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Author: Peter Baldwin

Lockdown Projects & Activities #2

Next up in this series of lockdown projects is Brad who has been undertaking some serious work on his foiling moth for the forthcoming season.  Brad takes up the story…

I am doing a full modification on my foiling Moth. The boat has been flipped upside down with the old deck removed and a new moulded hull shape added underneath designed by myself. New wings coming from James Edwards at Robot Yachts. A hopeful launch in April at the Grafham Water open. Plenty of fun giving further life to a 10+ year old design and staying busy in lockdown after hours.

Here is the boat with Brad sailing at the 2020 UK Moth Nationals held at Weymouth in September.

Here it is with the deck cut off (and sat under the boat)

Modelling the new hull shape

In construction

Further Lockdown projects to follow in a while.

Lockdown Projects & Activities #1

After posing the question “What have you been up to in Lockdown” to club members, this is the first post in a series which will be shared over the next few weeks.

First to respond was Graham Reeves who has been really busy over the past 11 months.

First Up is a 1937 A Class originating from the Windermere Model Yacht Club, with a Before and After picture and in internal view of the planking with daylight showing! This boat was modified from the design called Thisbee. Published in the Marine Models Magazine in April 1933, the designer is believed to be H B Tucker who was not only a notable designer but also the magazines editor. She was modified by increasing the beam to give a displacement of 58 lbs against the design displacement of 50.5 lbs. Builder is yet unknown. She was never registered with the MYA but the Windermere club had its own method of numbering the boats for racing. Numbered from 1 to 15 of which this one called Scafell was allocated No 4.

Second Boat is an A Class from the 1950’s, supplied by Andrew Peter and originally from Gosport – still yet to be finished, but here are the before and after photo’s. She was originally called JoJo, then re-named as Lywood.  Built by Pete West of the Gosport Club, she was designed by J. Alexander of Preston. The name of the design is as yet unknown. Registered number was K638 one later than Dick Priests “A” called Yeoman which was K637 . Dick went on to win the Nationals with Yeoman.

Finally, he has worked with someone to develop vane gear suitable for 3D printing based upon his design from 12 years ago.

In addition, Graham tells me he has also restored a 1948 “10 Rater”, which he can tells us about if anyone is interested.  let me know via the contacts pages if you would like this to be covered as well.

The next instalment of this series will be published in a few days time so that you have something else to look forward to.  Don’t forget to subscribe (if you haven’t already done so) using the Mailchimp sign-up boxes on the RHS of the web page so that you don’t miss out!

New RRS and changes affecting Radio Sailing

This year sees the introduction of a new set of Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) which cover the years 2021-24. Although there aren’t any significant changes, International Umpire Greg Eaton (GBR) has produced a short Powerpoint Presentation guide to the key changes affecting Radio Sailors, which (thanks to the GBR IOM class) is available here. This includes a link to the Racing Rules Guidance from the RYA which includes full information on the changes on pages 16-24.  I have posted an independent link to this here.

You can download a set of the new rules from the World Sailing website along with any changes made, although the RYA have a convenient page with links to download this and other documents associated with the rules here.

If you prefer a printed copy, then a full set of the Rules is available from the RYA in a convenient A6 format and printed on Waterproof paper for £10.99.  A link to the page of this and all RYA books on Racing is available here.  Of course there are always other books on the rules, including:

  • The Rules in Practice 2021-2024: The Guide to the Rules of Sailing Around the Race Course by Bryan Willis
  • Elvstrøm Explains the Racing Rules: 2021-2024 Rules (with model boats)

These books have diagrams to help explain many of the rules, unlike the RYA version which is simply the World Sailing text and RYA “Prescriptions”. Both books are available from online book store’s if you are interested.  Something to read whilst in lockdown?

Member Guidance with Club in Tier 3

As you may well have seen, the Club is now in a Tier 3 area.

This has little, if any effect on organised sailing at Birkenhead. Anyone in the local (Wirral) district area can travel to the club as before when it was in Tier 2. The guidance (and clarified for sporting events by Sport England) is that for anyone in a different area at a Tier 3 level (Liverpool, Halton etc or even further afield) is requested to stay in their local area and not travel into another area. The official guidance for Tier 3 is here.

If a member lives in a Tier 4 area they should definitely stay local to their home (the name for the Tier is “Stay at Home”) and not travel to the club. Should Wirral (and therefore the club) move into Tier 4, then the club will need to cease organised events again.

The above was summarised in the most recent MYA guidance here.

Rules for socialising before racing, between races and after racing, remains as the rule of 6 (as the club is based at a public park) and so is as per Tier 2. As a reminder, the groups of 6 should not mix on any day and should always remain socially distanced. If there are up to 13 racing on any day, be careful not to congregate in what could be considered to be groups larger than 6 or even one large group.

The clubhouse will be opened so that the toilets are available whilst members are on site. Face coverings should be worn whilst inside. Boat preparation or repair should all be undertaken outside.

The club therefore requests that anyone in a different (to Wirral) Tier 3 or 4 area, does not travel to the club at this time.

Stay Safe and let’s hope that 2021 ends better than it starts.

DF65 Social Racing #14 30/12/20

The last Race of 2020 saw 8 DF65 sailors arrive for a chilly windless start to the morning. R.O. Neil decided on a single lap course on the far side, to make the most of a very light westerly breeze.

John took a First and a Fourth in the first two races before deciding he had better things to do than drift around the lake. That left the rest of us to share in achieving line honours, and first places were then spread across the fleet.  Then later, as the wind filled, in the sailing became – well – proper sailing !

John, Sally and Neil had one win each, Charles and Richard
two wins apiece and Andrew had three wins, taking first place overall.
Thanks again to Neil Westbrook for acting as R.O.

Results as follows after 10 races:

  1. Andrew Peter          919   18 pts
  2. Neil Westbrook         03   21 pts
  3. Sally Collings          829   22 pts
  4. Richard Walker         39   29 pts
  5. Charles Legg               21   35 pts
  6. Paul Little                    45   41 pts  1 x 2, 1 x 4, 4 x 5
  7. Don Mackinnon      933   41 pts  1 x 2, 1 x 4, 2 x 5
  8. John Brierley              84   53 pts  (only 2 races sailed)