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J |a) => DECEMBER 1978 40p ‘ U.S A. & Canada $1.75 . Ls >a tah eee oo ; HOBBY MAGAZINE ai — ung a ” a Ws a 4 2 . d , me ep = < io f 4 8 re : oa Sh ‘ 4 Model Boats 730 An interesting comparison of Marblehead Ml, owned by Graham Reeves, with 2718, Martell sailed by Joe Sixsmith, one of the most recent to be registered. Note the keel and low aspect ratio in particular. Pictured at the British M Champs, Birkenhead, by Joyce Roberts. LOG BOOK from our MYA Correspondent which can be entered for some races on handicap. The sailing water is a disused gravel pit, rectangular with no wind obstructions, but waders are necessary at present and sailing is restricted to members only. However, visitors and new members are always welcome and anyone intending to visit the club should note that race meeting dates on Sundays can be determined in fortnightly intervals from 8th October. Cars must be parked in the new area on the Northern side of the lake. Further information may be obtained from the Commodore, Norman Hatfield (Southend 44389) or the Hon. Sec., Mike Birch (Wickford 62515). an executive Chairman, as already reported, with Norman NS Hatfield in the hot seat, Dave Knowles taking over as R/CSec., Europe, and A. Farmer becoming R/C Sec., Rest of World. Since the meeting, however, pressure of work has forced Ken Jones to resign as Publicity Secretary, and Vic Smeed has been co-opted to fill this vacancy. Not strictly IMYRU, but nice to mention that Bob De Bow has been elected President of the AMYA. Moves to produce a compromise American national organisation, with the MYRAA, have not so far proved successful, incidentally, but the rest of the world’s model yachtsmen are still hopeful. CLUB S Do Oo YACHT 14 os historian for the SMAE. The other major IMYRU changes were the creation of MODEL Key) BASILDON _& DISTRICT 4 IMYRU Changes At the General Meeting of the International Model Yacht Racing Union in August, a new President was elected. He is Byron Sansom, of San Diego, California, an ex-colonel career Officer in the US Air Force in pilot, staff, and command positions, whose decorations include the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross with four oak leaf clusters. A member of the Royal Akarana YC of Auckland, New Zealand, where he started racing Flying Fifteens in 1970, he moved to San Diego in 1972 and took up model yacht racing with the San Diego Argonauts. As a passing thought, it is strange that the Presidents of both the IMYRU and the MYA are ex-pilots, and the MPBA President is also ex-aircrew! The only ex-Navy officials who readily come to mind are Clive Colsell, MYA Vice-Chairman, Gerry Colbeck, MPBA Gen. Sec., and Lt. Cdr. Alwyn Greenhalgh, who is the official a GOLF course "B) \ \ POND \ : 7 ei CHANNELS g lf =" GOLF CLUB ssROOMF Rd I-~NY Basildon DMYC Second club to take advantage of the free publicity offered by this column is the still relatively new but strong and active Basildon group. This club, which celebrated its fourth anniversary at the end of September, has an active membership of over forty. Its sailing water is in the middle of a golf course, near Chelmsford and, as can be seen from the accompanying plan, is best approached from the A12, forking left just after the commencement of the dual carriageway to Colchester. The lane to the golf club is well signposted. The racing programme provides for keen competition in the RM class and there is a nucleus of R10rs and RAs , CHELMSFORD 4\\70_TOWN CENTRE ~ Al2 LIGHTS. \ LITILESS Jf 35 \SANDFORD = CHEF N= Al2 COLCHESTER» z LONDON \\ Al. SOUTHEND \\ ARMY & NAVY ROUNDABOUT Not To Scale 731 Brean Sands Compared with the aircraft and power boats, yachtsmen were comparatively few at Pontins, Oct. 7th-14th, although if one discounts the scale power boats used only on the swimming pool, the numbers of power and sail were not too disproportionate. Of the two dozen or so R/C yachts, only half wanted to race, and entries of between 10 and 14 were made in the four ‘official’ races. On the first Sunday, Woodspring club ran an open event for RMs, closing the list at the perfect schedule of 31, which in fact could have been comfortably exceeded by the number of would-be entries. The race, for the Brian Bowman Trophy, was won by J. Hoer (Decoy) with M. Harris (Bournville) and D. Skelton (Decoy) second and third. These three in fact dominated the results, in differ- ent permutations, for the rest of the week, Tuesday’s RM finishing Skelton, Hoer, and Harris, and Thursday’s Open Harris, Hoer, and Skelton. In Wednesday’s Ladies’ Race, winner was Miss Hoer (mate D. Skelton) sailing a 10-rater, beating by 64-6 to 64 Miss Seager (mate R. Seager) and on 58 Mrs Cope (mate M. Harris). With only one 10-rater against the fleet of RMs the result caused some head-scratching, and correspondence from clubs racing mixed fleets on what system of handicapping they use would be helpful and valuable to other clubs. The Duplex 575 race on the last day attracted 14 entries and looked like being run in thick fog. However, the fog lifted an hour beforehand, and although there was very little wind, there was at times enough to get the little boats moving and each boat had three races. Boats which had been sailed before had some advantage, though several assembled during the week did reasonably well. Winner was J. Cundell with 21 and 1x2, second P. Messruther, 3 x 2, and third M. Saunders, 1 x2 and 2x3. One of the two fourth boats (S. Adcock) fell victim to fluky wind, since after a 2nd and a Ist it could not get December 1978 going in its last race and finished 6th, to tie with R. Taylor’s 3 x3. Great fun! R/C Judging A very good suggestion made recently is worth a little consideration. Why do we not have a buoy judge positioned as close as possible to each mark on a course, whose sole responsibility is to watch for clear rounding or touches on the buoy or between boats? Rather like the flagman on the turning marks in aircraft R/C pylon racing. It is appreciated that this is another bod to find, but most of the disputes that arise occur when rounding marks, and it might be possible to have two of the threeman race panel at the weather and lee marks, with the most experienced providing back-up for the OOD at the start and the midway buoy. An official near the buoy must be able to see better than the skippers sailing the boats, and by having one job on which to concentrate, should be able to give a firm and final report on any incident, from which the OOD can decide his action. Given a set of flags, the judge could even indicate immediately which boat was at fault. Who'll give it a try? Late note — the MYA is accepting the Sports Council’s invitation and initially will experiment with a one week training course in May and one in September. The place is Storr’s Hall Hotel at Windermere and the accommodation, in the chalet annexe in the grounds, right at the lakeside, is for one instructor and eight trainees. Courses, in R/C sailing and racing will run from Saturday evening to the following Saturday morning, and are expected to cost, all in (i.e. inc. board) approx. £50. Reservations, on a first come first served basis, to Norman Hatfield (26 Shanklin Drive, Westcliff on Sea, Essex SSO 9XU) as soon as possible; the arrangements must be firm by November 30th. The courses are open, incidentally, to non-MYA R/C yacht owners. ‘ The Cowell Range of small machine tools sia Cowells Jigsaw Precision machines for the modeller, craftsman and engineer Of rugged construction they are ideally suited for use in schools and occupational therapy units. For full details of these fine British made machine tools please write or telephone.— gS Holders may telephone their order COWELL ENGINEERING LTD Cowells Miniature Drilling Machine 120 95-101 Oak Street, Norwich, England NR3 3BP.Tel: 614521 (STD 0603) Telex ee Model Boats 750 DESIGN of SAIL PLANS Te problems concerned with designing a sail plan or adapting a particularly attractive sail plan from a full size boat for use on fore and aft rigged models are not too formidable and these notes are intended as an introduction to the subject. The point to be appreciated from the beginning is that there is only one position for every sail plan on every boat to obtain its best performance at all points of sailing, and the skill is in deciding where that position is. Fortunat ely for most of us that major problem is solved if we use existing boat designs, where the designer either shows the position of the centre of effort, or provides a sail plan so that we can calculate that position. We then have to arrange our sail plan so that its centre of effort coincides with that of the original one, although we will almost certainly need to carry out further tuning when the model finally goes onto the water. In these notes C/E will be used to denote the centre of effort for the entire sail plan and c/e the centre of effort for individual sails. To determine the C/E position on a plan when it is not already marked, it is necessary to combine the efforts produced by the individual sails and find the point APEX. Se 3TA BASE. -— LOA275" JIB =535 ins MAIN=1195ins< between those sails where they balance each other. Before we can do that, however, we need to be able to find the c/e Last month, Jim Edwards discussed his approach to ‘Functional Mainsails’. He now describes how to design fore-and-aft multi-masted boats. rigs for of the three basic sail shapes normally in use, i.e., the triangular; Bermudan mainsail; and gaff sail. With the triangular sail the c/e is 4rd of the way up a line drawn from the mid-point of the base to the apex (Fig la); with the Bermuda type mainsail with a normal amount of roach the c/e is 35 % of the foot dimension and 37 % of the luff dimension from the tack (Fig 1b). For the gaff sail the c/e is found by dividing the edges into 3 equal parts (Fig 1c (i)) and drawing lines through the marks to forma box. Where lines connecting the opposite corners of the box cross is the c/e of the sail (Fig. 1c (ii)). This method is suitable for any straight line four sided figure. To return to the problem of finding the C/E of a sail plan, suppose we wish to use an existing ‘A’ class yacht and find the design is something like Fig. 2. The first thing to do is to mark in the c/e of the sails and measure their distance from a fixed point such as the bow. These dis- tances are then multiplied by their individual sail area, the results added together and divided by the total sail area. It probably looks complicated but using Fig. 2 will show December 1978 751 how easy it is. The c/e’s of the jib and mainsail are marked as explained above and their distances from the bow are jib 25in. and mainsail 40.75in. As the sail areas are 535 sq. in. and 1195 sq. in. respectively the C/E of the sail plan is (25 x ee x 1195) _ 35 gin JIB = 300 ins2 FORE: 600 ins€ MAIN: 800 ins© from the bow and that point can now be marked on the plan as shown in Fig. 2. It is useful to know the general equation for finding the C/E of any number of sails and it is: C/E= oe dace os Ss) pic ee ae where d, dg, etc. are the distances of the individual c/es of the sails from a fixed point; S, S., etc. are the corresponding individual sail areas; and SA is the total sail area. Now is the time to decide (if you have not already) on the new sail plan. There are many to choose from, e.g., schooner, cutter, ketch, yawl, etc., so it is a matter of personal choice. A good selection of sail plans was given c a ra . y y P63 | VU , 30 +7 Ey(gee 4 CIE REFERENCE POINT. With the example just given the C/E of the new sail plan was made to coincide with the original C/E and we had no choice where any mast or masts should go. However, by re-arranging equation 1 it is possible to fix one or two masts in a desired position and to arrange for the remaining mast(s) to complete the balance at the C/E point. Suppose, for example, we wished to occasionally use the yacht shown at Fig. 2 as a ketch and wanted to use the existing mast position for one of the ketch’s masts thereby requiring only one extra mast position for the mizzen sail. We know the C/E of the ketch rig must balance 35-9in. from the bow to match the C/E of the yacht rig and we also know the position of the main mast, and thereby the positions of the ketch’s jib c/e and mainsail c/e. What we now want is the distance from the bow to the mizzen c/e so that the sail plan will balance at 35-9in. If equation 1 is re-arranged to: 3— (SA x C/E) —(d, < $;) —(de X Sq) dente 421-38»4}:on de Teche Ss we can find the required distance. The sail plan of the proposed ketch is at Fig. 5 with all the information we have except d,; which is (1730 x 35-9) —(23-2 x 700) — (39 x 830) » in the two part article “‘Picking a Period Prototype”’ in Model Boats for October and November, 1976, and these together with the fine sail plans by Edward Bowness, (MAP Plans SY 29; 30 and 31), to accompany his simple planked hull, could be used for ideas. Having decided on a plan it must be drawn to a reasonable scale of at least Q-lin. to the inch so that the c/e’s of the individual sails can be found and marked. When the C/E of the Fig. 2 sail plan was calculated we were able to use the bow as a fixed point from which to take the c/e distances. When we now calculate the C/E of the new sail plan we do not have a ready-made fixed point so the solution is to create one. A proposed sail plan using all three sail shapes is given at Fig. 3 and a convenient point of reference is marked 10in. in front of the fore mast so that it is now possible to use equation 1 to find the distance of the C/E from the fixed point. That distance is (5 x 300)-+(16-3 x 600) + (37-2 x 800) : 1700 =24-1in. Therefore the C/E is marked 24- lin. aft of the fixed point, and by making the new C/E coincide with the C/E of the original sail plan, which was 35-9in. from the bow, we are able to locate the new sail plan accurately over the hull as in Fig. 4. 70 200 = 67-Sin. JIB = 700 MAIN: 830 MIZZEN= 200 1 730ins< Model Boats 752 from which is taken the distance between the mizzen mast and mizzen c/e to give the distance of the mast from the bow, i.e., 67-5 —4.0=63-Sin. The final position of the complete sail plan over the hull is shown at Fig. 6. The principles used in the last example can be used for slightly more involved arrangements similar to those on my three and four masted schooner. After building the two masted schooner, described in the April 1978 edition of Model Boats, | obtained another Kubernetes hull from club member Bob Underwood and designed a three masted sail plan, Fig. 7. As the hull is 87in. long I thought it would be possible to have four masts and did some calculations based on using the first two mast positions of the three masted rig. The result is seen in Fig. 8 so that only 5 mast positions are needed to accommodate two quite different sail plans comprising seven different masts and sails. The system used to position the mizzen and jigger masts of the four masted rig was the same as for the ketch’s mizzen except the two sail areas were considered as one and when d, was found, the c/e’s of the two sails were set at equal distances either side of the d, point. This was possible, of course, because both sails are of the same area and have the same c/e positions and the main i consideration was to have sufficient distance between the sails to allow enough clearance for the booms. Se 2 ft 635 mat 57 18 50° Fig.6. 4 46 49: 24:5 63-4 y 17-4 BANG 43 = 19-6 15-6 58 5. 3775 ps {19 12 35:5 ay nie ee Fig.8. 45 5 355 5 46| ae. For anyone wishing to try their hand at designinga sail plan, it is probably best to select a reasonably conventional hull and use it for several different sail plans. In that way experience is gained with one hull which is better than switching from one to another. With any first design for a new hull it is a good idea to position the C/E of the new sail plan 3in.-3in. further aft than the original calculated position because it is easier to move the C/E forward by moving the jib forward a hole or two on its rack than it is to move the fixed mast positions aft if the final tuning so requires. Make it legal... get your R/C Licence Just in case some newcomers to the hobby are not aware operation of radio control equipment requires a licence. Licence application forms are available from: The Home Office, Radio Regulatory Dept., Waterloo Bridge House, Waterloo Road, London S.E.|I. 753 December 1978 8 | Excellent turnout of scale models at Fleetwood’s 2nd Annual Regatta. Photo by Alan Smith. Second Annual Scale Regatta, Fleetwood, 13th August 1978 ie iio! Dit. o. 0 iieite © i of We were very lucky again with the weather, because after the previous day’s half gale, the morning began fine and bright with a light breeze from the prevailing westerly quarter. Not until late afternoon did the rain and wind come again when there was just one more event to sail. A not too complicated course was set out with buoys in pairs and including two eye-catching features. These were an oil rig built by F, Baker and B. Smith, and our group effort, the 10-foot steamer Duke of Lancaster at moorings. The first event, the Nomination, was closely contested and won by a Shepherd with his crash tender. Second was J. Carter with a pilot oat. Next was ‘Docking and Manoeuvring’. First was R. Fogg with Longfellow (narrow boat) and second L. W. Riddick sailing Crofton. After this event we decided to change future layouts to something more realistic, instead of having vessels charging about inside a dock like trapped animals. The R. Berry Trophy for free sailing ship models was won by C. Money with Lady Daphne and E. Littler was next with his schooner Alice and May. But for an unlucky shift of wind, K. Smith’s galleon Mayflower, built mainly of cardboard, could have won this event. Straight running for power attracted fewer entries because not so many models can now be set to run free due to radio gear complications. The method adopted here now is for a neutral person to hold the transmitter with the stick at ‘ahead’, and the skipper to aim the model by hand. On passing through the markers, the skipper takes over for the return. For this event the same course was used as for the sailing ships and was over the width of the lake. Winner was J. Colman with Bronnington and second was F. Baker with tugboat Waterloo. Radio controlled sailing ships competed for the Tall Ships Trophy, sailing twice round a course extending almost the length of the lake, passing between two of the buoys of the docking course each way and round the oil rig. By this time the wind was freshening. C. Money was first with Brigand and was followed by C. Martland with Bombardier. Although he was outclassed, M. J. Higginbottom sportingly entered with his spritsail barge Kathleen. Hardiest sailors were the ladies, who, after working hard all day serving refreshments, were called to take part in the Ladies’ Steering event when the weather had taken a turn for the worse, with wind and rain. Winner was Mrs D. Smith and second was Miss D. Smith. Novelty was provided by A. Wood, who shot jets of water at onlookers from the turret guns of a warship, and there was an attempt to simulate an explosion in the oil rig. Of the 45 entrants, quite a few sailed more than one model, and in addition there was a static exhibition in the clubroom, making a total of more than 60 models for the hundreds of spectators to see. Extra attractions were stationary and marine engines in steam and a wonderful working loom built of Meccano made by a Preston man Mr E. Keighley. Finally, our premier award, the Pandoro Trophy, generously donated by Pandoro Ltd, was awarded to W. Thomas of Crosby with his paddle tug Chieftain, judged as the best model at the regatta. Runner-up was A. Frith of Fleetwood with the stern trawler C. S. Forester, and special mention was made of W. H. Smith’s barquentine Katrina and F. Baker’s tugboat Waterloo. Prizes were presented by Mrs J. Railton. The Scale Section of the Fleetwood MY &PB Club is indebted to all who helped to make this day a success, from those in the control point to the odd job men, and especially to entrants who travelled many miles to take part with their splendid models. C. Money * * The electric event was moved to an adjoining pond which was more sheltered. The overall attendance was very good both for people entering and also for willing helpers. One of the highlights of the event was the winning of the petrol class by Carrie Firmin, who also scored the highest number of laps of the day. Many people were impressed by this win, including her husband, as this has been an ambition of theirs for some time. Frank Bradbury President of the MPBA, made a welcome appearance. It is gratifying to see an established member taking such a keen interest. The results were as follows: A CLASS 1. 2. §S. Chinnery W. Nugent 1. 2. 3. T. Wigglesworth 68:3 laps W. Nugent 65-1 laps J. Grainger 64-2 laps 3. K. Mussen C CLass ELECTRIC 24 KG 1. K. Foster 2. D. Wooley 3. I. Shaw 66:2 laps ~ 44-3 laps 43-2 laps 42-3 laps A. CLAss 1. N. Mussen 56:0 laps 3. 50:4 laps 2. M. Francis J. Wilkie C CLass 1. N. Mussen 2 P. Bayley 3. D. Woodward B CLAss 67-1 laps 66-3 laps Juniors 54-1 laps 1. B. Warburton 65.0 2. D. Marles 63-4 3. C. Lucas 62-5 PETROL SP IG 1. MrsC. Firmin 71-1 2 I. Folkson 51-3 3. P. Firmin 29-0 ELECTRIC UNLIMITED 1. D. Wooley 71-3 2. K. Foster 70-1 3. I. Shaw 53-1 B Chass _ 1. N. Wiggles- worth 2. 3. laps laps laps laps laps laps laps 68-4 laps Miss S. Horden 63:1 laps N. Mussen 63-0 laps 63-0 laps 54-2 laps 50-2 laps * laps laps D. W. Hicks * * 1978 British Marblehead Championships and New Zealand World Cup There was a small entry for the 1978 Championships, this included two French boats, but no one else from further south than Birmingham. It was unfortunate that the RIOR Championships had been arranged at Fleetwood over the weekend, but as the entries for that race were low it obviously did not have much effect on the numbers. * National Multi-Race Championships, 9/10th September 1978 The Championships, held at Saxmundham, went off extremely well considering the windy conditions. We had sunshine and no rain and apart from the wind, which was common to all parts of the country that weekend, conditions were fine. MPBA President Frank Bradbury’s Cougar at the National MultiRace Championships, Saxmundham. Harold Dovey with Sula, winner of the British Marblehead Championships, sailing against Shogun, N. James. Photo by A. J. Roberts. dington Bear, Gordon Griffin was having a good day with his yacht, General Synopsis, he had the boat going very fast to windward. However the best combination of the day was Harold Dovey/Bill Sykes/ seh and Arthur Geeson/Don Hardwicke/ Wombat, both getting 55/60 Racing finished at the end of the 14th heat, and at this Stage Sula had worked up to joint-first place, 138 points, with Kimo Sabe on the same total Two beats were sailed, Su/a winning the first one from windward, and then sailing through to win from leeward There was also a sail off for fifth place, the two Bloodaxes Axtung and Puddy. This time both wona beat, so the place had to be decided on the run, which Puddy narrowly won. The winning yacht Sula had been consistently well sailed all weekend, the boat gradually improving as the racing went on. Bill Sykes must have been well pleased with the performance of both his designs, as Wombat finished third, having sailed really well on the final day. Other top skippers had been in the prize lists in previous years, but it was very encouraging to see so many juniors sailing. Those skippering their own boats did very well, but there was also great keenness in junior mates, one hopes they will all keep on with model yachting. By the end of the race all competitors were tired, it had been a lot of racing during the three days, but the officials must also have been very weary, and all thanks must go to them, from the OOD down to the Racing started on Saturday at 2 pm, Mr Ken Jones, the OOD, welcomed competitors and said that he would complete one round, and as much of the second as possible. There was a slightly stronger wind for the start of the race, there had been very little during the morning. It was blowing from the far end of the lake, and this meant that there was a wind shadow from the factory, this affected the finishing line, and also meant that the first leg was a bit tricky, the yachts did not point very high up to the first turn, and leeward boats in particula r fell off towards the starting line. However the wind did gradually strengthen and eight boards were sailed by 6.30. Two of the Bloodaxe s finished at the top, Axtung with 38/40 and Puddy with 35/40. Both skippers had found good trims straight away, and only dropped runs. Nearly all competitors were happy with the wind, not too strong, but steady enough to let them keep a trim throughout the afternoon. At 9 am on Sunday the wind was straight down the lake, but lighter than Saturday. One skipper had to return home, Mick Harris once again found that misfortune seems to follow him at Marblehead Championships — his daughter was taken to hospital. Brian Jones, however, took charge of Axtung, with the kind assistance of Don Bush. The slight change in wind meant that there was a change of leadership, Kimo Sabe only dropping one beat, and M-4-Sis two beats during the day. Quite a few skippers found that their boats did not respond as well in the lighter winds, and the choice of tall or top rigs was a difficult one to decide on, During the afternoon the wind continually swung from side to side at the top of the lake, so it was a matter of luck if spinnakers were flown from the right side of the boat while running down the lake. There was an unfortuna te breakdown, the keel of Assassin snapped, and Charles Robertson was helped to repair it by Birkenhead Club members. It was Assassin that flew the most outstanding spinnaker, made of aluminiu m foil, and seeming to be the widest most people had seen. At the end of the first round the leader was Peter Maskell sailing Kimo Sabe, with 92/105, and Axtung second with 78. However after bank judges. Without these ‘volunteers’ there would be no Championships, but unfortunately there are not very many willing to give up a weekend to supervise races. x swung, Peter Maskell still got most of his beats, but had trouble on the runs Mick Harris was not happy with Axtung, and young Martin Roberts was pleased to get three out of him, with his Bloodaxe Pad- 1. es 3: 4, 35 6. Ts 8. 9. 10. 2161 2323 2341 79 2632 2122 2713 2542 2264 2232 11 12 13 14 15 16 1¥ 18 19 2716 2328 F237 2630 2695 2462 2653 1880 F227 21 22 2453 2682 20. 2718 Sula Kimo Sabe Wombat M-4-Sis Puddy Axtung Flying Saucer Shogun General Synopsis Paddington Bear Dr, Syntax Mistral Samedi 14 Orange Juice Chris-E Nothing Yet Grand Slam Dissildo ‘Reims Martell Lady Diane Assassin Skipper H. Dovey P. Maskell A, Geeson W. Jones K. Roberts M. Harris K, Armour N. James G. Griffin M. Roberts J. Brooks J. Bush T. Bayard G. Reeves C. Elliott R. Etheridge C. Newport W. Poole D. Lagarde J. Sixsmith R. Noble C. Robertson Club Bournville Bradford Bournville Birkenhead Birkenhead Bournville Bradford Fleetwood Cleethorpes Birkenhead Fleetwood Bradford Reims Fleetwood Birkenhead Bournville Birkenhead Birkenhead Reims Birkenhead Cleethorpes Newcastle * Sheffield Ship Model Society Annual Regatta, 3rd August The above event at Millhouses Park was once again blessed with excellent weather despite the poor summer we have had in 1978. As before, the regatta was divided into two parts, first R/C scale followed by R/C speed steering. The regatta is held in a public park, with the permission of Sheffield’s Recreation Department, the water being a wadeable 140 ft square pool normally used for children’s paddle boats. One side of the pond was screened off for competitors use, giving the public access to the remaining three sides. This location plus pre-regatta publicity in the local press and radio stations usually ensures a good crowd of spectators. This year it was estimated that over 400 people were watching for most of the day. SOUTH YORKSHIRE R/C SCALE EVENT Encouraged by the success of last year’s scale event (Jim King’s column — November ’77) we hoped to make a real splash this year. The South Yorkshire County Council generously gave a magnificent trophy for this event (an identical one was also used in the South Yorkshire 50 Multi-race). This trophy must be returned each year, although medals are permanently presented for the first three positions plus a junior trophy. A lot of discussion has taken place on the scoring system for a scale regatta, Based upon our Society’s experience and other clubs’ ideas we devised the following system: Sailing course (4 obstacles) a8 = Bis 40 pts Static judging (amount of work, quality of work, finish, ingenuity)
