Mad March Hare
15th March 2014
hosted by Costwold MYC

Report by David Wilkinson

It was a pleasure to finally be able to sail in perfect conditions at our ideal venue Lake 9 Cotswold Water Park after the recent bad weather. Today it was dry with sunny intervals and with a strengthening wind of  4 to 10 mph from the west. Ivan Kirk, the Cotswold Race Officer, set a triangle and sausage course parallel to the bank and we sailed 16 races to finish mid afternoon. It was a fairly long course for Footys, even with a good wind, so the course was shortened to one lap after lunch.

History - Mad March Hare - Past Winners

2008 - Peter Robinson - Dumper Truck

2009 - Trevor Thomas - Mistralette

2010 - Hugh McAdoo- ICE Maiden

2011 - Hugh McAdoo- ICE Maiden

2012 - Hugh McAdoo- ICE Maiden

2013 - Hugh McAdoo- ICE Maiden

2014 - Rob Vice - ICE

Rob Vice with his ICE took an early lead by winning the first 6 races in a row until on race 7 he lost control and his boat headed off up the lake between the two islands to the South West! The outboard motor on the rescue boat would not work after a long period of inactivity so Ivan rowed off
into the distance to retrieve it, giving a natural break for lunch. Peter Shepherd with his SliM design had a couple of disasters in the morning but otherwise was going well with seconds and thirds and won race 7. Mike Ewart with  a 1299 and David Wilkinson were generally up towards the front too.

 After lunch, things changed slightly. Rob Vice spent a lot of time in the pits and had erratic races with from first to eleventh places, but he did win three more. Peter Shepherd also won three more and was consistently near the front. David Wilkinson with his own-design Iambus2, started going faster with three wins and some seconds and thirds. Scott Wallis sailing his Depron Ranger also was more consistent and faster with five second places. 

 

Peter Jackson with another SliM from the same Phil Tyler mould as Peter Shepherd’s had five third places but otherwise was consistently in the fourth to sixth range. Mike Ewart had a second and a couple of thirds, but was otherwise mid-fleet. The two junior skippers, Lockie Vice with his ICE did very well, with a second in the first race and a third later but was less consistent.  Gabriel Vice with another ICE had a fourth in race 7 but otherwise probably struggled with the conditions. 

Although the lake is generally open with very little turbulence from trees the natural variations in wind strength and direction and the significant waves gave problems of their own with choosing the right rig. I was constantly changing up and down trying to match the guessed wind in the next race and catch the wind shifts, not always successfully. One interesting thing was that for the last four races I switched from my sail-film swing rigs to a Una rig and did a lot better. It seemed to be easier to tack and control and to set and point better. I had the impression that with the rising wind strength a lot of boats had too much sail up and were heeling a lot and losing control.
Smaller rigs seemed to go better, especially on my fairly lightweight boat. The conditions were certainly different to many Footy venues and a good preliminary experience for the Footy Championships to be held at Cotswold in May. It was interesting that the first four places were taken by different designs. 
 
The final result was very close, with Rob Vice (ICE, 26 pts) just taking first from Peter Shepherd (SliM, 27) with David Wilkinson (Iambus2, 34) in third. Other places were 4th Scott Wallis (Ranger, 43) 5th Peter Jackson  (SliM, 53), 6th Mike Ewart (1299, 59), 7th Lockie Vice (ICE, 88), 8th Charles Smith (ICE, 101), 9th Sid Simms (1299, 108), 10th Adam Cowley (1299, 109),  11th Gabriel Vice (ICE, 111). Rob Vice won the Mad March Hare Trophy, the first three won plaques, the first five received prizes and Mike Ewart won the Footy Novice Trophy. 

Thanks go to Ivan and the Cotswold race team for putting on such an enjoyable days racing, we look forward to returning again on May 10th for the Footy Championship & Junior Champs.

.	Mad March Hare							Cotswold Model Yacht Club
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.	15th March 2014					Race	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16		Discards					Final
.	No	Name	Type	No																	Total	1	2	3	Total
.	1	Rob Vice	ICE	41	1	1	1	1	1	1	11	11	6	6	1	1	3	11	2	1	59	11	11	11	26
.	2	Peter Shepherd	SliM	65	10	3	2	3	2	11	1	2	4	1	2	2	1	4	1	3	52	10	11	4	27
.	3	Daviid Wilkinson	Iambus2	46	3	2	4	4	4	4	11	1	1	3	6	6	2	1	3	2	57	11	6	6	34
.	4	Scott Wallis	Ranger	47	7	4	5	6	6	2	2	4	2	2	4	3	4	2	4	5	62	7	6	6	43
.	5	Peter Jackson	SliM	30	8	5	6	5	3	6	3	3	5	5	3	4	5	3	5	4	73	8	6	6	53
.	6	Mike Ewart	1299	36	5	7	3	2	5	5	5	6	3	4	5	5	7	5	6	6	79	7	6	7	59
.	7	Lockie Vice	ICE	84	2	6	8	7	10	3	11	5	9	11	11	10	8	6	7	7	121	11	11	11	88
.	8	Charles Smith	ICE	00	6	11	7	8	8	8	6	8	11	7	11	8	9	7	8	11	134	11	11	11	101
.	9	Sid Sims	1299	05	11	10	11	11	7	7	7	9	10	10	7	9	6	8	9	9	141	11	11	11	108
.	10	Adam Cowley	1299	80	4	9	9	10	9	9	8	10	8	8	8	7	10	10	10	10	139	10	10	10	109
.	11	Gabriel Vice	ICE	44	9	8	10	9	11	11	4	7	7	9	9	11	11	9	11	8	144	11	11	11	111