Fred's Big Toephy 2013

  Absolutely horrid weather conditions greeted competitors at Guildford Model Yacht Club's Abbey Meads lake on Sunday 10th February. Not all 14 entries from 7 clubs turned up, no doubt put off by the forecast of continuous rain and a cold SE wind. Those that braved the bad weather were rewarded with 16 races and the combined enthusiasm kept everyone cheerful.

The forecast was realised except that the wind was more favourable coming from an ESE direction, allowing Race Officer, Martin Crysell, to set a simple windward leeward course close to the control area with a leeward gate and windward spreader. However the forecast strong winds did not materialise and the wind on the course was light with vicious swirling gusts, very variable in direction, allowing most to use their biggest rigs or the next one down.

The pattern of the day was set in Race 1, with Hugh McAdoo winning with his ICE, sporting a brand-new 'JUSTIN' Stollery swing rig. Rob Vice was second and Roger Stollery third, both sailing ICE designs. With the exception of Race 4, won by Rob and his 550mm high rig and Race 9 won by Roger also using a 'JUSTIN' rig, Hugh won the next 8 races with ease. There was a short break for lunch under the shelter of the club's gazebo or that put up by the keen Abington club members in anticipation of the poor conditions.
Another 7 races were sailed in similar, but slightly stronger wind conditions.

Hugh did not have it all his own way only winning Races 11 and 13, letting Roger win Race 12 and Rob win Races 10, 12, 15 and 16. By this time all 3 had settled on the 550 high swing rigs. David Wilkinson recorded 6 thirds with his IAMBUS 2 design powered by his balanced una rigs, but could not catch the runaway ICEs.

The wet conditions did have an effect on radio gear, but not apparently in the boats. Several skippers experienced problems of wet transmitters, with loss of control at range etc. This happened to Rob Vice and after one race his ICE sailed a perfect straight-line course down the lake. It was a good job that Rob is good at rowing, because it was 300 metres before he could catch up with it!

A much greater effect of the wet conditions for everyone was the mud underfoot because the ground was already saturated before we arrived. At the end of the day nearly everything that was touched was either wet or muddy and all were pleased that Martin called it a day after Race 16, which gave 3 discards.

At the prize giving, Hugh thanked Martin and Peter Dunne for their efforts in running another good Footy event despite the conditions, standing around in the wet and cold, recording scores on increasingly soggy bits of paper.

Results for Fred’s Big Toephy:
Junior prize: CJ Vice Report by Roger Stollery 2013-02-11

Fred's Big Toephy
Guildford Model Yacht Club
10th February 2013			Race	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16		Discards			Final
No	Name	Type	Sail No																	Total	1	2	3	Total
1	Hugh McAdoo	Ice	87	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	3	8	1	2	1	2	3	4	33	8	4	3	18
2	Rob Vice	Ice	41	2	4	3	1	3	2	4	3	2	1	3	1	2	3	1	1	36	4	4	3	25
3	Roger Stollery	Ice	17	3	3	2	11	2	6	2	2	1	2	2	4	5	1	2	2	50	11	6	5	28
4	David Wilkinson	Iambus2	46	6	5	4	3	6	4	3	4	4	3	4	3	3	4	4	3	63	6	6	5	46
5	Peter Jackson	Box	30	7	8	7	4	4	5	5	11	11	7	8	6	6	5	5	5	104	11	11	8	74
6	CJ Vice	Ice	48	4	2	5	5	5	7	7	5	6	5	5	11	11	11	11	11	111	11	11	11	78
7	Peter Shepherd	Box	65	5	6	6	7	8	3	8	8	7	4	8	7	4	7	7	11	106	11	8	8	79
8	Keith Parrott	Ice	31	9	10	8	6	9	8	9	7	8	6	9	5	7	6	6	6	119	10	9	9	91
9	Paul Risdale	Wice	53	8	7	9	8	7	9	6	6	5	9	7	11	11	11	11	11	136	11	11	11	103
10	Richard Kirkham	Supabug	117	10	9	10	11	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	171	11	11	11	138

Additional note to the report

Mention is made of the ‘JUSTIN’ rig in this report. This is 625 mm high rig designed to ‘just’ fit inside the Experimental Footy rig Template. This template was designed around the biggest rigs (highest and widest) that were in use prior to the rule change in 2009: i.e. this was the established practice in the UK after a four-year period of the Footy rule’s existence.

My standard Footy rigs at that time were of the widest category, but not the highest. So there was an opportunity to have a slightly bigger rig than my biggest compliant rig, which was the 550 mm high sail plan to fit within the Template. Directly after the rule change I demonstrated how stupid it was to permit increasingly bigger rigs with rigs of 1000, 750 and 650 mm high and proportionally wide.

This ‘JUSTIN’ rig is my first attempt at designed to fit within the template and based on the results at this event it would appear to be OK.