Clapham Model Yacht Club

Further to my comment in the AGM Minutes, Alan and I visited Duggie today in his care home, Windmill Lodge, Lyham Road, SW2. He looks well and is quite cheerful. We saw him sitting in the lounge of the home but I do not think he can walk and the only parts of his body he can move are his left hand and arm, and his head. Unfortunately he cannot speak, or more correctly, he cannot string words together so conversation is very difficult. He can sometimes say yes or no, but gets terribly frustrated at not being able to communicate. Alan and I were able to get some information by asking questions and Duggie answering by saying yes or no, or by shaking or nodding his head, but we did get a lot of laughter from him. Having spoken to the care home staff it appears that he does not need anything, any of his needs are provided by the social services. I did take him in some sweets and chocolate bars and the last thing we saw as we left him was Duggie sorting through the bag of goodies.
I was able to ask Duggie about his boats left in the Clubhouse and whether he would like to sell them. He said he would. This does bring a problem of what to do with the money we raise. He is not allowed to have large sums of money at the home, it would have to left in the care of a social worker. His wants appear to be so few that any large sums of money could be an embarressment. I feel as a Club we should give some thought to this matter.
If there are any members of the Club interested in one or other of Duggies boats, let me know. One is a 1M “Comik” in reasonable condition, the other is a very nice powered trawler, both however are without radio transmitters but these are very cheap to buy. Should we have an auction among interested buyers? let me know.
It appears that Duggie has no relatives and few friends and that means that he has had no visitors apart from Alan and myself. Although conversation is very difficult it was quite obvious that he enjoyed seeing us, and if any other member of the Club would care to visit I am sure Duggie would be delighted to see you. Derek.

Herewith pictures I hope. Hugh,s new boat is No 46.

After a day of gales and heavy rain on Saturday it was surprising to find that Sunday dawned fine and sunny with only a moderate breeze.
It was a 6M racing day and one or two boats ventured onto the water to test the strength of the wind, which turned out to be just right giving some exciting sailing. After some delay Hugh set out the buoys and we started racing, seven skippers sharing six boats, Leslie and Hugh sailing Hugh,s new boat “Rococo” and John T sailing Derek,s second boat. I think John S sailed Ted,s boat for some part of the day. Hugh,s boat sails very well and proved the boat to beat, but it can be beaten as the results show. Derek,s second boat in the hands of John T did not perform well at all untill Jim was asked to tune the rig whereafter it performed much better, and after a few more tweeks it was able to keep up with the rest. We managed to get eight races in during the day with Hugh,s boat being the overall winner. Race six was very close, being declared a dead heat between Jim and Leslie. We managed to get several photographs, with one showing Ted acting as umpire at the finish of race six, unfortunately it shows more of Ted,s bum than it does of the boats. I shall try to download the photos to the blog site, but this will be my first attempt at such a transfer so wish me luck.
The results were as follows.
Race 1. Leslie, Derek, Ted.
Race 2. Leslie, Jim, Derek.
Race 3. Ted, Leslie, Jim.
Race 4. Leslie, Derek, Jim.
Race 5. Leslie, Ted, Jim.
Race 6. Dead heat Jim/Leslie, third, Derek.
Race 7. Derek, Jim, Ted/
race 8. Jim, Derek, John T.
I shall now attempt to download the photo,s, Hugh,s boat is the blue one, number 46. Derek.

As I write this it is brilliant sunshine and calm winds outside, but this is Monday!
The sailing day yesterday was horrible. Heavy winds and pouring rain. Very few turned up (5) , and while Hugh was ready to sail the others thought it too wet and windy. As a sailing day it was a non starter and we all left the pond early. Hopefully the next meeting date, the 15th November, will be much better for the 6M,s. Talking of 6M,s, having had a look at Hugh,s new boat we have noticed that it has two rudders!, one in the conventional place at the back of the boat but another at the rear edge of the fin, both appearing to be controllable independently. This must surely be an advantage and might allow the boat to sail closer to the wind. I assume this is within the rules as the boat is said to have highly placed in competion. Perhaps we shall now see the Club,s fleet similarly uodated?
I have set the Club,s AGM for the last Sunday in November, the 29th at 11am. Hope to see you all there. Derek.

Scheduled as a 6M racing day, the weather was fine but with only a light breeze which at times died to almost nothing. It was a good turnout with seven skippers sharing six boats, Hugh and Leslie sharing Hugh,s new boat, a 6M Rococco designed by Bantock, and was lightweight carbon fibre everwhere. It sailed very well but was not unbeatable as will be seen from the results.
Racing was hardly brisk in the light breeze and once or twice turned into a drifting match, but such moments were rare and racing was generally good. We got in four races before breaking for lunch and three after with the following results-,
Race 1. Jim, Leslie, Derek.
Race 2. Leslie, Derek, Jim.
Race 3. Leslie, Jim, Alan.
Race 4. Hugh, Jim, John S.
Race 5. John S, Alan, Derek.
Race 6. Leslie, Jim, Derek.
Race 7. Derek, Leslie, Alan.
It was good to see John S getting among the leaders. He did not start so well but after a little help from Jim in tuning the boat the performance inproved dramatically. It goes to show that most 6M,s are very competitive provided they are set up properly, and even the very expensive Rococco proved not to be supreme.
Overall, a good day,s sailing and a good fleet on the pond. The water is still very low and the Chairman is trying to get a date from the Council as to when the repairs will be carried out on the cracks which we think are the cause of the leakage problems.
NOTE. the next Sunday, the 25th October, is a Vintage Group meeting which we should try to support. Derek.

This was scheduled as a 1M sailing day but the water is still very low and 1M sailing will have to be postponed I fear untill repairs are carried out on the cracks and holes in the pond wall through which we think the water is leaking out. The Chairman has been in contact with the Council who have agreed to do the neccessary repairs, but when? The low water state is that for which the Soling class was adopted by the Club and in due course our Soling fleet appeared on the water. I think we may well have to accept that the first Sunday in the month will be a Soling day in place of the 1M,s untill the pond can be repaired and refilled.
While some races were run I fear that no race results were kept, but I did notice that either Jim or Ted were in the lead whenever I had a chance to observe. The weather was fine but the wind was gusty making sailing a bit wild at times, this was a bit of a problem for Derek who was looking after a possible new member and what with her unfamiliarity with the radio controls and trying to cope with the frequent wind gusts, I am not sure whether she enjoyed the experience or not. We shall see.
The next scheduled meeting is on the 18th October and is for the 6M,s and we hope to see Hugh there with his new aquisition, a 6M “Rococco”, a Graham Bantock design I think.
Hope to see you all then. Derek.

The day started cloudy but improved over the course of the day with hazy sunshine most of the time and winds that ranged from a gentle breeze to the occasional gust.
Our OOD for the day was Rob Vice, to whom we owe our thanks. Rob set a challenging course of a zigzag across the pond against the prevailing wind with a final run down the length of the pond to the finish line. The race was in the form of a series of Match races and, for those of our readers who are not familiar with this format, consisted of pairs of boats racing against each other over one lap of the course, each skipper racing in due course against every other skipper. The skipper winning the most races being declared the winner.
Rob had arranged the racing to be seven “boards” with three races in each “board”. There being seven skippers it was neccessary that one skipper in each “board” had a bye. With seven skippers it was required that there be twentyone races in order that every skipper raced against every other skipper. There being only six boats available it was neccessary that some skippers had to share a boat. To run twentyone races, each one starting when the previous one had finished would have taken a considerable time, therefore Rob arranged that the next pair of skippers would start when the previous pair were about half way down the course, in this manner the racing was almost continuous and skippers had little time to tune boats or fiddle with things.
Racing commenced more or less on time at 11am and went on till 12.30pm when we broke for lunch. By this time we had completed half the races and were on track to finish on time. Racing started again at 1.15pm and continued untill completion at about 3pm. Under Rob,s direction the racing was slick and continuous. Happily there were no upsets and no protests and, although the water was low, no problems with grounding with one exeption, either the boat having a deeper keel than the others or the skipper being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Most skippers sailed their own boat, but Rob shared Derek,s boat for most of his races and Hugh sailed Derek,s other boat. The boat shared by Rob and Derek seemed the most successfull on the day, winning ten out of the twentyone races sailed.
The Club had provided prizes for the meeting and there were sufficient for each skipper to receive one. The prizes were given out in the Clubhouse after racing and were graciously presented by Jim,s wife Ann.
The results were as follows.
1st. Derek with 16 points.
2nd. Rob with 16 points.
3rd. Alan with 12 points.
4th. Jim with 12 points.
5th. Ted with 10 points.
6th. Hugh with 10 points.
7th. John with 8 points.
Where two skippers were credited with the same number of points, the deciding factor was which skipper had come first in their head to head.
In all a very enjoyable day. Everyone seemed happy and went away with a small momento of the event. Once again, our thanks to our OOD,Rob who made it all seem so effortless. Might we make this an annual event? It would be nice to think we would continue to remember Jack Sanday and his long and valuable service to the Club. Derek.

A bright and breezy day. We should have been sailing the 1M,s but the water level is too low so we opted to sail the 6M,s instead as additional practice for the race on the 20th September. We had a late start (as always) but had six boats on the water. Derek sailed his repaired boat after it being hit by a speedboat last week, it went OK but suffered from saggy standing rigging, the replaced wires having stretched. More repairs needed. We managed six races, half before lunch and half after, and it turned into another “Jim,s benefit” he coming in first in five of the six races.
One interesting point was that John T,s boat sailed very well. It is an old design by Littlejohn dated about 1922 and named “HELENE”. The Chairman built one over 10 years ago and found it sailed very well, coming in first in practically every race when sailed by another skipper in a 6Metre Owners race we hosted on the pond several years ago. It was very fast, as it weighed only 18 pounds or so as far as I remember, but was less successful in heavier winds as it tended to “crab” sideways. The boat is now in the Beale Park Museum on long term loan. Another copy of the was built by Jack and Phil a few years ago but has rarely been seen on the pond. It has now been aquired by John T and was sailed, successfully, today. Bearing in mind it has a makeshift mast and sails from another boat it should do even better when John fits the correct sail plan. We shall wait and see with interest.
The scores for the day were as follows, and they do seem to show that it is the skipper who is the dominant force rather than the design of the boat sailed.
Six races, placings in order 1,2and 3
Jim, Derek, Alan
Jim, Ted, Derek
Jim, John T, Derek
Jim, John T, Alan
Jim, Alan, Derek
Ted, Jim, Derek
The Memorial race it due to be sailed on the 20th September and will be for 6M,s and was to have been a Match Race series but we seen to have lost the match racing cards which determine the order in which the skippers race. I will make enquires to see if they can be replaced. Hope to see you all on the 20th. Derek.

A great day,s sailing on a bright and breezy day with enough wind to make the 6,s go well but not enough to overpower them. There was a good fleet with five boats on the water and after a late start we had some good racing.
John T was sailing Derek,s second boat and was under a bit of a handicap as he was unused to sailing 6,s. John S was having an early outing with his 6m and was doing well. Derek shared his boat with a guest, Grant, who put in a good performance. We managed to get five races in before lunch and another three after. Jim won the first race and it looked like it might be another Jim benefit, but races got closer as the day went on and the results were, in 1,2,3 order as follows.
Jim, Derek, Alan
Alan, Jim, John T
Grant, Jim, John T
Grant, Jim, John S
Jim, Derek, John S
Derek, Alan, John S
Grant, John T, Alan
Derek, John T, Alan
To give an update on the condition of the pond. The water level is still very low but does not seem to have dropped any lower than the large cracks that have appeared in the retaining wall at the Rookery Road end of the pond. Alan has spoken to the superintendent at the Staff Yard on the Common to ask if we could fill the cracks ourselves, but was told we should leave it to the Council staff to do. The Chairman has tried to contact the person responsible at the Council offices to ask if he will issue a “Works Order” to the Common staff to carry out the work. but without success. We now know that that person is on holiday for three weeks so, regretably, we shall have to wait a little longer for any action to be taken. The Chairman has now written to the person at the Council office and hopefuly he will read the letter on his return from holiday and instigate the action required.
The pond level is unlikely to improve untill the remedial work is done and I feel that on the next sailing day, the 6th September which should be for 1m,s, we should recognise the fact that sailing that class will be difficult and should decide now that we sail the Soling,s instead. An alterative might be to sail the 6m,s again, bearing in mind the imminent memorial race on the 20th September and the need to get some practice in. I feel we shall have to take the practical view.
Thats all for now, hope to see you all on the 6th September. Derek.