Midlands District Championship
Saturday 31st October 2015

Well that is it the 2015 Footy Open season is over with the final event being raced in good humour amongst competitiors from all across the country, it has been a great season this year with the standard of sailing being exceptionally high, and so it proved at Bournville once again with numerous race winners in the light south easterly winds.
The wind direction caused the course setters some difficulty but in the end we opted for a starboard reaching start onto a downwind leg through a gate with one of the trickiests beats of the year to a couple of broad reaches around a wing mark back through the gate and then back to that tricky beat to the fnish.
A bit of adjustment to the gate to favour the port rounding, and moving the upwind marks to widen the options from the start at lunchtime and that was it.

---

With the light wind it was important to keep moving and those that went looking for free air were often rewarded, it was also possible to come back from some of the worst imaginable positions as often being away from the fleet was that advantageous. Occasionally leading skippers got beaten by the wind shifts which kept it all very interesting and made just sticking with it the order of the day.
There was a wide variation within the fleet with two Ice, last years novICE winner sailed by Mike Ewart and a visitor from Frensham Keith Parrot, a number of personal variations of Slims including Phil Tylers original sailed by  Graham Tite (o4), "Fat Boy" Peter Shepherd (65), "F Plan" Peter Jackson (30), Fat Boy Slim Geoff Raygada (41), a carbon Slim Trevor Thoms (58) and a glass 12" slim by Frank Wood (36).
What is interesting is the wide variation of boats the Slim has spawned with each builder putting his personal stamp on the boats design.
David Wilkinson added to the variety starting with his Iambus 2.28 and then following another terminal rudder failure switching to a 1299.

---

The event win went to Mike Ewart who was Mr Consistancy, never giving up when races seemed to be all but lost only once coming outside the top four, he was chased home by the Abington Park Peter's, Jackson & Shepherd, Peter S having a few too many fifth places dotted on his card and Peter J who started slowly and was always playing catch up.
Geoff Raygada, Trevor Thomas & Graham Tite were very competative, tough to beat and all had moments where they shone, Geoff winning the novIce trophy for this event and Trevor Thomas completing his five events to become this years Nov"ICE" champion. Graham Tite deserves a mention as he started to come good towards the end of the event as he got to grips with a boat he is less than familiar with.
David Wilkinson, Keith Parrot & Frank Wood  all had equipment troubles at one point or another and so were unable to show their best on this occassion.
Congratulations to all who took part and as with all the events this year it was sailed in a great spirit.

---

Midlands District Footy Champion Mike Ewart

NovICE Winner for this Event Geoff Raygada

The Skippers Eye
The last Open Meeting for 2015 took place on Saturday 31st October at the excellent model boating lake at Bourneville which is in the model village built by the Cadbury empire for their workers. This is the first time I have sailed at this venue, the Village was not as clearly defined as I expected having seen several programmes on it over the years, modern developments having encroached on the original concept. However the model boating lake was a very good size with a well-equipped bespoke boat house with plenty of boat storage, working areas, kitchen facilities and the luxury of its own toilets. Sadly like Clapham the boat house has had to be fortified with bared windows reinforced and triple locked doors to try and keep out the vandals. The depth of water allows sailing of classes up to Marblehead’s although they cannot have the full length of fin used on some boats. So it’s well worth a visit if you are in the Birmingham area.
So what about the sailing. Frank Wood and I made the 2 ½  hour drive to the event in the hope that we would give a good account of ourselves, but that did not happen. The wind was very light and fluky with everybody using their largest rigs throughout the day, I would like to say that it was down to luck which skippers found the puffs of wind, but it was the usual top Footy skippers who always seemed to get to the line first. Despite having checked my boat and made repairs to a broken wire the night before I was set back by a failing battery, my own fault as I using a smaller battery for the first time to try and save some weight and it failed after the first two races. This is the same boat I have campaigned all year and I think the gear is getting a bit tired. Frank on the other hand had a tough time, his “Fat Boy Slim” boat was noticeably heavier than the other boats and lack of experience made it difficult in such light winds. Frank benefitted from the friendly help and advice freely given which is the norm amongst the Footy fraternity. We are both determined to be better prepared for the 2016 season.
It was a slightly smaller Fleet than usual for the Footy Open events, 9 boats being on the water. Frank and I filled the last two places overall. Congratulations to Peter S, Peter J and Mike E for their consistent results throughout the year and for their placings at Bourneville.

Banjo 5