Here are the revised overall series standings after Lincoln:
As the named ‘Storm Amy’ approached the UK toward the weekend, there was some concern that the planned events at Lincoln may not take place. However, 12 entrants arrived for the RG65 event on Saturday to an improved forecast and they enjoyed a truly excellent day of sailing in strong winds that topped 30 mph at times. These small boats really showed their versatility in the conditions.
The Lincoln race team of Martyn Aspinall (PRO), Jen Hand and Pete Walters were well prepared with Pete having set courses on the South and East banks in preparation for the anticipated change in wind direction. Racing commenced on the East bank with a 2.5 lap course taking around 11 minutes per race.
After a retirement in race one (which was won by Alan Bennett), John T got to grips with the conditions and scored 3 successive wins. The remaining wins of the day were shared between John T, Toby, Alan and Peter.
The wind frequently swung to a more Northerly direction for periods of time during the racing. This provided great opportunities for positional changes and required an inventive approach to the start line which was selected from various buoys and poles on the bank/jetty and frequently changed between races. The wind eventually did take a more Northerly direction and the final 2 races were conducted on the South bank.
A key factor to success for the skippers was maintaining boat functionality. The attrition rate was high (on boats and competitors) with only 6 boats from the initial 12 being launched for the final race and 5 finishing. Only 2 boats completed all the races without retirement.
At race 14, the event was wide open to winning by the leading three skippers. Alan suffered his fourth retirement in this race however, which scuppered his victory chances. Although Toby maintained his consistently good result record for the final 3 races, John T took 2 wins to take the day on count back from Toby. Congratulations John, hard luck Toby!
John Tushingham’s Ivy ploughing to victory!
Many thanks go to the competitors for turning up on such an off-putting forecast and to Chris for his enthusiasm that ’the boats would cope’. Thank you to Jen for braving the elements as scorer and inputting the results to HMS. Thanks also go to Peter for his invaluable rescue boat handling skills which were tested as he pro-actively moved buoys and collected disabled boats in the strong winds. The day was a great success ….. and we remained dry!
Author: Martyn Aspinal
Final results.
Dear RG65 sailors, entry is now open for the last rounds of the RG65 TT series at Woodspring MSC near Bristol on 8th and 9th November. The NoR and online entry forms can both be found on the MYA website.
There is also still time to sign up to the TT at Lincoln on 4th October, which promises to be a good event with currently 13 entries, and the Midland District Championships at Bournville RS&MBC on 11th October.
See you at the lake soon!
These are the overall results after 7 events having lost two at Bournville earlier in the year.
After two days and 32 races of intense and at times very close competition, the MYA 2025 RG65 National Champion is Alan Bennett sailing an Ivy. The other podium places were taken up by Tobias Laux (Ivy) in second and John Tushingham (Ivy) in third.
Saturday was sailed in a light ESE breeze which veered to a light to moderate SSW breeze in the early early afternoon, then tracked back to SE by late afternoon. Most skippers were sailing in full area Swing rigs for the whole day, although at one point it looked as it a lower aspect conventional rig might be needed before the breeze moderated. A total of 18 races were sailed, with Race 19 abandoned as a large course reset would take too long at the end of a great days sailing.
Sunday dawned with a lot more breeze and the forecast of showers (conditions as above). Saturday was sailed in short sleeves, with the breeze giving some respite from the very warm temperatures covering the UK. On Sunday, it was all change and at least one extra layer was required with the increase in breeze to an estimated 15 knots gusting low 20’s. All the smaller rigs came out with small B or C rigs in use through the fleet, with some skippers missing out as they either did not have a small enough rig, or had equipment issues during the day. Another fourteen races were sailed on a two lap figure of 8 course feathuring 4 beats and 4 runs in total, featuring some epic downwind legs in the gusts. Race Officer John Brierley called it a day at 32 races at around 15:15, just as a very heavy shower started which lasted for more than 30 minutes until the end of the prize giving in the clubhouse.
Winner Alan Bennett thanked everyone from attending and all of those who volunteered their time to run the event and keep everyon fed and “watered” in the galley.
Sorry for the late posting, but here is the full list of TT Series events for 2025
22/3/25 TT Round 1 – Birkenhead
23/3/25 TT Round 2 – Birkenhead
12/4/25 TT Round 3 – Fleetwood
13/4/25 TT Round 4 – Fleetwood
26/4/25 TT Round 5 – Bournville (Cancelled – Weed)
27/4/25 TT Round 6 – Bournville (Cancelled – Weed)
3/5/25 TT Round 7 – Bartons Point
4/5/25 TT Round 8 – Bartons Point
21&22/6/25 Nationals @Keighley
23/8/25 TT Round 9 – Two Islands
24/8/25 TT Round 10 – Two Islands
27/9/25 TT Round 11 – Woodspring
28/9/25 TT Round 12 – woodspring
4/10/25 TT Round 13 – Lincoln
Please refer to the MYA Events page for any changes and to make an entry to an event.
Other sports might call it “a game of two halves” but Fleetwood, instead, decided to provide two very different sailing conditions on each of the days for the RG65 skippers that had travelled far and wide to visit!!The nice steady breeze that greeted the Friday afternoon arrivals lulled everyone into a false sense of security as to what would happen for the rest of the weekend…..
Saturday started with lots of sun but light winds from the Clubhouse corner (East) and during the day moved generally to the worst direction for Fleetwood i.e. an “over the Care Home” SSE direction. Unfortunately, this was not a nice steady move but complete with regular shifts of +/-80 degrees, huge holes in the wind, and gusts that would flatten any rig and very unusually for Fleetwood a weed problem. This caused problems for the skippers with huge gains and losses throughout the races with no place being “safe”. The race team were also struggling trying to set upwind legs resulting in a number of changes of courses, start lines, course lengths etc. were needed during the day.
Alan Bennett (68) was quickest out of the blocks with his Ivy in the morning session with two quick wins followed by two second places seeming almost immune to the occasional weed issue. Nearly everyone else suffered from a weed issue during one or two races in the morning that proved, if you got weeded, and had a hole in the wind when trying to get to the bank you could easily give 1/3 of the lake away trying to clear it. As a result, during the morning SEVEN other skippers had a top three result in the morning but only Vernon Appleton (Ivy, 73) and John Berry (Uno, 97) managing the top step.
Unfortunately, Jim La Roche’s new hull developed a severe leak during the first race that retired him and put him out for the rest of the day despite his full efforts to repair it. After lunch the weed problem continued to get worse with even the previously almost weed free Alan getting multiple issues per race. As a result Chris Elliot (Ivy, 74), Olly Murray (Scurry, 67), Vernon Appleton (Ivy, 73), Bill Culshaw (Ivy, 21) and John Tushingham (Ivy, 51) all set off in pursuit of low scores to try and chase him down. The weed problem continued to worsen as the day progressed and, with races seven and eight being nearly a pure weed lottery, by general agreement the racing was finished slightly early after the eighth race. It transpired that Alan’s early performance meant even Chris’ super consistent performance in the afternoon was not enough to fully close the gap but did give him second place overall and Olly had a couple of race wins in the afternoon to finish only 1 point behind Chris for third.
The next three places only had three points between them as well, keeping stress level high throughout the fleet.
After the prize giving many of the skippers adjourned for a well-deserved meal and libation.
Sunday dawned with the sort of conditions that make Fleetwood famous, it was rather greyer than Saturday and brightened as the day progressed (no rain though) but with much, much stronger, steadier almost straight down the lake breeze. This eased the course setting but also reducing the weed issue by being able to avoid the area most of the weed had blown into.
There were enough shifts to challenge the skippers on the beats and enough gusts to make rig choice and boat set up also paramount. The conditions also pushed boats hard and exposed any potential issues. Alan Bennett (Ivy, 68) set off the same way he had the day before winning three of the four races before the coffee break with Chris Elliot (Ivy, 74), John Tushingham (Ivy, 51) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy, 21) all chasing hard. Jim La Roche in a borrowed boat (Ivy) was also in the mix until an electrical gremlin after a third place in Race three stopped him for a few races during the morning.The next session up to lunch time was more of the same up front but highlighted the differences in boat speed between a “just right” set up that easily coped with the waves, gusts and could be tacked and “not quite right” settings that stopped in troughs and could be really difficult to tack with Alan recording a further three wins in this session. Damian Ackroyd (Smartie, 101) finding the slightly shorter keel on his boat not helping in the conditions and had other issues missing a few races during this session.
After the lunch break the gremlins really kicked in and the unluckiest skipper of the weekend, Jim La Roche had a second electrical gremlin but this one put him out for the rest of the day, Olly Murray (Scurry, 67) also called it day with electrical issues and then Chris had a radio issue and a subsequent rig break that also put him out. Vernon Appleton (Ivy, 73) and Damian also succumbed to gremlins early in this session. That left a hardy bunch of six skippers flying up and down the lake for the final five races. Young George Bennett (Uno, 71) continued to impress sailing and coping well with the conditions and recording a couple of 4th places during the day (to go with his 2nd and two 4th from the day before). Alan carried on in the same form from the morning despite the efforts from John, Bill, Bob Conner (Ivy, 14) and Alan Watkinson (Uno, 23) all of which got close (or even in front) of Alan at times but he had absolutely nailed his set up for his rig and watching his boat speed, against the higher pointing smaller rigs, had many of the spectators playing guessing games as the outcome of each beat.At the end of the fourteen races with a WORST discard of a second place Alan had easily taken first place, John’s slightly more consistent afternoon gave him second place over Bill in a well desired third place. Derek Priestley, fresh from his Croatian exploits arrived in time to present the prizes.
Another day and a different breeze – one that was difficult to find as it kept itself well hidden for most of the morning. Our RO and chief wader Paul Plested was kept busy moving marks around in an attempt to create a course that allowed for some racing without it being a procession. We started sailing from the clubhouse end, then the wind had other ideas and we sailed the opposite way around for a short while before returning to something like the original course. How long should the course be was the key question today as at times, race duration extended to 20 minutes for two laps and so had to be shortened and then lengthened again when the breeze picked up towards the end of racing. Paul did a sterling job in both trying to keep racing going whilst also rescuing boats that seem to wrap themselves on the mark tubes with insufficient brreze to remove themselves. The breeze did pick up and straighten to come from the far end for the last three races, but after the earlier difficult sessions racing was finished after 12 races.
Onto the racing; today it was John Tushinghams’ turn to be leader of the pack with five wins from the 12 races sailed and take the overall win. Next in terms of race wins was Tobias Laux with 4 wins, but relegated to third place by Alan Bennett with just two (all sailing Ivy’s) and Peter Baldwin (Uno) with one. Bill Culshaw sailed consistently all day and took the fourth place overall, leaving a clutch of four Ivy’s at the top of the leader board. Peter Baldwin and Robert Macintosh were both sailing Uno’s and picked up fifth and sixth spots.
We should have had fifteen boats racing today, but unfortunately one boat had terminal arm winch failure before we started sailing. Another couple of boats had issues which put paid to their event and an early homeward journey. Chris Elliott was one of these, which was unfortunate as he had shown good boat speed in a number of races, but unfortunately was having issues for most of the day, which had stopped him from performing well overall.
Special mention to our Junior member George, who stuck at it, with what can only be described as very tricky wind conditions finishing 11th overall with a number of eight and ninth places and a prize for being first junior.
Thanks go once again to Paul Plested and wife Sharon for running the racing assisted today by Malcolm Harvey carrying out the scoring and for Joss managing the galley once again as well as bringing yet more cookies after we had eaten most of yesterdays batch. Paul also found time when not in the waders to take more photos.
The next RG65 TT’s are at Fleetwood over the weekend of 12/13th April, with an NoR promised soon.
As sailors and the event team started to arrive, there was already a nice ESE breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse end. Our RO, Paul Plested soon donned the waders and worked with the Commodore to set out a windward leeward course starting at the far end of the lake. Setting a good start line proved to be a bit tricky as the wind was having difficulty on deciding whether it was from the top left or right corner.
After a short briefing, the fleet of 17 RG65’s got started on time in a decent mid to top suit A swing rig breeze, with just a couple of boats using a full sized conventional rig. The day was sailed at a decent but steady pace of 4 races followed by a break for a drink or lunch, with 16 races completed by the time the wind shut down (well actually reversed direction!) at around 16:00.
The day belonged to Alan Bennett sailing an Ivy with 7 wins, followed by Tobi Laux (another Ivy) with four, Graham Elliott (Electronica) with three, then Martin Roberts (Uno) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy) with one each. Aside from these race winners, a number of boats had some good results and even had the lead at some point, but unfortunately never quite made that elusive first place. Chris Elliott had a number of seconds after a difficult start to the day missing the first two races with gear problems. Peter Baldwin also had a good day, but never managed to capitalise on some decent positions mid race.Vernon Appleton and Roger Hopper were also going well with Vernon picking up a second and third during the day and based upon his speed later in the day, may well be better placed tomorrow.
As the full results sheet below will show, Alan Bennett not surprisingly won the day on 25 points, with Tobias Laux second on 32 points and then Graham Elliott in third on 41. It was close for fourth to seventh place with only 6 points separating these 4 boats.
Out thanks go to our RO Paul Plested and his assitant wife Sharon, Joss in the galley for making drinks and some great cookies and also to Paul for some cracking photos.