RG65 UK Class Association

The weekend of 14^th to 15^th May saw the RG65 fleet compete for the 2022 National Championship at Princes Park lake, Eastbourne, home venue of Eastbourne & District Model Yacht Club.

Of the 23 yachts entered, 22 made it to the start line on Saturday morning after a briefing by event PRO and Eastbourne club member Peter Kemp.

Peter, a relative newcomer to radio yachting in DF95s and IOMs, is an experienced dinghy and keelboat sailor and brought his experience and skill to the running and management of the event. Peter was also a school teacher at one point in a long and varied career, so keeping the class in order was second nature, with firm but fair decisions made throughout the two days of racing.

There was an International flavour  with entries from the USA – Martin Gray, France – Achille Chatin, Spain – Victor Izquierdo Rodriguez, Switzerland – Tobias Laux, and UK based Argentinian skipper Agustin Moreno.

Previous title winners were also present, namely, Graham Elliott, Tobias Laux and Agustin Moreno.

A total of 23 races were sailed on the Saturday in light to moderate southerly winds with wall to wall sunshine, after all,, Eastbourne is the sunshine capital of the south coast, thus allowing a long windward/leeward course to be set within the topographical limits of the lake.

To give a detailed breakdown of how the racing and positions unfolded would be too exhaustive to record here, but by the end of day one and 23 races, Graham Elliott with his Electronica had a firm grip on proceedings at 29 points and he appeared to be on his way to another UK National title unless something major occurred. Victor Rodriguez (Uno) sat in second place overnight on 92 points. Rohan Williams from Two Islands with his new Uno design was in third on 101, Peter Baldwin from Birkenhead again sailing a Uno was fourth on 109, and Achille Chatin was lying fifth on 122 giving the Uno even more presence in the battle of the hull designs.

Saturday evening was spent by most at a local Italian restaurant and some ventured on to local hostelries as one would expect. Of course, the second most important event of the year after the RG65 Nationals, was also taking place, namely the FA Cup and then there was of course Eurovision. All in all, a surfeit of televisual delight awaited competitors after their day on the water and a tasty Italian meal!

Then Sunday came with far less fanfare than the previous day and Eastbourne’s sunshine capital reputation was in tatters, it was overcast and initially with winds of reasonable strength but this time from the eastern to north-eastern quadrant and with rain also forecast. When racing did get going after an initial postponement, it was all A rig racing despite the stiffer wind indications given on a number of weather forecasting apps.

A further 10 races were completed when the fickle winds allowed and after an enforced postponement of approximately 2 hours over the lunchtime period which was long enough for the only protest hearing of the event to be heard.

Graham Elliott with his red Brad Gibson designed Electronica again reigned supreme and tightened his stranglehold over the title with a final tally of 41 points from a total of 33 races!

Victor Izquierdo Rodriguez was second on 129, Rohan Williams kept up a great string of results to take third on 158, while Achille Chatin moved into 4^th after two late in the day first place finishes in the dying breeze on 158 points. Peter Baldwin took the fifth spot with 167 points.

If anyone fancies a nice break in the South of France with some RG65 racing, the French Nationals will be held in Antibes 23^rd,24^th and 25^th September and they are keen to encourage overseas entries.

Results Page 1 of 2

Results Page 2 of 2

Results can be seen at https://edmyc.org.uk/2022-open-meeting-results/

Just remember to scroll left to see the scores for the two days.

Report by EDMYC and more photos thanks to Julian Tyrer on the RG65 UK Class Association Facebook page.

 

The first round of the GBR RG65 TT series was hosted by Lincoln Radio Sailing Club on Friday 1^st April. The experiment of holding a race on a Friday before a DF TT weekend unfortunately did not work out, it was hoped we would swell our numbers with either RG’s or a few would enter and use their Dragonforce 65’s as a practice for the TT race’s being held on the Saturday.

Still, 17 RG65’s entered and were welcomed to the club by our PRO for the day Pete Walters at 9.45, Pete proved himself a great PRO for the day, keeping racing ticking over nicely and setting some great startling line’s and courses which was not the easiest job with the wind swinging in direction over the day, using a pole on the bank as one end of the start line was a good idea, as no time was lost to alter the bias.

Racing started at 10am prompt with most skippers opting for the ‘B’ rig, some swing and some conventional. It was Graham Elliott sailing his Brad Gibson designed Electronica who set the early pace winning 6 out of the first 8 races but the pack was not far behind led by Peter Baldwin sailing his Uno and Derek Priestley sailing his newly acquired Scurry design.

At around 1pm a 40 minute lunch was called and this gave skippers a chance to escape the elements and get warmed up as most were now drenched by snow, rain, sleet and frozen to the bone by the wind chill factor and freezing conditions. To think only one week ago I was in shorts planting bedding plants and having a Guinness on the patio, what happened to Spring?

After lunch, the wind continued to go from ‘A’ rig to ‘C’ rig gusts in a matter of minutes and it was Peter Baldwin that mounted his challenge winning races 9,10 and 11 with Tobias Laux sailing his new design, Deadbeat65, also making progress, his new design certainly was an improvement in these conditions, especially downwind, even with an extra set of 60g batteries in the boat that he had forgot about, sandbagging before the Nationals in 5 weeks maybe?

Pete called it a day at 4pm, just as the sun decided to come out and 16 races sailed. Race winners were, Graham Elliott (8), Peter Baldwin (5), Derek Priestley (1), Tobias Laux (1) and Jim La Roche (1).

Many thanks must go to the Lincoln club, they always do the best they can to ensure the skippers have great sailing under some challenging conditions, special thanks must also go to Jen Hand and Judith Baldwin who finished every race in what can only be described as filthy weather.

The 2022 UK RG65 Nationals will take place over the weekend of 14th and 15th May 2022 at Eastbourne & District MYC. Entry has now opened via the MYA website by following this link. The Event NoR is also available on this event page and any Entry will need to be accompanied by an online payment of £20 for the Entry fee.