Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
In case anyone hasn’t already heard, Brad Gibson successfully defended his Marblehead World Champion Title in Germany, making it 4 in a row.
There is an excellent report by Darin Ballington on the MYA website so I won’t bother repeating the details here, but once again congratulations to Brad.
Congratulations to Brad Gibson on retaining his 10r World Championship Crown at Biblis in Germany.
Christofe Boisnault (FRA) took second place and Mateo Longhi (ITA) third.
More details on the MYA Website
This Monday sees the start of the Marblehead World Championship at the same venue, where Brad will be joined by fellow club members Martin Roberts and Bill Culshaw. That event can be followed here
Saturday saw the start of the 2018 Marblehead Series. This year all of the Marblehead racing is being held at West Kirby Marine Lake and is open to visitors as well as Birkenhead club members.
Results:
After 16 races
Thanks to Andrew Peter for the photographs.
This coming weekend sees the final race in our highly successful Winter IOM Series with the final result still very finely in the balance. 26 different competitors have taken part and any of the top 6 look to be possible winners.
On 17th March the main season starts with the first day of the DF65/RG65 series (See Calendar for full details). Sailing starts at 11.00 and last race will start before 16.45
A reminder that this is an Open Series, so competitors from other clubs are welcome (entry £2 on the day). Four days in total with the best 3 to count towards the final result.
RG65s and DF65s will race together over the same course, but the DF65s will be scored separately, so it doesn’t matter if you have the latest RG65 design or a MK1 Dragonforce, you can win!
IOM and M series races start on 31st March and 12th May respectively and again these will be Open races with the M Class sailing at West Kirby Marine Lake.
We are also delighted to be hosting the DF65 Northern District Championships on Saturday September 15th and holding an RG65 Traveller Series Open the following week.
After driving through floods and arriving in torrential rain, the Marblehead skippers probably didn’t hold out any great hopes for the day ahead, but as the first race started, the sky cleared and the wind filled in straight down the lake ensuring a terrific day of close racing.
Early front runner was Martin Roberts with various boats having their moments, but by lunchtime Darin Ballington and Colin Walton from Manor Park, and Graham Elliott from the home club had also established themselves at the top end of the leader board.
After lunch Darin started to claw back Martin’s early lead and after 13 races it was all square.
The final race was to be a shoot out to determine the overall winner and with that, the fleet hit the start line as one, bang on the hooter, with Martin tucked under Darin’s lee bow .
With both the light and wind fading Martin used all his local experience to grind out the win to take the event overall.
Next year the club is intending to hold open Marblehead racing at West Kirby so keep an eye on our website for dates. All welcome.
14 races sailed
The lake is now confirmed as ice free, so all is looking good for the Marblehead Open Event this Saturday with sunny intervals and light showers forecast for the day with a moderate North Westerly wind (ie. straight down the lake, our favoured direction).
The following entries are confirmed, but anyone is welcome to turn up and pay on the day.
Graham Elliott
Martin Roberts
Colin Walton
Darin Ballington
Derek Priestley
Alan Watkinson
Dave Potter
Bill Culshaw
Peter Baldwin
Roger Lincoln
