'Bill the Milk' Trophy 2024 for Marblehead Vane model boats at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 23 Sep 07:22 NZST
21 September 2024
Initially we had 7 boats registered, but by the off, only 5 were dressed up ready to go. John Sharman was umming and arring to whether he could get Derek's loan boat together for the day, but finally succeeded.
Peter Whiteside, our Marblehead Captain had decided the second suite would be best and soon had us all on our first run in a slightly biased Easterly down the lake, while he was on his bye ready to score at the far end.
Tony sailing one of the Vintage boats 'Ballerina' did well, gaining his points in both directions against John. Eric set off like a rocket against Peter Isles, but came into the seaside bank, which doesn't bode well. Struggling to get away from the wall, Wizzy, our seasoned volunteer pole guy for the day, had him catch Peter up for the final couple of feet and snatched the win. Peter got the return leg as Eric's boat struggled pinching most of the time creeping back up the lake.
On to the second race and John now slowly coming in to trim, gained victory over Peter Whiteside. While the other Peter also took both legs from Tony.
Eric seemed to be struggling on the beats and both himself and Peter W. dropped both sets of points on race 3 respectively.
Lunch break and with a slight drop in wind strength, Peter decided 'Bosun's mate' might just benefit from a sail change to big rig on the old vintage, sailing his lovely terylene canvas. The wind also straightened up to be plumb along the lake.
Peter I. had a slight accident while coming out of the boathouse and dropped his green machine 'Secsea' onto its rudder. A quick exchange for his bye round with Tony, so he could repair and the rest were off for the fourth race. The short lived drop in wind, picked back up to Peter W's. detriment and Tony was able to finish his sailing for the day with another double win.
Eric then was off to one of his rocket fuelled runs in one go against John, that must have taken less than 2 minutes, but again failed on the beat.
Last race of the day and the points for the top three positions were looking very interesting. Tony had more or less packed up, but Peter I. had to get 2 points from John to equal for a sail off. Eric in the meantime was whistling along the lake centre line again in one go against the other Peter. Three goes in one he managed it, but again dropped the beat.
'Secsea' did Tony a favour and lost the run. Now no need for a sail-off, but Peter could still steal victory by a point if he could win the beat. It looked very close and although John had a fair lead by the final tack, he only just managed to scrape through with about half a boat length.
We had had a good day sailing with minimal breakages, although Tony hadn't mentioned his mast foot was wobbly from the word go and had to over compensate with highly strung stays and a slightly deformed sail shape. Our other Peter Guest, couldn't join the start line at the beginning as his mast had goose neck problems. The day had started overcast, but by the afternoon, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Onto more great one dayers for Vane racing, next Saturday 36R's followed by a week later again for the Marbleheads.
Thanks to our Vane captain for organising these sail days and Peter, Bob and Wizzy for manning the far bank.
Results:
1st. Tony Wilson 15 pts
Joint 2nd Peter Isles and John Sharman both on 13pts
4th Eric Auswich 6pts
5th Peter Whiteside 3pts