Clapham Model Yacht Club

6Metre sailing at Clapham on the 18th December.

The wind was perfect for 6M racing with four skippers taking part, although Mark was sailing with his RG65.
Results as follows-,
Race 1. Leslie, Grant, Mark, Richard
Race 2. Grant, Leslie, Hugh(RG65), Richard
Race 3. Leslie, Grant, Richard, Mark
Race 4. Leslie, Grant, Richard
Race 5. Grant, Leslie, Richard
Race 6. Grant, Leslie, Richard
Race 7. Leslie, Grant
A good day,s racing proving again that “chequebook” yachts don,t always win!!!!
Report provided by Grant.

Sailing Solings at Clapham on the 11th December.

I was not at Clapham myself on Sunday but I have had a report from Chris which tells what went on. The report is lengthy so I have taken the liberty of doing a bit of editing.
“Racing did not start untill about midday on rather a blustery day. We sailed the standard “Olympic” course but, owing to a very odd dead spot in the middle of the pond, the best route to the windward mark appeared to be via the South Circular! Following the gibe mark the leg started quietly but as one approached the leeward mark mayhem would break loose with boats barely under control (and mine not at all on one occasion) as they attempted to round the mark to head off to windward for the second time.
Eight members turned up to race. Jim V started well with two firsts using Chris,s boat but was brought down to earth following a switch to Grant,s boat. Ted suffered from battery problems for most of the meeting, Richard also had a tough time, his boat is however an enviable bright orange which, fortunately, shows up well as it sinks from view. Another busted keel, but our Jim,ll fix it!
To be fair, the conditions around the pond were very variable and tough on equipment and skippers alike.
I had intended that we draw lots for boats prior to each race but, in the conditions which prevailed, I felt that if we did this we would spend more time adjusting and mending equipment than actually racing, so while Jim V, me(Chris), Grant and Leslie swapped around and shared the admin role, the others stuck to their own boats which meant that, overall, Jim R won as usual!
Race results were as follows-;
Race 1. Jim V, Jim R
Race 2. Jim V, Jim R, Leslie
Race 3. Chris, Jim R, Grant
Race 4. Jim R, Chris, John
Race 5. Jim R, John
Race 6. Jim R, John, Ted
Report ends.”
It does seem that the Soling races do bring good support, and that more of them would be well received. It also seems to show that a change in leadership has brought new life into the Club, something I hoped would be the case when chose to step down from office. Derek.

Sailing at Clapham on the 4th December.

As I am no longer taking such an active role in the Club,s affairs it will be neccessary to arrange for some other Club member to have authority to post “blogs”. It might also be neccessary to arrange for someone new to have authority to change/amend the Club web site. I hope to be in touch Graham Snook about this matter.
In the meantime I am happy to continue the posts, and Hugh Hugh has kindly agreed to supply the race reports, as he has been doing. Hugh,s report on last Sundays race is as follows-,
Chilly south west wind force 3 with stronger gusts. Cloudy with showers starting when we packed up.
Note that Mark was sailing his new class of boat, the RG65, small, but beautifully formed.
Race 1. Grant, Chris, John
Race 2. John, Chris, Mark
Race 3. Leslie, John, Chris
Race 4. Leslie, Mark, John
Race 5. Leslie, John, Grant
Race 6. Leslie, John, Mark
Race 7. John/Leslie, tied for first place, Mark, Chris
Race 8. John, Leslie, Mark

Seems there was a good mix of winners, long may it continue. Derek.

One Metre sailing at Clapham on the 6th November.

Again, I regret I was not at the pond to sail. The weather at home was very calm with not a breath of wind so it was with some surprise I read Hugh,s report which he kindly sent me. It looks as though there were not many members there and had to rely on Fred to make the numbers up. Hugh,s report follows-.
“Sunday 6 November- One Metre Day.
North wind force 2 up to 4 in gusts, cloudy.
In the shelter of the Clubhouse, the wind felt light, elsewhere on the course the wind was overpowering at times. All boats were carrying top rig. Mark was sailing his RG65 in company with us, so I have shown his position in the races, Chris was doing well with his Boxkite which, because of greater beam, was able to stand up to the gusts.
Race 1. Fred, Chris, John, Mark
Race 2. Mark, Chris, John, Fred
Race 3. John, Chris, Mark
Race 4. Chris, Mark, John
Race 5. Hugh, Mark, John, Chris
Race 6. Mark, John, Hugh, Chris
Race 7. Chris, Mark, Fred, John
Race 8. Fred, Mark, Chris, John
Race 9. Chris, Fred, Mark, John
Race 10. Mark, fred, John, Chris.”

A reminder that the next scheduled meeting on the 20th November is, more importantly, the AGM and I shall expect every member to be there on what could be a most important meeting for the Club when a new Chairman, and Treasurer, must be elected in the hope that a change in leadership might inject new life into the Club. I urge that you all make a special effort to be there. Derek.

6 Metre sailing at Clapham on the 16th October.

Fine sunny morning with light winds. Not too many of us turned up but we did get a lot of racing in. Mark had not brouight a 6M with him but was offered one of Grant,s boats to sail, I am not sure whether it was a SIESMIC or a RENAISSANCE, but after a bit of tweaking by Mark it sailed very well as can be seen from the results. After starting fairly late we sailed continuously till lunch at 1.30 and got in more sailing after lunch, getting in an impressive 13 races in all.
I was concerned that there was not a great deal of help offered in clearing up after racing finished. Grant left early, but he had put the buoys out in order to get the racing under way, and I was left to rely on Fred to take the starter box in and to collect all the buoys. Not good enough.
The results were as follows-
Race 1. Mark, Hugh, Leslie
Race 2. Mark, Leslie, Derek
Race 3. Hugh,Leslie, Mark
Race 4. Hugh, Mark, Grant
Race 5. Mark, Leslie, Derek
Race 6. Mark, Derek, Leslie
Race 7. Mark, Leslie, Derek
Race 8. Mark, Grant, Leslie
Race 9. Mark, Leslie, Grant
Race 10. Mark, Hugh, Grant
Race 11. Hugh, Mark, Derek
Race 12. Mark, Derek, Fred
Race 13. Mark, Leslie, Derek

I think this set of results clearly shows that in the argument against so called “cheque book” sailing, it is not so much the boat as the skipper sailing her which brings success. I do hope that those in the Club who have chosen not to sail on some occasions will reconsider their view.
I feel I am always moaning these days, sorry about that, put it down to old age. Derek.

Racing at Clapham on the 2nd of October.

Racing on Sunday was for 1 M,s and produced some good close results. The weather was almost the last of the Indian Summer and was very sunny and hot, but fortunately with quite a nice breeze.
We had the pleasure of having Mark Dicks with us, and more so as he had brought a new venture with him, an RG65, a sort of half size one metre. As I understood from Mark this has been a popular racing design for many years in South America and is only recently making an appearence in this country. The boat produced by Mark is his own design to this formula and as I said above it looks like a half size one metre, but with a fin almost the same size. It sailed very well and was very quick as can be seen from Hugh,s racing report.
I was at the meeting but left early and so once again I must thank Hugh for the results , which are as follows-
“
Race 1. John, Derek, Leslie
Race 2. Leslie, Grant Chris
Race 3. Derek, Chris, Grant
Race 4. Hugh, Leslie, Grant
Race 5. Leslie, Derek, Grant
Race 6. Grant, Leslie, Chris
Race 7. Leslie, Chris, Grant
Race 8. Grant, John, Leslie
Race 9. John, Chris, Fred (it,s that man again)
Race 10. Leslie, John, Chris
Mark was also racing his RG65 design, which in spite of being considerably shorter than the One Metre, was first over the line many times.”
I look forward to seeing you all on the 16th October. Derek.

6Metre sailing at Clapham on the 18th September.

A good day,s sailing in light winds with the occasional puff.
There were five boats on the water and Alan was there as a spectator. Not as many members as we might have hoped but I believe that a couple had chosen to go to a model aircraft meeting.
Racing was continuous once we had started, getting in ten races including a break for lunch. The results did put into question the problem raised in the last Club blog in that there were a variety of designs among the winning boats and no boat was dominant. Chris, who was sailing Grant,s second boat, a SIESMIC I believe, did well and all skippers did have at least one win. A good day with some very close racing in several of the heats.
Results were as follows-,
Race 1. Grant, Chris, Derek
Race 2. Derek, Hugh, Grant
Race 3. Hugh, Derek, Chris
Race 4. Derek, Leslie, Hugh
Race 5. Hugh, Grant, Leslie
Race 6. Chris, Derek, Grant
Race 7. Derek, Leslie, Grant
Race 8. Hugh, Derek, Leslie
Race 9. Leslie, Derek, Hugh
Race 10. Leslie, Hugh, Grant

A good day all round, everyone a winner at sometime, some more than once and a good smattering of seconds and thirds to keep everone happy.
Hope to see you all on the 2nd of October. Derek.

Sailing at Clapham on the 4th September.

A miserable day weatherwise at Clapham, a fine drizzle turning into a downpour later on in the morning.
Members were slow in arriving, put off by the weather no doubt, and the morning srarted with a general chat in the Clubhouse.
It seems clear that there are, broadly, two types of model yachtsman. There are those who have the skill to build their own boats and get pleasure from sailing them. The problem here is, unless they are talented designers as well as builders they have to rely on published designs to build from, and that raises the further problem that those designs are likely to have become outdated by later designs which have not been released for publication. If such later designs have proved successful the designer is likely to keep them to himself untill overtaken by even later designs, or only allow them to be moulded under licence.
There has been a recent exception to this course of events in that one of our Club members, Mark Dicks, himself a noted designer, released his own very successful design, Triple Crown, almost as soon as it proved itself successful. The home builder then is almost allways trying to catch up with the latest, and hopefully faster, design and unless he is prepared to constantly update his building programme he will allways at a disadvantage.
The other type of model yachtsmen are those who do not possess the skill, or do not have the inclination, to build a boat and have no option but to buy one. The guiding factor here is, how much do they want to spend? It is not unreasonable to expect a buyer would want to get the most successful design he can, and it is also not unreasonable to expect that the most successful designs command the highest prices, so it all comes down to how much the buyer wants to, or is prepared to, spend. Does he want to sail a resasonably competetive boat, or does he want to win at any price?
This type of “cheque book” competion is not confined to the model yachting world by any means, all sports suffer from it. In my own other pastime of air pistol shooting I rely on a standard underlever pneumatic pistol, others choose to spend more on CO2 gas powered pistols with electronic triggers that release at the slightest touch. Given equal marksmanship there is likely to be an advantage using the more sophisticated pistol.
How do other Clubs deal with this different approach in their own sport? In our own Club there appears to be split appearing amoung members where some members who build their own boats will not sail against those who chose to buy their boats for one reason or another. They feel there is an unfair advantage to the latter, although my own feeling is that helmsmanship must play a big part. I sail because I enjoy sailing in competion, of course I hope to win but that cannot be the sole object otherwise all the fun, enjoyment and excitement goes out of the sport and I would not sail at all!
I feel we cannot be the only Club that has experienced this phenomenon and would welcome comment from any reader of this blog, from our own or any other Club, on how we might deal with the problem.
Right, having got that off my chest I can deal with the report on the sailing itself.
In spite of the foul weather a few brave souls did venture out into the cold and wet, including Hugh who gave me these details. Only a few races were run and the details are as follows.
Race 1. Leslie, Grant, John
Race 2. Leslie, John, Grant
Race 3. Leslie, John
Race 4. John, Grant
It would appear from the details I was given that some skippers dropped out from the later races.
It turned out to be an informative meeting one way and another, I can only hope some good comes out of it. Derek.

6M sailing at Clapham on the 21st August

I regret I have not been at recent meetings for one reason or another. The reason for last Sunday,s absence was because I went to a meeting of the local power boat club. I took Duggie,s trawler along in the hope I might get a possible sale valuation. The concensus opinion was that 80 pounds might be possible, and that a good option would be to take it along to the Model Dockyard shop at Chatham which undertakes to sell customers boats on a commission basis. That seemed a good idea and I have been to Chatham today and left the boat there at a required net sale price of 80 pounds. We shall now have to wait for a result (unless some-one reads this blog and rushes forward with a higher offer!)
In my absence Hugh has again come up trumps and has provided the following report.
I do note that I am not the only one who has been absent from meetings, or at least has not sailed. Perhaps we should talk about this at a meeting in the not to distant future.
Anyway, here is the report.
“Sunny day. Southwest wind, force 1 to 3. Close racing, everone scored a first at sometime.
Race 1. Leslie, Hugh, Grant
Race 2. Leslie, Grant, Hugh
Race 3. Hugh, Leslie, Grant
Race 4. Fred (I shall have to charge him a membership fee!) Grant, Leslie
Race 5. Grant, Hugh, Leslie
Race 6. Grant, Hugh, Leslie
Race 7. Hugh, Leslie, Grant
Race 8. Hugh, Grant, Leslie
As I said earlier, a pretty limited field. We must try to do better.
See you all on the 4th September. Derek.

6 Metre sailing at Clapham on the 17th July.

I regret that I was not at the pond on Sunday so once again I am indebted to Hugh for a report. It does look as though there were not many there, perhaps holidays are to blame, I myself took one look at the weather when I got up and decided that I did not want to get wet.
Results are as follows.
Race 1. Leslie, Grant, Fred (what is Fred doing there?)
Race 2. Fred!, Grant, Leslie
Race 3. Hugh, Leslie, Grant
Race 4. Leslie, Grant, Fred
Race 5. Grant, Leslie, Ralf(a visitor)
Race 6. Grant, Leslie, Hugh
Race 7. Grant, Hugh, Leslie
Race 8. Hugh, Grant, Leslie
Race 9. Hugh, Grant, Leslie

Hope to see you all on the 7th August, by which time I shall be one year older and even more decrepit! Derek.