret weapon, Dudley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done to everyone; there was some good tuition and as always unhelpful banter!

 

June Racing

After over a year we were back on the water with both Scamps and Victorias

There were only 3 scamps so no crashes but a few marks were hit and Ken managed to miss-out a mark or two, this could be because his boat was so fast!

well done to Ken who finished 1st, Simon 2nd, Paul C 3rd.

For the Victoria yachts the wind was light but 9 skippers managed to keep going using the bits of pond that had some breeze.

There were some good starts so some of last weeks training must have sunk in!

Paul B had a brilliant race 3 which he led for a lap, eventually finishing in 2nd place

The racing was very close and you can see in the results there were only 2 points difference in the first 4 places.

Well done to Simon 1st, Peter 2nd, Paul C 3rd, and Linda 4th.

 

Thanks to Dick for helping with the results.

 

May 2021

On the 30th  the club held a practice racing session, this included tuition from Simon and Linda on making a good race start. The main points were :-

1) Importance of being on starboard tack during the final countdown.

Starboard boats must keep their course when a port boat approaches this is to avoid both boats turning the same way and crashing.

 

2) Realising that on the same tack the windward boat must keep clear.

 

3) Use the countdown time to measure where your boat should be with 10  or 15 seconds to go.

 

4) If you are going to be early recognise this as soon as possible and slow the boat down by heading up to wind, knowing from point 2 that  other boats have to keep away from yours, then when ready if possible bear away slightly to get speed up for crossing the line

 

5)If the wind is very light, stay close to the line at all times.

 

6) If there is a recall the skipper should let the sails out, slow down and allow the other boats to pass before turning back for the line.

 

Practice starts and a short race was run for groups of 4 yachts then 6 yachts and finally a race with all boats!

 

 

June 2020

On Sunday 7th Dudley 2 was launched for its maiden voyage , Simon was very pleased with his lockdown project, it has many 3D printed parts which help to keep the weight down. He reports that there are no leaks so far and it’s quite fast on the water !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March

We managed to do some scamp racing, Phil provided all the entertainment in his first race session, it all happened in race 3 where he rounded the island buoy a bit too fast jumped over the barrier and stopped, I was thinking I was going to have to get the waders when Phil just powered the boat back over the barrier, amazingly the rudder was still attached but then it slowed right down, it crawled back to the steps with smoke coming out and a very nasty smell.

Ashore Phil found the motor was burning up, the battery was quickly disconnected before any flames appeared welcome to scamp racing Phil!

Simon 1st Chris 2nd and Colin D 3rd

 

In the Victoria's 5 skippers had a battle against a strong gusty SW wind, we tried to use the island shelter for most of the course but after a couple of races we changed the course to avoid the devilish turbulence around the gorse buoy that Colin D didn't like!

The racing was extremely close for 1st and 2nd and also 3rd and 4th,

Linda 1st, Simon 2nd Colin L 3rd

 

February

At last we were able to do some racing and it was enjoyed by all (except Colin).

Scamps were looking promising with 5 boats at the pond, 3 actually got launched and started a race but only 1 finished the race, the others ran out of power for some reason. Lets hope more boats make it to the finish line for the next race day!

Victorias, 10 skippers came 9 yachts made it to the start line there was plenty of wind with some big gusts coming through to add to the excitement.

A good start was essential and a big lead could be obtained on the first lap if you got it right, problem was that the favoured end was sheltered by the Island so sometimes it didn’t work out.

We could see the gusts coming across the water and, fortunately the uncontrollable moment’s didn’t last for too long.

On Paul B's yacht the string on the jib boom broke, which for some reason caused a complete collapse of the rig, it ended up looking like a set of damp bagpipes!

Phil did well in the first races but had to stop after getting tangled with a couple of yachts then lost sail controls

Colin D had no luck, his transmitter problems meant no Scamp or Victoria racing.

Peter was every impressive and won 4 of the 6 races to win the day

Simon won the other 2 to come 2nd

Paul C's Yacht was struggling but eventually he got it tuned for the conditions, coming 3rd

Chris had a good 2nd place and came 4th

only one point separated the next 3 places for Colin Ian and Phil.

 

Modeller of the year 2019

The entries were again of a very high standard, Peter won with his lovely model of a bermudan ketch, Chris’s Waverley paddle steamer and Richard’s miniature Gambier Bay aircraft carrier were joint second, thanks to Paul for judging this year.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peters winning ketch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gambier Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waverley

 

Now is a good time to start  building something yourself and maybe enter it later in the year!

 

 

January 2020

We had a really good turnout for yacht racing with 12 yachts starting.  Unfortunately there were only 2 scamps.. so no scamp racing.

The weather was unkind as squalls and showers kept coming in, giving flukey wind for the yachts and a wet time for the racers.  It was so wet that Phil and Colin D went home during the half time coffee break.  Everyone else sheltered as best we could and ate the lovely gooey chocolate cake that Ian had baked specially.

The racing was close as usual with 3 different race winners.  Paul B had his best result in the race after coffee and cake, finishing 3rd   The start  was difficult as the wind usually dropped with 20 seconds to go, leaving most of us floundering.  There were a few lonesome reeds floating around to trap the unwary and also a few underwater obstacles got in the way.

 

Report was written by Linda as Simon has hurt both his wrists.  He did manage to win the racing though!  With Peter second and Linda third.

 

Boxing Day Medal Race

There was just enough wind but as usual there were some large zones with none.

10 skippers battled with the lack of wind plus the extra difficulty of a couple of very boggy bits of grass to walk over.

The racing was very close and a big lead could easily be lost trying to cross the dead zone.

Linda brought some quality streets for everyone, Chris said one of them tasted of sherry, he then had quite a few of these, maybe this is why he crashed into Linda  a couple of times! One of these collisions jolted Linda's yacht and all power was lost.  Luckily it was recovered during coffee and chocolate break and was just a bad connection.

George and Kevin came along to watch, give out advice and eat chocolates!

Phil kindly offered to do the starts and finishes, he got very cold but did a great job, no you don't get a medal for it!

As often as not it was down to the last race to decide the places, Peter already had 2 wins, Simon 1 win and Linda 1 win, Colin had been sailing consistently and was also in with a chance, Peter had a good start and got a big lead, Simon and Colin ate into that lead and were getting closer, Peter then caught a reed on his keel and was out of the running, Simon managed to get an overlap on Colin and water for the rounding the last buoy, all he had to do was cross the finish line but that meant  crossing the dead zone again to get there, they both headed for some wind by the island and Colin just pipped Simon on the line to win the last race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well done to Colin D who won the Gold medal with some good sailing in the fluky wind

Simon and Linda both got 10pts, Simon won Silver on count-back and Linda received a Bronze.

Other places were: Peter a disappointed 4th, Paul a muddy trousered 5th, Chris with a bad foot 6th.

New member Nigel finished every race and came 7th, a great start to Victoria racing.

                                              Full Results Here

 

Xmas Prizegiving and buffet

Another great event this year, Simon used his P.A. System so he could be heard without shouting!

The prizes were very smart mostly black on glass trophies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The prizes were presented by Louis wife Pat, she later told us how much Louis used to enjoy his trips to the pond, whatever the weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a delicious buffet, thanks again to Gerry, afterwards Simon and Linda ended the evening with some ukulele songs from the 60’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December

There was a tie for first place in both the scamps and the victorias, each skipper had identical scores so it was all down to who won the last race.

Kevin's scamp has a new motor and was fast enough to win 2 races, but unfortunately not the last one!

In the last Victoria race at the finish, there were just inches between the first 3 yachts, Linda won it even though she was in 3rd at the last mark!

The overall results were very close indeed as there was also a tie for 3rd place and only 2 points separated 5th, 6th and 7th places.  Close racing from all.

Final yacht places, Linda 1st; Simon 2nd; Peter 3rd; Paul 4th

It was good to see Ian back at the pond, he managed to finish all of the races.

Tim did another good job scoring, there were quite a few close finishes to call.

 

November 3rd

Today was so different from gale force 9 Saturday, where had all the wind gone!

Scamp racing was close between Colin D and Chris they must have touched a few times, Kevin was puzzled as his boat sounded fast on the bench but had no go when on the water.

Cliff had a fast boat but it couldn't turn tight enough to get around the course!

Paul C got cross when his scamp refused to work properly, not even making the start line, maybe it was the new cooling fan causing interference?

Simon had a clean sweep, Colin and Chris ended up with exactly the same points so it was down to who won the last race, Colin 2nd Chris 3rd.

 

During Yacht racing we had a visit from David Campbell James, the Olympic sailor, he was a bit confused as all he saw was Linda's Victoria going round and round chased by a scamp and Paul's yacht, not the sort of racing he was expecting!

There was not much wind about and when we got some later in the morning it poured down with rain, that wind suddenly went and we had to shorten the course twice to get the end of the race over with.

We were lucky to get the 4 races done, Due to electrical problems Linda used Simon’s yacht for the last 2 races and managed to do well coming first, Peter despite picking up a reed came 2nd, Paul C was 3rd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           thanks to Paul C for this excellent photo.

 

 

Team Relay racing October.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The teams were well balanced so we had quite a few close finishes, there was wind on most of the pond so a nice big course was set. We had 11 people and needed 4 teams of 3 so Colin D ended up doing lots of laps as he had to go round twice each time.

It was very close and the last race was crucial for the results, Paul B sailed well, with encourage ment from  team-mates Simon and Richard he came from 3rd to 1st and won the competition for the red team.  Team Linda, George and Kevin were just one point behind to come 2nd.

Once again  everyone enjoyed the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October

A very windy one today with the gusts being the main problem.

4 scamps set off on race one only to find the outlet buoy was missing whoops, so we went round willow instead which was OK till Cliffs boat went wide and hit the row of posts, it was stuck going round and round

Simon managed to slowly push it back with his scamp but we noticed it was getting lower in the water, when we eventually got it out it had a big hole in the bow.

The Victoria's coped well with the conditions most of the time, a few giant gusts caused some submarine-ing and sometimes when you wanted some wind it disappeared.

Phil had a couple of good races coming 3rd in each, Colin D also got a 3rd place, It was very close between Linda and Simon, they held the top 2 slots in each race, Linda winning overall, Simon 2nd and well done to Colin L for coming 3rd closely followed by Colin D in 4th.

Paul's yacht had a problem so he kindly did the race officer duty.

 

September

Racing was very good, we had a great turnout too with 8 Scamps and 10 Victorias.

Scamp racing was chaotic with so many boats, we had to stop one race as the swans had come over to the island buoy to find out what all the noise was about.

There was a lot of floating debris which ended up wrapped around our props after each race, even feathers were found to cause problems!

After winning race 1, Kens boat had a loose prop-shaft and Colin's boat lost all motor drive, both boats retired from the rest of the session.

Paul C's grunge was fast but once again was almost uncontrollable, it acquired a hole in the side from one of the many collisions, luckily above the waterline.

John was very pleased to have a fast boat again

Somehow  Simon managed to win 2 races and Paul won one.

Overall Simon 1st, John 2nd, and Paul 3rd.

Victoria races had 3 different race winners and was all about getting from one windy bit to another through the dead zone where anything could happen!

Ian proved this by getting his yacht stuck near the island at the start of a race, it must have been there for a few minutes, once free he got some good wind managed to sail past everyone and come 2nd!

Poor Colin L, he was doing very well after coffee with a second and third place and was in with a chance for a win on the last race, he just had to cross the finish line, Simon was close behind and decided to take a big chance and sail to the end of the line coming very close to the island, He even had to get past the debris that stopped Ian earlier, and managed to just beat him to the win!

Colin came 4th overall, not many points away from Peter who came 3rd, Linda was 2nd and Simon 1st.

Paul C didn't get on very well with the swing rig today, if you want one it may still be in the hedge where he threw it!

Once again big thanks to Tim for recording the race finishes and watching the line, the scamps were finishing so fast that sometimes Tim couldn't write fast enough!

 

 

Rescue Tug

Here are some photos of Richards tug which has a special device fitted for rescues.

On the day these were taken, it was windy and a new members boat, an RG65, went fast aground at the shallow end of the pond. Diligent was launched and collected the boat without difficulty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August

In Scamp race 3 George's scamp had a coming together with Kens which resulted in 2 neatly cut slots in the side of George's scamp which quickly let in loads of water.

Ken's metal prop was very good at cutting through balsa but the force on the motor finally ripped out the mountings, no more racing for Ken!

George's boat was fixed up by Ken and the last race had only 3 boats due to Cliff's drive system failing.

In the last race, with Paul's scamp "Grunge" slowing, Simons boat thought It would cadge a lift on the back of it which worked very well, it looked like a tandem scamp until his boat was shrugged off when it was time to turn for the mark.  Even Grunge can be beaten with the help of some reeds round the prop!

Well done to Paul who won easily with 3 first places, Simon 2nd and Ken 3rd.

 

Victoria racing was very good, the south easterly breeze was providing a big stretch of steady wind across the pond, the only problem was the first mark was on the edge of this and sometimes there was no wind there.

In one race Linda was leading and stopped near that first mark and watched the whole fleet sail past her, Simon also had a similar experience arriving at the buoy in 2nd place and leaving in last!

As the morning went on we found that the only fast way to get round was to stay in the wind and come in with speed on port tack with momentum taking the yacht round and then back into the wind.

There were 4 different race winners, Bill, Paul, Simon and Linda and there was close racing across the fleet.

 

Paul raced his swing rig yacht which is very well made but unfortunately is not class legal as the boom diameter is greater than 9.5mm at the main bearing.

There were many reeds floating about that could ruin a race, Peter managed to find a lot of them and this is reflected in his score.

 

Final positions 1st Simon, 2nd Paul, 3rd Bill, 4th Linda.

 

Tim Kinross, who used to be a member and raced regularly, has rejoined the club and did an excellent job of watching the start line and recording the finishes, It was such a great help for us all

and we hope he can do it again next month.

 

July 22nd

Richard and Simon were on the water today in Richard’s dinghy to sort out the racing marks.

The 2 blue buoys were recovered and repositioned, one to the south to be called “Willow” and one near the island north face to be called “Gorse”

The cord to Island buoy was shortened to try to stop yachts getting caught-up on it.

Outlet was moved into more water so it can be seen easier.

A replacement Reeds buoy was deployed.

Swans nest buoy was stuck fast and was moved eventually after great effort.

Steps buoy was moved away from the encroaching reeds, again it was a big struggle to get this one free from years on the muddy bottom.

Richard did lots of rowing and the strong wind made it difficult to manoeuvre at times but it was worth it so that we can use the pond more effectively.

 

July 17th

The inter-club open meeting was originally going to include Phoenix M.B.C. but they had been having low turnouts for their Victoria races and couldn't get a team together.

The event carried on with Selsey and Dell Quay S.C. sailing with a total of 13 boats.

The wind was a light southwesterly which slowly increased as the morning went on. There was a big battle at the front between Peter, Bill ,Linda and Simon each sailor winning races, Race officer Paul kept the morning running smoothly, the only problem was the reeds were so high it was a job to see the start line! A couple of yachts got caught up between races and again the reeds were so dense it was hard to untangle them. Colin D had a very good day and sailed well to come 5th overall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Simon, Bill, Linda and Peter at the front of the fleet.

 

At the end it was very close with only 2 points covering the top 4 places, Peter and Bill were tied for 1st place, but on count-back Peter won the day, Bill (DQSC) 2nd,  Simon 3rd,   Linda 4th  Colin Dean 5th  Peter Matthews (DQSC) 6th

 

The inter team results were Selsey  104 points and Dell Quay 169 points so well done to all the winning Selsey sailors.

 

Thanks to all the skippers who’s contributions raised £43 for the Selsey First Responders.

Full Results click here

 

July 14th

We had a great mornings racing with a light Northerly wind and lots of boats.

The scamp racing was good fun with the usual crashes and Cliffs boat in the reeds at the first mark!

I think as we hadn't had a race for a few months we were not so good at rounding the marks, Simon especially as he twice missed the mark that he had put out earlier and Kevin also had the same trouble!

There were 3 different winners, Kevin won his first race of this season, Ken won 2 and George won one.

Placing's were Kevin 3rd, George 2nd, and Ken 1st, well done Ken!

 

Victoria racing was intense with Bill, Simon and Linda battling at the front with Peter in the mix too, the points were so close that we couldn't  decide who had won till the numbers were computed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           See more photos of this event in the Gallery page on this website.

 

Paul B had a great result coming 5th overall just beating Michael who sailed consistently, Paul B was up near the front in a couple of races, also Kens Yacht was impressive with its new sails and set-up, its a shame he had to leave early to sort out a power-cut.

Linda and Simon's yachts had colourful soft jibs that looked like spinnakers down wind, they were useful today as the wind was very shifty and non-existent in some places.

 

Paul C did a brilliant job as race officer for the morning you wouldn't have known he was in hospital a week ago, well done and a great help.

 

Placing's  Peter 4th, Linda 3rd, Bill 2nd, Simon 1st, it was very close!

 

Love your parks 22 June

The club put on a display for the Saturday event Including scale power and sail craft plus some fun racing. We were there for the whole day which was very enjoyable.

Special thanks to Richard for bringing his fleet along plus Ian and Peter displayed some impressive craft as well.

We let Bill from men in sheds have a sail as he was getting bored!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June

A superb days racing was had by 10 skippers, there was plenty of wind blowing from left to right across a large part of the pond.

The diesel generator was not running and the pond level was up enough that no rescues were needed.

Unfortunately Chris did not complete many races due to a problem with the deck sagging and water leaking in. Chris showed that he can do well with a decent boat claiming a 2nd place using Georges yacht, lets hope this inspires Chris to get his Victoria spruced up!

Ian's yacht was slowly falling apart but was quickly repaired each time.

It was nice to see Kevin come out of hibernation and visit the pond!

Colin Lambert and Colin Dean did very well coming 4th and 5th respectively, only one point between them.

Linda's second and third places gave her third overall

Simon won 3 of the 7 races to come 2nd

Peter was unstoppable claiming first place with 4 wins in a row.

A big thank you to Phil who did the finishing for us.

 

May this race was postponed till the 12th as the pond level was too low

It was a nice surprise that the pond had filled up slightly and we could race around some of it.

7 skippers were ready to race on time but we had a small delay whilst Linda's yacht was rescued having run aground near the island buoy.

We decided to miss that one out and the swans nest buoy so we could steer clear of the island shallows.

The wind was easterly and there was the usual wind shadow from the trees and generators. We managed 4 races of 2 laps, it was hard going but good fun was had!

Thank you to George who helped out with the start line and scoring duties, He was going to put a row of number 20's at the top of the sheet until I pointed out that he didn't actually bring a yacht!

Well done to Richard who won the last 2 races and today's event, Simon second and Linda third

 

April

There is a problem with the water level of the pond, the monthly competition was postponed to 21st due to debris and un sailable parts of the pond. Our theory is that the water table has been lowered due to the pumping during the work in Beach Road and water has been leaking out of the pond into the surrounding ground.

With the debris cleared team relay racing went ahead on 14 April, this time we had 3 teams of 3; the results were very close, and everyone enjoyed the competition. The low water level played its part as the Blue team were about to win a race and a gust sent a yacht into the shallows by the island where it ran aground!  RESULTS Red team 1st ,Yellow 2nd and Blue 3rd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

21st April

There were ducklings and baby coots about so we didn't run the scamp racing.

The light easterly breeze was difficult to sail in, It was very trying as there were patches of no wind and the starts today were tricky too! The lack of water meant some yachts ended up aground on the island, Kens rescue boat was used for a few recoveries until unfortunately Linda managed to get it locked onto one of the metal stakes so Simon had to wade out and get it back.

The results are Peter 1st , Simon 2nd and Chris with a very good 3rd place,

The next 3 skippers had the same points , Paul C 4th Colin 5th and Linda 6th on count back.

 

Hopefully for May's event we will have more water otherwise we will have to run a hosepipe overnight!

 

March

On the third attempt to run the March Sunday races it was still windy, but because it was sunny we thought we would have a go.

Scamp racing was different this week as we had to avoid an obstruction so we used the steps buoy as the first mark and went anticlockwise around the rest, John had fitted his old spec. motor and proceeded to win all 4 races, Simon's scamp however did not like it, there was a terrible noise as the cooling fan worked loose and rubbed on the universal joint. Then in race 3 It jumped over a mark and broke a propeller blade. It was raced with only one blade in the last race and was quite fast, maybe this is a new way to go faster! Cliff's scamp was fast but needed to be better controlled. George was looking forward to winning the scamp racing again but found out that he had left the transmitter on all night, Maybe he was too excited about the first Grand Prix to remember.

 

Nasty gusts were coming through but there was enough time gust free to do some yacht racing. Peter coped very well with this and shot off and won 2 races, Simon was close but only won one. Linda's yacht was determined not to race, it hit the post by the steps and broke the jibsheet, once repaired it then had another problem, going round in circles, somehow the rudder linkage had come off the tiller. After fixing this it was about to be launched again when the main sheet come untied, then we noticed that there was something big and heavy moving inside. The main servo mount had completely broken off from the hull, time for a major refit!

Chris enjoyed the conditions, and only had to repair the jib once to come 3rd

Ian was 4th and could have had a better score but just as he was rounding a mark a big gust came and sent him the wrong side of it, unlucky. Despite the sun it was very cold, George had the sensible idea to stop after the first race to go home and warm up.

Paul B was even more sensible and kept his boat in the car!

Thanks again to Caroline for doing the finishing for us, it was so gusty that the chair we put out for her kept blowing over!

 

 

January 2019

After the very sad news that Louis Phillips had passed away we decided to remember him and show our respects by tying black ribbons on our yachts during the mornings races. Louis won club member of the year in 2017 for the time and effort he gave to starting and recording club events which he had been doing for many years.

Louis will be sorely missed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louis watching the start line at a club race back in April 2016