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.
Category: Events & Results Page 1 of 2
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 Conrad-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 Conrad-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 Conrad-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.
The first round of the GBR RG65 TT series was hosted by Lincoln Radio Sailing Club on Friday 1st 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.
Birkenhead RS & PC have issued the NoR and opened entry for Rounds 1 & 2 of this years limited TT series.
Here is a link to the NoR and other information including the links to enter on their website (no payment required):
Sadly I bring the news that I am sure you will be expecting. Our final RG65 TT at Datchet on 3 October has been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.
Therefore, as we have only manged to run the first two rounds of the 2020 TT at Birkenhead in March we will not score the overall series this year. Let’s hope that we can make up for it in 2021.
Speaking of 2021, we have decided that we will not schedule any TT events for the time being as we are expecting the COVID disruption to run well into next year. For now only the 2021 National Championships will be scheduled and added to the MYA Yearbook calendar, with other events added to the calendar on the website as and when they can be. We will give as much notice for these events as we can.
In the meantime we hope that you can all manage to get some local club sailing in.
Rounds 1&2 of the 2020 TT took place at Birkenhead on 14 & 15 March.
Round 1
Conditions as the 18 sailors arrived at the club did not seem to match the forecast with a light and fitful SE breeze blowing from the clubhouse and overcast conditions. Race Officer Martin Roberts setup for a Windward Leeward course using a spreader mark and a single leeward mark for the first few races. Alex Cory (minus 10) convincingly took the first race having been in the right place for the breeze off the line. John Tushingham (Scurry) then took the wins for races 2 and 3, with John Brierley (Uno) and Vernon Appleton (Argon) taking podium places in two of those races. After fixing a problem with his boat, Tobias Laux (Nuraghe) then picked up a win in his first race, with Peter Baldwin (Pocket Rocket), taking the win in race 5, before a break in racing took place for a hot drink.
After the break the RO had moved the course around as the breeze moved to more of a Southerly direction, but with large shifts as the gusts came over the houses and down onto the water. It was also time for a light shower dampening everyone’s enthusiasm, although the wind shifts were not making it easy for anyone. In the second session before lunch, Alex took two more wins, with John Brierley and Tobias one each.
After lunch, there was a further course change for the RO to complete as the wind was not settling down in direction and if anything increasing slightly in strength. Alex again made the most of the conditions winning two further races and taking two seconds, with Noel Donaldson (Uno) and Peter one each. The last session of three races, saw wins for John Tushingham, John Brierley and Tobias.
When the scores were totalled up after 16 races, there was a tie on 35 points between Alex Cory and John Tushingham, with Alex taking the overall win with a greater number of wins (5) against John who only had 3. The final podium place went to John Brierley five points behind them. The final results showed seven different designs in the first seven places, although the “Minus 10” is a narrower derivative of the Scurry and seemed suited to the conditions we had during this day.
Thanks to Martin Roberts, Bernie and Judith for running the racing and Chris for running the galley, providing hot drinks and serving up cake for everyone.
Round 2
Sunday was a new day and a on to the next Round, although the wind was very similar in both strength (4 knots) and direction (SE) to the start of Saturday. This time it was down to John Brierley as RO to find the best course to set for the reduced fleet of only 13 competitors. He managed to get the fleet underway on time after a short briefing and description of the course. At least everyone started the first race unlike the start of Saturday.
Alex Cory started the day with a win as he did on Saturday, followed in race 2 by John Tushingham with Peter Baldwin taking Race 3, Tobias Laux Race 4 followed by John Race 5 before a short drinks break. Meanwhile John Brierley was working hard to change the course and the fleet restarted after the break with a longer course as the breeze picked up and slowly swung more to the West. John Tushingham again took Races 6 and 9 before Graham Elliott had his first wins in races 7 and 8. With the wind increasing even more, all sailors had changed down a rig by Race 10, which was won by Peter Baldwin, before an early break for lunch was taken. The RO moved the course further round during the lunch break and the afternoon was spent with some excellent B Rig racing and a breeze that was almost straight down the lake, with the sun putting in an appearance to warm everyone up.
Peter Baldwin took wins in Races 11, 13 and 16, John Tushingham also had three wins in races 14, 15 and 17, with Graham Elliott the only one to spoil their successes with a win in Race 12.
John Tushingham easily took the overall win with only 25 points, followed by Graham Elliott in second with 41 points and Peter Baldwin one point behind in third.
Thanks must go to John Brierley, Bernie and Judith for running Sundays racing and Chris and Jocelyn for running the galley keeping us all topped up with welcome hot drinks and yet more cake.
Now that is how all PROs should dress 
On his way back from a quick Panic Buying session
Finally, congratulations to everyone in the fleet for sailing competitively yet fairly over the two days. We look forward to welcoming the RG65 fleet back next year.
That’s it, the 2019 TT is done. Going into the last event the winner was already secured, 2nd was almost safe but 3rd and 4th were vulnerable to a few people who would be adding their 5th score to count towards the series.
In the end all of those 4 places remained unchanged but there was some significant movement in the places thereafter.
You can see the full results table HERE
Well done to John Tushingham for securing another series title with 494 points out of a possible 500.
John Tushingham – 1st 
John Brierley – 2nd 
Liz Tushingham – 3rd 
Wayne Stobbs – 4th 
Noel Donaldson – 5th
There was a special award made to Neil Westbrook who was the only person to take part in every round of the 2019 TT. Well done Neil.
Thanks to all 50 participants and we look forward to seeing you all for the 2020 series
15 Skippers took part in the final round of the 2019 TT at Two Islands on Saturday with a number of people needing good scores to get them to move up the overall standings.
The forecast was for light winds and rain, and that forecast proved to be very accurate. At least the wind direction was quite consistent, so everyone only needed to deal with the big wind shifts caused by the houses, trees, islands etc. Nicely challenging.
it is safe to say that Tobias Laux turned up intent to repeat his performance from the recent National Championships, but he met some stiff opposition from a number of others.
Another very notable appearance on the water was Clive Cockayne’s Sith sporting a single sail rig, which his own admission, was a shot in the dark. It proved to power the boat very well and I have no doubt that we will see it again after some minor adjustments to the fullness.
Sadly we do not have any pictures of the sailing as everyone was on the water for the single fleet racing, and our resident photographer was off at another event.
At the end of the day, John Tushingham took the event win after 20 races with 30 points, followed by Tobias on 44 points and Alex Cory on 52.
The full scoresheet sheet can be viewed HERE
Thank you to all of the Race Team for running the day. Great Job.