South Midlands Footy League - May 2012 Results
hosted at Wicksteed Park

report by Peter Shepherd

The May heat of the SMFL was held in a mainly North Westerly wind, starting  strong at 10 to 15 mph gusting to 20mph strength, this eased slowly throughout the day so that by the time the final race came around,  most of the remaining skippers were sailing with their Stollery template maximum wind rigs.

Ten skippers started the event with a variety of hull designs & sail types, two new Roger Stollery ICE hulls were on show, skippered by myself & Peter Jackson both rigged with the Soft plastic bag sails, Scott Wallis joined us all the way from Cleveland, sailing his Bill Hagerup designed Ranger made in Depron with McRig sails. Grahm Tite, John Meredith, Syd Syms and first timer Mark Litherland  all from the Birmingham Model Yacht Club mostly sailing 1299's with Una rigs.

Early on it looked as if Scott was going to dominate the days proceedings, however as the day progressed five different skippers took race victories with many races finishing with 3 or 4 boats in contention. John Meredith sailed a superb penultimate leg in race 8 to come from 4th to win in some style. Peter Jackson had one of those nightmare days where nothing seemed to go right for him, and after his second equipment failure of the day had to abandon his preferred ICE hull in favour of a 1299. Peter still managed three race wins despite all his troubles.
Graham Tite was always there or there abouts also taking three wins, using his "Posh" sails to great effect, one day we hope to get him to give up his secrets and write an article for the "How to" section of the website.

The sailing was also close at the back of the fleet with Paul Risdale winning out over Syd Syms and newcomer Mark Litherland who recorded his best result in race 14.
Wicksteed Park MBC members Paul Strong & Dave Lissaman had their own private battle with the swing rig of Dave's boat eventually winning out.

A most enjoyable day sailing was had by all, despite the flukey wind conditions, and the downwind leg in each race starting off as a run, changing to a tack and finally ending on a broad reach because of the local terrain.

Thanks to all those who took part and we hope to see you all again at our next meeting on the 16th June 2012, and a quick reminder for those of you who can spare the time and think they might benefit, the first SMFL Footy Clinic will be held around the internet course  on Wednesday 16th May 2012 starting at 1pm

South Midlands Footy League





















12th May 2012
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 Pts
1 Scott Wallis Ranger 47 1 1 2 4 2 3 1 4 4 4 1 2 3 1 5 1 39 5 4 4 26 50
2 Graham Tite 1299 40 3 5 1 3 4 1 3 2 2 2 2 4 1 2 4 4 43 5 4 4 30 49
3 Peter Shepherd ICE 65 2 3 5 2 1 4 4 3 3 7 3 3 2 8 1 3 54 5 7 8 34 48
4 Peter Jackson ICE/1299 30 4 2 3 1 3 5 2 5 1 1 7 11 6 4 2 5 62 7 11 6 38 47
5 John Meredith Half Pint 31 6 4 4 5 6 2 5 1 5 3 4 1 4 7 3 2 62 6 6 7 43 46
6 Paul Risdale Puma 305 53 5 6 9 7 5 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 3 6 8 94 9 7 8 70 45
7 Sid Syms 1299 05 7 11 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 5 6 6 7 6 7 7 109 7 11 7 84 44
8 Mark Litherland 1299 55 8 9 10 8 10 10 10 8 8 8 8 7 8 5 8 6 131 10 10 10 101 43
9 Dave Lissaman Awk 69 9 8 7 9 9 8 8 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 157 11 11 11 124 42
10 Paul Strong Awk 03 11 7 8 10 8 9 9 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 161 11 11 11 128 41