What is a Footy?

.... a small radio-control sailboat whose length is a mere 12 inches (30.5 cm). The hull can be made from a fiberglass mold or simply with thin sheets of balsa wood fitted together. Two servos are used, one to control the sail and one for the rudder. Some free plans are available.
 See the Footy types & our extensive "How to" pages.
The Footy class is a development class which means that anything not strictly prohibited by the rules is allowed, it has a growing following in the UK and is now an affiliated class of the Model Yachting Association of Great Britain.
To keep competition keen, the Footy designers have proposed a set of rules to keep all the boats similar to a certain degree. Visit the Rules page for details.

2022 Open Footy Events

 Freds Big Toephy
Guildford MYC
Wed 27th April 2022
​Mad March Hare
Whitefriars Sailing Club
Sat 26th March 2022
Videlo Globe Trophy
Frensham Pond
Sun 10th April 2022
Hollowell Radio Sailing Club Open
Hollowell Sailing Club
Sun 22nd May 2022
Provisional
Aldridge Open
Aldridge MBC
Sat 18th June 2022
Birmingham MYC Open
Sutton Sailing Club
Sat 16th July 2022
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Sail Footy UK encourages all it's participating skippers to sail within the guidelines of the RYA Racing Charter details of which can be found by clicking on the logo
Once you have completed your Footy or are near to completion UK Footy builders can fill out the registration form to register your boat here, this will ensure that your details are recorded  with the UK  events organiser where upon you will receive  prior notification of the UK Footy events.
Free Registration
The Footy Class now has so many registered skippers that we were having difficulties with our regular email account and recently moved over to a bulk email provider. If you are a registered Footy Skipper and haven't been recieving our notifications by email you can subscribe by following this link. You will be asked for your hull registration number on the form.

2016 Champions League

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With the change in format to include the wider Footydom, the 2016 Champions League kicked off in fine style with a Frensham Pond MYG recording the first set of results for their skippers towards the overall competition result. Not to be outdone Birmingham MYC held a first Winter Series event in January with club skippers registering their first points .
Keith Parrott was kind enough to furnish us with a report from Frensham Pond and the updated information will be added to the Club Report Blog throughout the year, so kepp checking back and if you want more information about the competition itself then it can be found on the 2016 Champions League page

MYA Acquaint Magazine Article

Has recently published an article about building the Fat Boy Slim, to find the further details referred to within the article please click here.

It has now been ten years since the Footy Class has it's first set of rules published and the technical office of the MYA were very much involved in the inception of those first rules. Being as much time has passed since the early days of Bobabout we thought it was time we took a look at one of the latest diagonal yachts and it's construction........
Footnote -  long time supporter of the Footy Class, Charles Smith the editor of Acquaint,  is stepping down from this role. Those of us who have rubbed shoulders with him at Footy meetings know him as one of life's gentlemen and I am sure the entire class wishes him the very best for the future. The Acquaints loss is Turning Pole's gain.
The Nov"ICE" competition will be running once again in 2015 as Roger has agreed to supply another ICE as a prize and we are able to provide trophies for Novice winners at each of the Footy Opens this year.

Cheddar Steam Club Day
14th May 2015
 After a brief conversation at this years Mad March Hare with a couple of Footy curious Cheddar Steam Club members and ourselves, we hatched a plan to attend their club and hold a Footy Day, where some of us who are longer in the tooth than others could pass along some of our experience to their skippers.
We arrived mid morning to a very warm welcome from the assembled members, after the introductions were all completed we ran a short lecture on the model yacht racing with Footy class yachts which touched upon everything from how it should fit in the box, the basic rules of racing to course setting skills.

Read More

Should I go LiPo?
With a number of the leading Footy skippers recently switching to 750 mAh single cell 3.7V  LiPo batteries linked to a voltage booster for increased reliability we thought it was time we covered their safe usage in another of our useful articles. Click Here
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Bob About No1 Picture by Charles Smith
 The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the sail number No1, this is the first Modern Era Footy to enter the UK, a Bobabout brought here by  John Cadenhead of Southwater Dabblers after a vist to Brett McCormack in NZ

"Nipper" by Bill Hagerup - a starters design

When Footy Guru Bill Hagerup was asked by the members of Back Bay Skippers Club, Wolfeboro, NH. to design a Footy for their members to build, he came up with the Back Bay "Nipper". As many of the prospective builders were inexperienced scratch builders he kept it simple but maintained many of the features of  the more exotic Footys within these pages, consequently what we have is a simple to build, inexpensive, good performing Footy ideal for builders just starting out. Click the links To see Bill's full build details & sail designs.

New  Soft Sail Details from Roger Stollery

Phil Tyler shares how he made the high aspect rudder on his SliM design
Peter Jackson reveals his fin making technique

Red Box Details Now here

Peter Jackson has recently been using a hull called the Red Box in many of the UK Footy events, the hull is a balsa derivative of the leading Footy ICE design. His results with this hull have been reasonably impressive with many top three finishes this year and a victory in the last round of the Midland Footy League. Peter has now taken the CAD drawing and converted them to a pdf format so that they can be down loaded and printed on A4.