Free Sailing

at Gosport Model Yacht & Boat Club

 !  Graceful match racing after taking particular
care about boat set up and especially
setting the Vane correctly!  
That's what Free sailing is about

Our Free Sailing Class Captain is 


Mervyn Cook





















Click HERE to view the Vane A Class Championship Table

Click HERE to view the 36 Class Championship Table

Click HERE to view the 2009 36 Nationals Results and Race Report
 !   News

The organisation of our club racing and open meetings has been made so much easier by the introduction of our home desigmed scoring system.  This is a real tour de force. 

It is so user friendly that even your class captain can use it, and so comprehensive that it will give any combination of results.  Best upwind boat, best downwind boat, points and overall scores.  It even prints out the race-cards. 

It makes the task of the race officer so much easier, so there's no excuse for any of you to not volunteer as race officer for at least one race-day this year.

If further convincing is needed, the OOD also gets awarded  CLUB championship points so that they don't lose out by not sailing.

 

2009 Events of interest to Free Sailing skippers
Nationals District Club
January 10 Vane 36
  25 Vane A
February 7 Vane 36 (1)
  22 VANE A (1)
March 7 Vane 36 (2)
  22 VANE A (2)
April 4     Vane 36 (3)
  19 Vane A (3)
May 2     Vane 36 (4)
  17 Vane A Champs Gosport Vane A (4) & Dist Champs
  30 Vane 36  USA vs UK
  31     Vane 36  USA vs UK
June 13 Vane 36 (5)
  28     Vane A (5)
July 5 Vane 36 Champs Gosport Vane 36 Dist Champs
  11 Vane 36 (6)
  26     Vane A (6)
August 1 Vane A (1 - 7) Fleetwood    
  8 Vane 36 (7)
  23 Vane A (7)
September 5     Vane 36 (8)
  27     Vane A (8)
October 10 36 Gosport 36 Nationals
  11 36 Gosport 36 Nationals
  25 Vane A (9)
  31     Vane 36 (9)
November 14 Vane 36 (10)
  29     Vane A (10)






Vane A  Championship Table 
36  Championship Table
Vane 36, First Points Race, February 7th.
 
Despite horrific forecasts of temperatures of minus 8  persisting until mid-day, an amazing five boats turned out for what developed into a superb, if bitterly cold sailing day. 
The start had been postponed until 11.00 in deference to those who were travelling from more northern climes...like Petersfield.  This proved to be a wise precaution, as the large areas of the path to the south side of the lake were iced over at first. 
 
The wind was initially light, at under 5 knots, so the fleet elected to rig No 1 sails.  However, the unstable north-westerly breeze steadily increased to a good force four, gusting well into five.  With skippers loth to change down, the races became an exercise in trimming the rigs to cope with the gusts.  Downwind there was a modicum of nosediving, but it was remarkable to see how well the modern 36 can be sailed when overpressed.  Peter Fothergill's handsome new Sybora showed great promise, managing almost a clean sweep.  Mervyn's Mk 2 Diversion also managed almost a clean sweep, and eventually won the day by a very narrow (indeed!) single point.
 
There were two learning points from the day's sailing. 
The first was that it takes a lot to keep the vane 36 off the water!  And the second was that it is better to change down earlier rather than later, other-wise 36's never get to fly their lovely spinnakers.
And what a sight they'd have made today!
Mervyn Cook        17 points        1st
Peter Fothergill        16 points        2nd
Mike Dann            10 points        3rd
Julie Lawley            4 points        4th
John Smith            3 points          5th
 
RO, Jacque Cook               
Vane A Racing, Sunday 22nd February.
 
This was the first points racing of the new season.  Four boats came to the start, and the wind steadily increased during the morning.  'Pandora', and the venerable 'Long Pig' set spinnakers for some exciting downwind boards. However, spectacular as the three sail runs were, it was a moot point as to whether they were an advantage.  Two full rounds were sailed, and at the finish it was Graham Wyeth in the lead, with 24 points, followed by Mervyn and Peter with 20, John Smith with 10 points, and Bruce Prole with 4.
 
Our next points race is on the 22nd of March.  Come and join us....there is a much fun and challenge in crewing an A boat as in being the skipper.  Why not try it?
Vane 36 racing, Saturday March 7th,
 
Second points series race.
 
The forecast for the day was for a steadily rising breeze, expected to be 10 to 15 knots by lunchtime.  However the reality had the fleet confused, and the race officer on the back foot! 
 
Six boats came to the start, including a handsome brace of new Sybora's, belonging to skippers Max Buttimer and Peter Fothergill.  Most elected to use No 2 rig, which should have left the boats slightly underpowered initially, but perfect by the second heat.  Early boards were sailed in a west-north-westerly, and there were some very close finishes.  The breeze, however,
was dying, so the fleet retired shortly before mid-day for an early lunch, to persuade the sea-breeze to appear.
 
Sadly, however, after lunch the sun had come out and the expected breeze was missing!  In response, Skippers changed up to No 1 rigs.  The next boards were sailed in fine style, in a modest westerly, and again there were some photo finishes.  However, lady luck was to strike again!  The forecast breeze came in with a vengeance, moving around more to the west and creating some exciting down-wind legs.  After some spectacular keel-flouting nosedives, the decision was made to change sails again, this time to No 3 rigs.  But now the art of scoring points  was to avoid the doldrums under the trees, which as usual seemed to be magnetic, and everyone succumbed at some point.
 
At the finish, Max's race-hardened Sybora had won the day, followed by Mike Dann's Diversion.  The windward honours were shared by Max and Mike, while on the down-wind legs Max was three points clear of Peter Fothergill.
 
An exhausting, exhilarating day's sailing had been enjoyed by all.  The next 36 points races are on Saturday the 4th of April. 
And for those of you who need the practice...or just enjoy the sailing...there is regular 36 sailing each Friday morning. 
Sailing as a mate to a vane boat is a very enjoyable way to be part of the fleet, so if you would like to join us please come along. 
 
        1        Max Buttimer          24
        2        Mike Dann              19
        3        Peter Fothergill        15*
        4        Jacque Cook           16*
        5        John Smith               9
        6        Bruce Prole              5
        *  Adjusted for Bye.
 
March's race officer was Mervyn Cook.  We hope that everyone in the fleet will volunteer to do RO on one Saturday.  Overall points will not be affected as the race officer is awarded points in lieu of not racing.                                                               
Vane A racing, Sunday 22nd March.
 
The whole weekend was wonderfully sunny, with unstable light to moderate breezes, largely from the north west.  The shifts caught everyone out at some time, and resulted in some rather close and unpredictable races.  The wind shadow at the west end also led to several resails, as the boats left the sore with sails overcoming the vane steerage.
 
Race Officer Jacque Cook put the four boat fleet through it's paces, managing to finish three full rounds by mid afternoon.  
Every boat had it's moment, even the older boats winning several boards each.  Bruce's classic 'Long Pig' did well to win five boards, while John Smith's VC2 was hampered by springing a leak.  By the finish, Grahams beautiful planked Gale/Bantock designed yacht won by four points
over Mervyn and Peters all-carbon VC2.
 
Our A fleet provides close and exciting racing, and there are only four days of racing left before the championship.
Make sure you join us on Sunday, April 19th.
 
        !st        Graham Wyeth        36
        2nd       Mervyn Cook           32
        3rd        Bruce Prole            12
        4th        John Smith             10  
Vane 36 racing, Saturday 4th April
 
Five boats came to the line for the April event, some of our fleet being away at the Australian Grand Prix.  The day gave superb true beats, in a moderate but gusty breeze, and there were some splendid nose-dives on some of the runs.
 
The racing was close, but it was the 'Diversions' day, showing great form on the beats to take 100%.  On the downwind legs, Peters late generation 'Sybora' was top boat, taking 71.4% of the legs.  Pete and Julie Lawley's boat was also on good form to windward, tracking well through the considerable gusts.
 
1st        Mervyn Cook            29 points
2nd        Peter Fothergill        25 points
3rd        Julie Lawley             15 points
4th        John Smith                9 points
5th        Bruce Prole                2 points  
Vane A racing, Sunday the 19th of April.
 
A beautiful early spring day mislead the skippers by hiding a fickle, shifty, frustrating northerly wind!  Three boats came to the start, and the racing was close, points going to the skipper who read the shifts of the moment.  The fleet was assisted by prospective member James Smith, and in the fluky breeze his ability to run was welcomed.  
 
These boats looked magnificent in the sunshine, and a full round was competed by lunchtime.  By the finish, Graham Wyeth came out top, despite losing a few points to John Smith's Alba in the last board of the day.    
 
1st        Graham Wyeth        13 points
2nd        Peter Fothergill        10 points
3rd        John Smith                7 points
Metropolitan & Southern District A Class Championships 17/05/09

Sunday May 17th
METROPOLITAN AND SOUTHERN DISTRICT
VANE A CHAMPIONSHIP.
 
The weekend forecast was for punishing weather, with gusts to 35 knots from a difficult SSW direction predicted.  
Race officer Jacque Cook called the boats to the line sharp at 10.00, and for a while the breeze dropped, the sun came out, and it looked as though summer might have arrived.  However, as expected, the breeze increased steadily throughout the day, and most boats suffered some damage by the end of racing.  There were a number of broken feathers, a couple of bent pins, one boat lost a shroud and the eventual winning boat was split open.  Skippers elected to reduce sail after the lunch break, as on downwind boards boats were becoming difficult to stop for a re-trim.
 
The racing was often close and exciting.  The windward leg was more of a fetch, and boats would arrive at the wind-shadow under the trees neck and neck.  Down-wind the choice was between the angled bank on the clubhouse side, or the trees!  However, by the end of the day two full rounds had been completed, and the winner by a single point was Chris Harris, from Shaun Wyeth.
 
Analysis of the results also showed Chris Harris to have won the beats by three point, while Graham Reeves lovely new lightweight planked 'Highland Fling' took the downwind honours, by a single point from Mike Harris.
 
RESULTS
 
1st        Chris Harris/Ray Baker              34
2nd        Shaun Wyeth/Graham Wyeth    33
3rd        Mike Harris/Brian Jones             28
4th        Martin Dovey/Ray Baker             25
5th        Graham Reeves/John Newey      17
6th        Mervyn Cook/Peter Fothergill      13
 
The results count for the League Championship     
 






The Metropolitan and Southern Vane 36 Championship.
 
Sunday July 5th gave us beautiful sunshine, and a blustery 15 knot South West breeze, ideal conditions for modern vane 36's.  The sailing was exciting, with the boats powering to windward, and the racing close.  
 
Two full rounds were completed, enabling each boat to race every other boat, with choice both ways.  By the end of the day Mike Dann's Diversion Mk2 'Hhot' was a clear winner, and was also top scorer for the windward boards.  Second was Jacque Cook's 'Rrred' , with top points for the down-wind legs.
 
While the turn-out for this event was somewhat lower than expected, the meeting was a great success, and the club plans to build on this for next years District Championship.
The Vane 36 fleet continues to grow, and it is becoming clear that the modern boats are both fast and easy to sail.
Why not join us on any Friday morning, and try it for yourself?

Four boats braved the heavy rain for Saturday's racing, the sixth in the vane 36 series.  The racing was exciting in the boisterous south-westerly breeze, which at 17 knots was at the top of the number 2 rigs.  Several boards were won by the closest of margins.  First by a single point was Mike Dan's new ultra-narrow Gecko, which flew downwind like an arrow.  Second was Jacque Cook's Rrred, beaten on one down-wind leg, but top boat to windward.  Bruce Prole's venerable Spider was sporting a temporary, simpler vane gear, which despite the lack of points sailed the boat very effectively.
 
The next race in the club series will be on August 8th.
Racing these fast little vane boats is very good fun.  Why not come and see what the buzz is all about?
 
1st        Mike Dann            12 points
2nd        Jacque Cook         11 points
3rd        Peter Fothergill        7 points
4th         Bruce Prole            0 points
The seventh Saturday of the series was raced in beautiful sunny summer weather, in an unfortunately light and fluky breeze.  The underlying direction was from the north, but with the sea-breeze was struggling to appear all day.  The resultant fickleness of the breeze created some tense situations, and there were some very close finishes among the six boats. 
 
The varied fleet included two Sybora designs, a Mk 2 Diversion, a Mk1 Diversion, a super-narrow Gecko, and Pete and Julie Lawley's home designed and built boat.
 
In the end Mike Dann's new Gecko tied for first place with Peter Fothergill's Sybora.  Peter won the upwind legs, with 100% wins, while Mike took the downwinds, also with 100% success.  Jacque Cook was third overall, and Max and Chris tied for fourth position.
 
Don't miss the next 36 racing Saturday, scheduled for September the 5th.  That will be the final chance to get your boat into tune before the Nationals, over the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October.       

1st equal        Mike Dann and Peter Fothergill        19 pts
3rd                 Jacque Cook                                  15 pts
4th equal        Chris Durant and Max Buttimer         10 pts
6th                 Julie Lawley                                      2 pts
Saturday, September the 5th.
 
This was day 8 of the club series.  It had been a very windy week, but Saturday offered a beautiful day, bright and gusty;
15 knots from the west.  It gave excellent beats to the gas-works end, and plenty of poling practice.  Most skippers opted for rig 2, with some changing down to 3 as the wind increased during the day. 
 
Boats were flying down-wind, with a few spectacular nose-dives in the gusts.  Unusually, Mike Dann's new Gecko was one of them, largely due to having removed a large chunk of bow during heavy-weather trials the day before, and soaked up quite a weight of salt water into the foam in the nose!
 
Four boats raced, and a full -double' round was completed.
Racing was close, particularly down-wind, Mike winning one from Jacque's Diversion by a fore-deck length.  But it was to be Peter Fothergill's day.  His Sybora was enjoying the breeze, and Peter's guying  was most effective in working the shifts.  By the end of the round, Peter had only dropped two boards, one to Peter and Julie Lawley, and one to Mike Dann. 
 
The next racing for 36's is the National Championships, on the 10th and 11th of October.  Make it a firm date; mates and scorerers will be much appreciated.
 
    1st        26 points        Peter Fothergill
    2nd       16 points         Jacque Cook
    3rd        14 points        Mike Dann
    4th        4 points          Pete and Julie Lawley 

VANE 36 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2009

 

HELD AT GOSPORT MODEL YACHT AND BOAT CLUB 10TH AND 11TH OCTOBER

 

 

The 14 entrants commenced business on the warm and sunny Saturday morning and with a westerly breeze of 12-14 knots with a slight northerly bias on and off. Whilst this ensured excellent beats with lots of pole work and varied spinnaker runs along the Gosport lake, the frequent and very variable wind shifts ensured that competitors were kept on their toes to try and maintain competitive position.

 

At the end of the first day, nine full heats had been completed and the Race Officer opted to race the remaining four on the Sunday to ensure a full round with plenty of time for any re-sails and other delays.

 

At that point it was clear that the Sunday was going to be nerve wracking, as the leaders were separated by only four points and the next two within a point of each other and very few points behind the leaders.

 

The forecast for the Sunday morning indicated steadily rising wind strength, peaking at around 1 pm at about 18 knots.

 

Come Sunday and with rain in the air the wind direction had moved slightly to westerly but with a southerly bias this time, and causing a potential hazard of the infamous ‘Gosport Knuckle’ syndrome for those not experienced enough to avoid it.

 

It was obvious that the remaining heats were going to provide some superb sailing when the first pair off in heat ten set the tone for the day, and the Race Officer to miss several heartbeats, when Chris Harris and Mark Dicks beat Martin Dovey and Bill Green both up and back by the slightest of margins in distance terms after some superb boat handling and sail and vane settings with boats neck and neck virtually all the time.

 

Thereafter it was gratifying to see some really close finishes by all the competitors after runs both up and down the lake although the frequent wind shifts continued to provide some interesting challenges to all of them.

 

The final result hinged (inevitably perhaps!) on the final downwind board of the last boats off in heat thirteen. The upwind leg between Chris Harris from Bournville and relative newcomer Jacque Cook of the Gosport club had resulted in a ‘Giant Killer’ win of three points for Jacque and a nerve wracking run back for Chris and Mark, who, had they lost that run to Jacque would have then had to face a sail off with Bill and Martin, with both boats prior to that run standing on a score of 51 points.

In the event, experience, the setting of a slightly smaller spinnaker than that of Jacque and a great downwind performance secured for Chris and Mark the first place and the trophy.

 

I must place on record my grateful thanks to both Janet Harris and Julie Lawley who both looked after the finishing line and scoring in weather which although dry was most unpleasant when metaphorically ‘tied to the spot’ for a length of time.

Also to Pete Lawley who started the boats for me with a firm but humorous hand at all times and to all our other Gosport members involved in running the event, especially Jacque Cook who as well as managing all the arrangements so successfully actually sailed as well.

Although she was not really in the running for a prize herself she was delighted to see her husband Mervyn (who with Jacque has been so instrumental in bringing back the vane 36’s to Gosport) manage third place.

The final result was:

 

1          Chris Harris / Mark Dicks                               53 points

2          Bill Green / Martin Dovey                              51

3          Mervyn Cook / Robbie Claridge                     45

4          Mike Harris / Bryan Jones                               43

5          Peter Fothergill                                               40

6          Graham Wyeth / John Gale                             37

6          Peter Hopkins                                                 37

8          Ray Baker / Arnie Peace                                 35

9          Lisa McKurcher / Neil Rothwell                     33

10        Jacque Cook / John Storey / Mike Dann         25

11        Max Buttimer  / Bruce Prole                           22

12        Lisa Reeves                                                     12

13        Graham Reeves                                               12

14        John Newey / Richard Cole                            10

 

 

 

Chris Durant, Gosport MYBC

Race Officer                                                 

Last weekend's club series day was the penultimate race of the 2009 series.  It was held in a deceptive westerly breeze, shifting from WNW to WSW at the finish, at the gas-works end.  Five boats raced, including John Smith's striking new bright yellow Diversion.  Unfortunately John hadn't had time to complete many rigs, and he was forced to use his tiny No3 rig, when everyone else was using the  No 1's.  Despite this, his boat showed impressive promise of performance to come.
 
The shifting breezes led to quite few re-sails, but by the end of the round it became very clear that Jacque Cook's Diversion was in the lead, having dropped only two points in the whole day.  Jacque also showed the way in spinnaker usage, forcing opponents to bring their polythene bags out of hiding.  Great sailing was had by all!
 
The last race of the series is on the 14th November. 
The overall points score is extremely close, with Mike Dann still leading with 56 points, over Peter's 55.  Third equal with 53 points each are Max and Jacque.  Saturday week could be very exciting as any one of four skippers could still win. 
As usual in vane sailing, you haven't won until you have crossed the line!
 
Saturday 31st October
 
1st        Jacque Cook            18 points
2nd        Peter Fothergill        15 points
3rd        Max Buttimer            9 points
4th        Mervyn Cook            5 points
5th        John Smith               3 points