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AN ARGUS SPECIALIST PUBLICATION MAY 1988 £1.30 _ More of _ Britains Best from the Model Engineer Exhibition that non standard rigs will be accepted, at least for a time, by clubs offering racing for the new class. The clubs who are aiming to put on races are Bournville and Solent. They can be contacted respectively through Bill Green on 021 705 2621 and Eric Shaw on 0590 76623. They are also acting as an information exchange for 1-m owners. Whether this will develop into a class association remains to be seen, but the “oh, MYA News / The Council meeting on 30 January had the usual very full agenda. M Rule and Rating Procedures The most significant issue for the bulk of you out there in sailorland concerned the new ‘M’ Rule and its associated new style certificate. The certificate was only approved by IMYRU on 10th January (after the new Rule came into force) and it implies a whole new way of conducting ourselves, not only in measuring but in the way we apply to the Registrar for registration of our boats. A sub committee was set up to devise and promulgate a new procedure for M’s and, to their great credit, the entirely new system, in a new “M Class Rating Regulations 1988,” went out to clubs and Districts under cover of a letter dated 9 February. The main requirements are that club measurers have to be registered with the Chief Measurer, that you have to get the number of the boat allocated before it is submitted for measurement, and that the new style measurement form/certificate has to be submitted in duplicate; and that it will be possible for manufacturers to apply for blocks of numbers for boats that they sell. Soin future you will probably find that your hull comes from the supplier with the number moulded in. If it does, that is the number you have to use, so don’t gum the machine up by asking to change it to match your wife’s birthday or whatever sympathetic magic you normally use to ensure that the boat goes faster, or at least faster than the last one. Non affiliated yachtsmen will wish to know that it will in future be possible to apply for the registration of your boat if you become an individual member of the MYA. In the past only members of clubs were able to get the magic numbers onto the sails. All this new procedure at present applies to the M Class only. It will almost certainly be applied to the IMYRU 1-Metre when the Rule is promulgated, and its extension to other classes administered by the MYA will be considered in the light of experience. Radio appeals Also new and revised is the procedure for handling appeals in radio racing. The actual procedure has not changed much but is spelt out anew in a special Acquaint that went out to clubs at the end of February. 1-Metre As I mentioned last month, the IMYRU Permanent Committee gave general approval in January to the labours of the Technical Committee on the drafting of a Rule to make the 1-m an International class. There has been some fluttering in the dovecotes of those who had committed themselves to new boats before the Rule 258 er last Takanu on the south shore of Lake Taupo, venue of the NZ north Island Championships in Septemb year. Despite the glorious scenery, it rained almost throughout. Photo: Jeff Neels. seeds are there. Those of you who don’t was fixed and who now complain that they The want to alter your boats to conform to the so. Not river. the have been sold down new Rule can always apply for recognition clear to clubs and to MYA made it manufacturers what it would like the new Rule to look like, but specifically pointed out that they could not guarantee that IMYRU would approve their ideas. Those who are complaining seem to be living in the past. There was once a time when the MYA had so preponderant a role in international model yachting that the other members of IMYRU could do nothing but follow in our wake as gracefully as they could manage. This is no longer the case; the MYA casts only a quarter of the votes in the present day IMYRU, which behaves in a more or less democratic manner and gives weight to the views of other member nations besides us. You may think this scandalous but the sun has set on the Empire and we have to get used to it. The solution is to register lots more boats in the MYA. This is the basis of voting strength and it is ironic that one of the clubs griping about the way the 1-m vote has gone must have the largest number of active but unregistered boats in as an MYA class. You will need a Rule that you can all agree on, a minimum of 50 boats registered with a class association or similar body and a minimum of four affiliated clubs offering a programme of racing for the class. The Oxford club will be hosting a National Championship for Harvey Middleton’s Impala 1-m on 19th September at their water in Oxford. Contact David Swain on 0865 59548. Ranking List The final results of the 1987 Ranking Races for RM’s are now to hand and are printed in part with this article. Apart from the actual rankings which show Graham Bantock at the top of the list with a perfect score, followed by the usual list of the well known or notorious round the circuit, the interesting thing is how short a distance down the list you have to go to find skippers who didn’t manage to sail in four ranking events out of the seven available to them. Only 19 skippers sailed in four or more The MYA’s policy is to welcome the new class and to do what we can to stimulate it, because we think that it is probably the best thing that has happened to model ranking races and 71 of 130 sailed in only one ranking race, usually the ranking race in their own District. This suggests that there is not a lot of pressure from the middle and bottom of the fleet to drag down the don’t want to alter your existing boats to fit the new Rule that’s up to you, but my personal advice is that you should do so and get them registered. The fin will have to be reduced in depth, and strictly the rigs should be changed to match the one design rigs that are in the Rule, but you MAY find When you compare this with the intensity of competition in France, where the Brittany League for instance has 70 active skippers in regular competition on a fairly restricted local circuits of meetings, the cause of the relative decline of British performances in international competition the country. sailing since the invention of radio, or vane if you’re funny that way. But whether it takes off will depend on whether you out there build and register boats to it. If you first division skippers, and that the extent of high quality competition which these races were supposed to provide has been rather limited in the first year of operation. MODEL BOATS is not far to seek. From the start of this season, the ranking list moves over to a “rolling total” with the results being revised after each race. If you want to pay a modest fee for a copy of the updated figures six times a year, get in touch with Ian Taylor on 01-446 1625. Membership The affiliated membership of the MYA last year was just over 1,000 for the first time for ages. Council think we should not rest on our laurels, but should useit asa spring board for further growth. “2000 by 2000” is the sort of target we have in mind. Race of Champions The rolling total rankings will be used to select the skippers to be invited to the race of Champions, which will be hosted by Cotswold on September 24-25. With the exception of the reigning champion, the 12 (not 16) entrants will be drawn straight from the ranking list. Specialist Groups At the AGM the suggestion was made that the MYA should foster the development of specialist groups to avoid the development of competing organisations in a very small field. Council decided that they would welcome any such group concerned with sail powered models that approached the MYA, but would not take the initiative to form groups in advance of a clearly expressed demand. The Vintage group started this way and if scale sail modellers want to come under the MYA’s wing, it’s up to them to approach us. The possibility of class associations or a This only means that each existing member has to find one other in the next 12 years. If you’re old and frail and not likely to last to the end of the century, you ought Abandonment of Races In vane racing, it is pretty nearly a hanging offence to withdraw from an event without the express permission of the OOD, which is only given if the boat or skipper is totally unable to continue. This is because the loss of a boat midway through a vane event gums up the scoring and imposes a number of undesirable adjustments that all competitors and race A Guernsey boat pre 1914, possibly a 12-Metre. Photo. G. Whyte. column. forming a plethora of class associations and special groups before the next Council. the fleet systems of racing is used, but it is nevertheless diScourteous to the organisers organisers wish to avoid. The mayhem not so great, particularly if one or other of Model Yachting Association Ranking List as at 1.1.88 *Points for being OOD Club 1. G. Bantock 2. R. Stollery Guildford 3. R. Smith Leicester 4. J. Cleave Mid Chelmsford DC Nat Nor East 100 200 100 100 94 100 100 100 188* 195 56 Ryde 97 Chelmsford 91 92* 190 89 Fleetwood 78 94 88 185 94 7. A. Graham 89 Chelmsford 88 86 154 Guildford 88 169 103 Doncaster 50 100 164 67 11. M. Mickleburgh 12. M. Kemp 13. C. Dicks 14. C. Jackson 84 92 Dovecote Dovecote 123 47 79* 71 57 144 133 179 66 69 15. D. Potter Birkenhead 69 80 16. D. Coode 17. T. Brown 18. P. Thornton 19. M. Roberts 149 Guildford 63 Fleetwood Chelmsford 96 97 174 44 Birkenhead 13 68 20. G. Elliott Birkenhead 63 40 67 Clapham 75 92 22. L. Smith Leicester 81 86 23. J. Brooks Fleetwood 78 24. M. Evans Appledore 25. K. Clement 26. H. McPeake 27. M. Ewart 28. T. Jenkins 29. A. Youd 30. C. Myers 31. B. Corley 32. J. Hammond 33. N. Hatfield 34. P. Edwards 35. R. Owens Cleveland ~ Dovecote 59 Birkenhead 72 Fleetwood Chelmsford Cotswolds 43 26 128 108 159 90 Chelmsford 93 36. B. Bardoe 37. S. Collins 38. M. Dackombe 39. V. Cooney Guildford Guildford Woodley 40. M. Golding Chelmsford 9 34 97 384 381 ad 94 73 87 84 349 347 378 71 43 331 16 311 62 65 287 28 68 83 270 253 246 56 226 52 219 217 216 69 39 216 215 48 214 81 209 200 184 159 156 65 155 154 61 56 77 17 72 22 41 51 62 75 58 58 100 Cotswolds Chelmsford Swanley Chelmsford 411 78 46 463 74 96 87 81 466 462 50 84 76 56 94 30 138 60 53 Chichester 500 470 298 113 21. M. Dicks 100 Best 4 67 118 82 88 83 Cleveland Guildford 100° 100 10. |. Hall Clapham M&S 467 5. |. Cole 9. B. Cheetham Sw 72 6. D. Priestley 8. P. Stollery regional events for two years. For the future, Council wish it to be perfectly clear that Race Committees will be expected to report cases of unjustified withdrawal from races for disciplinary action. effect of withdrawing from a radio event is Skipper magnified if the event is limited entry and others have been excluded to allow you to sail. A competitor who withdrew from an event abroad has recently been banned from representing the MYA in world or to try to find two, to ensure that the baseis not eroded. Given the small size of most clubs, a drive to increase the size of the existing clubs seems to me to be the thing to go for, giving better sailing in the enlarged clubs as well as an increase in total membership. Council has several ideas for projects that clubs might find worth the trouble of setting up in an attempt to find new members. More about them in another group for vane sailors would also be welcome, but Council did not see any pressing need for them at this stage. It’s up to you to prove us wrong about this by and to the other competitors to pack up half way through unless the boat is permanently disabled. The offence is 54 31 44 42 153 148 142 29 71 26 124 122 119 119 Commercial news Winches I seem to be writing something about winches nearly every month these days. The Mistral Budget which is cheap, (£41.69), basic, but adequate and simply plugs into the receiver, was introduced by Chris Jackson some time ago and has now been incorporated into David Andrews’ range of products, enabling David to offer a full range of styles, capabilities and prices from the Mistral Budget at one end through the Olympic Low Profile, which comes in a Standard and a Super version at £44.85 and £49.74, to the top of the range Olympic at £362.68. At the same time David has introduced the Mistral Heavy Duty at £53.48. This is the same style as the Mistral Budget, but is designed to run on 12 volt supply and to provide a really strong pull for the very largest types of yachts and for scale and vintage boats with really big sail areas. All prices include VAT. More details from David on 0533 883309. The full range continues to be available from Chris as well. New 10 Rater kits One of the advantages that we all get from having a few active model yachtsmen whose work takes them across the world is easier access to products from distance places. David Coode is a regular commuter to and from Indonesia and Japan and is becoming a regular competitor in National Championships in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Most recent results include third in Japan last year and respectable placings in a hot fleet in the Australian nationals held in Melbourne over the New Year. He was raving about the sophistication of the measuring tank that they were using in Melbourne. David already imports in small quantities the hulls built by Paul Chisholm in Christchurch NZ. These are Geoff Draper RM 1000 and RM 1000 II, built in divinycell foam planking with an epoxy glass outer skin. Very nicely made, though a bit heavier than the very latest high tech construction over here. I have one at present which has to be put together in a 259 hurry to go to the Canaries at Easter, so I shall be able to tell you more about these in due course. On his trips to Hong Kong, David has laid alongside Tom Zakorski, who is a professional GRP moulder and the top builder out there. The result is that he is offering a range of 10-raters. They are a C/F hull for the Jahan design Star 10. This is a fairly elderly but very successful 49in. lw] design which is still winning things in good competition in France. Second is an Adrian Brewer Graffiti MkII, a hard chine 48 lwl design for ply construction. A full kit includes mast, fittings, one suit of sails and the lead for about £150 in UK. There are already a few of these about in UK, Australia and New Zealand. Finally, a new Brewer design. A round bilge 52 lwl boat called, don’t ask me why, Hot and Freeze. This comes as a full kit similar to the Graffiti in style but the hull is a finished moulding in C/F. The cost is in the region of £300. Details from David on 048 632 246. Date April Event Another shot of the supposed 12-Metre by G. Whyte. M.Y.A. REGATTAS Class Venue 3 Visitor Cup Dennis Nixon (1) RM __ Leicester 4 Clapham Cup M Leeds MYA Nationals A Birmingham Met-South District Championship 10R YM60A 3 3 9/10 10 (L) 10 10 10 (L) 10 (L) 16/17 17 (L) 17 (L) 17 Us 17 24 24 (R) Open Race closing date: 26 March Barnaby Dun Silver Ship Whyte Trophy Ash Trophy Diamond Jubilee Race Jack Deacon Trophy Drury Anchor Trophy Mayoral Cup Canada Cup Open Race S. West District Championship Eastern District Ranking Race and Hatfield Trophy R10R_ Birkenhead Bournville R36R/ 1m at Birkenhead team RM _ RM RM R36R_ RM 36R M M RM RM _ RM team RM Doncaster Eastbourne Dovecote Guildfordad Birkenhe Clapham Bournville Fleetwood Poole North Wales Cotswolds Chelmsford Date Event Jesmond Bowl M 24 24 Cup Trojan Festival Cup ARM Gosport Etherow 30/May 2 MYA Nationals. Closing date: 16 April M 24 (L) 24 May 1 1 1 2 8 (L) 8 (L) 8 (L) 8 8 14/15 15 (L) 15 15 Red Rum Trophy Ladbrooke Trophy Open Race Tamplin Cup Met-South District Championship and Elstead Cutter Eric Nuttall Trophy Haven Holiday Trophy Open Race Dennis (2) MYA Nationals closing date: 30 April Northern District Championship Gwynne Bowl Curry Mug Just to show I’m not totally dependent on globetrotters to know what is going on in distance places, news that three Kiwis, some time in England on the way. Frank Brown from Wellington will also be over visiting relatives in Derbyshire during the summer and will probably turn up on the side of one or two lakes to see how we do it over here. Jeff Neels writes to send photos of the venue for the North Island Championships and to tell me that his club at Kaipoi, near Christchurch, which had not started when we were there 12 months 260 1m Vintage Yachts Sail In clubs as fast as this. secretary and my host when I was in Christchurch a year ago, are intending to make the trip to Europe for the Berlin Worlds in August and should be spending R36R/ Sandwell Open Race ago, has grown to 30 plus members and is to host the South Island Championship including Kevin Fieldes, their national Newcastle 24 (L) News from the dark side of the Earth Class Venue later this year. If only we could grow new Vintage Recently I went to talk to the yachting members of the Elmbridge club at Kempton Park. They have a couple of dozen sailing craft of various types and will, I hope, be Dovecote Fleetwood Cleveland RM RA Birkenhead R36R Oxford Gosport R10r Guildford 36R at Clapham RM __ Fleetwood RM _— Appledore RM Cambridge RM Leicester R36R_ Leicester 10r Newcastle Eastbourne RM Gosport RM new coat of paint and a new rig. Sorry not to havea photo of this one. The other was a 10-rater numbered 995 and named Quercus. She is an elegant example of late 1930’s design and construction. The name is Latin for Oak, slightly surprising in view of the fact that she is planked to a high standard in pine with the top two strakes in mahogany. Perhaps there is small piece of oak incorporated somewhere where it doesn’t Apart from the pleasure of meeting this show. The seams have opened very slightly, but that’s not serious; rather more worrying, she looked to me as though the aircraft to electric cars, they were able to produce two very nice old boats. One was an elegant hull about 30in. long, clearly a commercial product from the 1920’s or a little earlier, which was in good condition and would makea lovely little model with a the mahogany king plank and there is a complete set of rigs in Union Silk, including affiliating to the MYA shortly. group who are deeply hidden in the midst of a very large club that does everything from sheer line was very flat at the rear end and the counter seemed to have dropped a bit. The deck is in two parts laid either side of a spinnaker. The top suit area is in the region of 1,200 MODEL BOATS square inches and this would give alwl ofa little under 48in., which ties up reasonably well with what I can scale off the photo. The displacement, which must be in the high twenties, also suggests that the lwl is about right. The boat was, I should think, designed and built just before the war and refurbished after it. There is no conversion to vane gear, suggesting that she was not used seriously after the late 1940’s, some of the fittings are clearly replacements and are made from stainless steel wire in a style that I have not seen on a boat that is known to be in her pre-1939 condition. Her present owner intends to restore her as a display piece, but I hope to influence him to get the bottom wet at least once when she is finished. The other old boat is one that I haven’t seen myself. One of my contacts sent the photos which he took in an antique shop on the island of Guernsey. She is very big, 80in. overall, though this is partly because of the very long counter. The lw] must be a lot less than modern boats of this overall size. Fifteen inches beam, but not a great deal of depth. I think that she may be built to the 12-Metre Rule, though she is not very typical of the form produced by the Rule. There is no steering gear of any sort; that suggests that she is pretty early in the history of Guernsey boats. They were right up to date in their techniques in the pre 1914 period and gave Bill Daniels a close call when he went to sail there in 1913. The present Guernsey club is a nest of old 10-raters, which are converted to radio. The lake is not deep enough to take modern M’s and 10’s, so they are still building to classic 10-rater designs of the 1950’s and 60’s. So far they have not felt the need to affiliate to the MYA, which is understandable in the circumstances, but there is an active group of sailors, and with a built in vintage slant. Contact address: R. R. Potts, 8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP. Tel: 01 850 6805. MAY 1988 261
