The race team turned up to 15-18 mph winds from the north with light drizzle. Fortunately the drizzle stopped around 09:00 never to reappear. This just left the wind where it was and the skippers debating which rig to start with.
Racing got under way at 10:00 with Graham Elliott taking the first win followed by Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams. This was followed by an enforced break while the Sea Scouts launched their dinghies. The wind eased slightly during the break so all started race 2 with top rigs.
Although the wind strength was fairly consistent throughout the morning the direction wasn’t, there was fair amount of mark moving. 10 races were managed by lunchtime with Graham Elliott taking 9 wins and Chris Elliot the 10th. Second and third places were shared between the rest of the fleet.
We continued after lunch but after 4 races, in a break and without warning, the wind veered 90 degrees in around 30 seconds and stayed there for the rest of the day. A new course was quickly set on a different part of the lake and racing got under way again.
By the end of the day we had managed 22 races with 17 wins to Graham Elliott, Rohan Williams 3 wins, Chris Elliott and Dorian Crease with 1 each.
Later that evening, several beers were drunk, Toby Laux joined us and a good curry was eaten.
Thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson and John Nash for their help in running the event. Results as follows:
RG65 TT 2023 R1 15 Apr 2023 713727
It didn’t look very encouraging on arrival Sunday morning. The water looked like glass. By 09:00 a few puffs here and there had appeared from the south. A course was set and racing started at 09:30.
2 races were completed in light airs before the wind backed to the east and increased to 10-12 mph. Once again a new course was set on the same part of the lake as on the Saturday. It stayed there for the rest of the day.
19 races were completed, Graham Elliott with 11 wins, Toby Laux with his new Ivy got 6 wins, Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams had 1 each.
Again, thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson, John Nash and Ian Lloyd for their help.
2023 TT Series
East Kent are finalising details for the first TT at Bartons Point on 15/16 April and hope to issue an NoR in the near future.
Potential Continental Championship
We thought that you might like to know that there is a Continental Race in the planning for 2024. The likely venue is Lake Idro (20km West of Garda) over the period of 12-16th April 2024. We will provide more details when the dates and location etc are confirmed. As there is likely to be a limit on entries per country, the GBR RG65 NCA will be using the 2023 Traveller series as a qualifying ranking series. The plan is to use a competitors best 5 counting races from the 11 events in this years Calendar. At this time we do not have allocation information per country.
The UK 2023 Traveller Series Events have been published on the Calendar page here
Results as follows:
Sunday pictures thanks to Judith, although light levels were a little poor for the mobile phone camera.
Overall Results have been updated after Birkenhead and available on the Overall Results page here
Here is how the series overall stands after 5 events. With 9 events in total and 5 to count for the series, there is plenty of opportunity for the standings to change by the end of the season.
Rounds 4 and 5 of the TT took place at Keighley on the 16th and 17th July.
A great days sailing on Saturday in a breeze which was generally towards the top end of full size swing rig. Later in the day some sailors did change down to a full size conventional or low aspect full size swing after a few nose dives but the winner held onto his Swing Rig all day. Winner was once again Chris Elliott, with Peter Baldwin 2nd and John Brierley third, all sailing Uno’s.
After a slow start and delay of about 90 minutes due to a distinct lack of wind, 17 races were completed on Sunday in conditions that were difficult for the sailors, but more especially for the Race Officer, John Sharman.
The event started in swing rigs with about 4 or 5 knots of breeze, but by lunchtime, the breeze had picked up considerably averaging at least 8 knots, with gusts of around 15. Everyone therefore opted for a rig change, with a combination of low aspect swing and conventional rigs in use.
Unfortunately by the end of the day a number of sailors had gear failure so that having started with 10 boats only 7 were left racing.
Today was eventually won by John Tushingham in a Scurry, with Graham Elliott (Argon) second, and Peter Baldwin (Uno) third.
The locations for TT6 & TT7 have now been agreed as a weekend event consisting of two separate days of racing at the Two Islands Radio Yacht Club on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September 2022. Further details and NoR will be available in due course.
Every now and again things come together to create a special event. 15 very capable skippers with well sorted boats, wind in the right direction and strength, and a reasonable day, weather wise. The intention was to sail 16 or more races over a two lap, windward/leeward course with an upwind spreader mark and a downwind gate. Designs in use included Uno, Sith, Scurry and a lone Argon and Visionary. All were carbon or glass, having no 3D printed ones was a surprise.
Chris Elliot took the first heat, followed by Chris Cockayne in the second, John Brierly in 3&4, Peter Baldwin weighed in on 5, Augustin Moreno in 6 and so it went on. Putting the scores together at the 4 heat break points made for fascinating reading. The leading pack were swapping places with the overall lead changing at each heat. The quality of sailing ability was superb, rule observation was excellent, that was across the fleet and the event. A short break for lunch was taken and it was clear that it would be a struggle to get the 16 heats in the allotted time, after discussion with all the skippers, it was agreed to extend the finish time to 16 heats. If you look through the results, which I’m sure the skippers will, you can see it was a close-run thing between the top 3, Chris Elliot came out on top, taking also the new Midland District trophy, from the Birkenhead duo of Peter Baldwin (2nd) and John Brierley (3rd). There were a couple of withdrawals when boats and skippers broke but all stayed on to watch the racing. It was that sort of an event, a pleasure to take part in, and to run.
Bill Green – Race Officer
Heading photo by Gordon Sears and presentation photo’s by Rohan Williams.
Overall Series positions have also been updated and are available here
A Gallery of photo’s from the event is available here
The weekend of 14th to 15th 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 4th 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 23rd,24th and 25th 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.
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