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LOGBOOK Model Yachting Association News oe The other side of the model stand showing the ammeter and switch. All photos by author. place; what could be easier? The battery is into a corner by elastic bands held stretched between cup hooks. The ammeter is fixed into a hole in the stand side and the switch to an aluminium bracket. All the wiring is kept neatly in the corner to avoid being shreaded by the propeller. As a final point, and one that is often forgotten — if ever learnt that is! — preparations for your next outing start when you finish your last one. Many people end their sailing session by merely switching the radio off and giving the model a cursory wipe with an oily rag, only to wonder why they have trouble next week. A trick that | learnt from my model aircraft days is to drain the fuel out of the tank, save TAKE a Sunday towards the end of November, a Legwarmers, a vane event without prior publicity, and what can you expect? Well, whatever was expected balaclavers, anoraks, and several sweaters formed the rig of the day for most of the competitors at Clapham’s Pugwash Trophy meeting for class with less than 50 registered boats and stage vane 36R teams in late November. Photos: Vic Smeed. it turned out to be the biggest vane event of the year weighed in causes, effects, and different national except for the A Class Championships! A couple opinions or reactions. The Union’s administration of weeks beforehand lan Taylor let it be known undoubtedly comes that though Southgate club would run the in for criticism at times, usually the critic retracts when confronted with the full facts; fortunately occasional Pugwash Trophy on Clapham’s lake, for 36R teams, and tributes are paid by people who appreciate that walking a tightrope between differing and closed the list a few days later when 30 entries had been received. strongly-held national viewpoints is not always On the race day (November 23) it was bitterly cold, overcast and a 20mph plus wind turned as easy as it seems. The Treasurer’s report was accepted and once Clapham into a fair imitation of Fleetwood on a rough day and had the yachts in third and some- again showed that times fourth suits. Everyone had a whale of atime problem. However, only one member’s fees had pouring it into the water is rather anti- and eleven heats were got through, finishing not been received for social, then run the motor with the glowclip attached. This removes the last dregs of around 4.30 in virtual darkness. It was a day for there were obvious reasons for difficulty in this leg-warmers and muffling up — full marks to the respect. It is hoped that membership of the world it as it is too expensive to waste, anyway fuel from the tank, fuel line and motor crankcase. | have always found this makes starting at a later date so much easier since you do not have any thick sticky fuel residue lack of finance is a major 1982, Argentina’s, and lady officials, Pat Taylor and Lorna Bantock, who body will be able to be continued for yachtsmen in though near frozen kept up a relentless pace of 40 that country. minutes per heat, including quite As decided at the GM at Dunkirk, forms for postal votes on the subjects of discards in scores and the use of the Olympic scoring systemin all a number of resails on the run. It was good to see so many youngsters taking to fight against. part — and taking points — with half a dozen | cannot claim that what | advise is in any way new and original but it does work for boats skippered and/or crewed by juniors with World Championships have been sent out, and the Racing Rules Officer is compiling an appendix ages in single figures. There were boats from to the standard IYRU rules covering amendments me. After five months storage through last winter, even | managed to start my power and needed to adapt the rules to radio racing. This is Guildford and several London clubs, including a much more extensive than most people would welcome contingent from the MYSA where 36s have become quite popular again after 20 years anticipate, but most of the points relate to race with none in the club. rules, inevitable when one considers the organ- on the second pull of the starting cord, admittedly the silencer fell off but that is a different problem. Birkenhead and Bourneville, Chelmsford management as opposed to the actual Some of the senior figures present were asking “Why?” and ‘What do we dowrong the rest of the year?” One of the obvious answers was that for The Board considered the World Championships for RM an R10R at Dunkirk and an excellent most of the competitors, at least, the results ‘er were secondary to the pleasure of sailing. If you report on them by the OOD, Alain Bartier, kindly won a board, great, but if you didn’t it wasn’t the end of the world, and there was another board translated by Lorna Bantock. Formal comment coming up to try to do better. Quite old-fashioned no fF Switch 5 Glowplug connector really, and far, far more enjoyable for it! was made on two major points: (a) It is essential . that in future IMYRU events that each entrant produces a current IMYRU Rating Certificate for his yacht on arrival. Every yacht is to be checked IMYRU matters Much of the business dealt with by the against its certificates before racing commences. (There is no point in having international certifi- Executive cates if they are not used, and checking a boat central London — a much-appreciated gesture by John) was necessary, routine administration active/ passive judging the Board concluded that Board meeting of the IMYRU on November 22 (at John Cleave’s business office in work. Decisions matters and actions taken in such may often sound simple enough, but before any decision there is always much to be February 1983 racing isational differences between full-size and radio racing. against its certificate before racing commences. measuring completely). (b) On the question of in fleet sailing there are bound to be more protests as the racing is more competitive, i.e., the yachts racing are more evenly matched. 101 Left: oldest boat at Clapham was Walter Jones’ 50 year old veteran, own. borrowed for the event by Birkenhead’s Ken Roberts. Can still hold its with Above: a most successful recent boat, Alex Austin’s Xasperashun, suits fourth or third Below: arrangement. rudder overhanging controversial were needed in the blustery conditions. arrangements and it is hoped that an up-dated set of instructions can be issued before the start of the season. Later in the meeting Peter Somers (Bourneville) was appointed to take over the running of both vane and radio leagues; the biggest Passive judging should have been used throughout and will be used in all future IMYRU R/C events. At Dunkirk the large number of protests were partly due to competitors’ lack of knowledge obstacle is still the failure of those running league events to send in race results even reasonably of the rules and reluctance to carry out penalty promptly. A report was made on an attractive turns. The Board extended congratulations to Alain Bartier, Jacques Porisse, and the committee and members of the YFCA for an extremely well organised and successful championship which bronze trophy being produced by Vic Bellerson and Ken Butler (also of Bournville club) for the Eric Nuttall Memorial Award. Before resuming the meeting after a short lunch break a vote was taken on the IMYRU ques- has set a standard for future events. Member countries are invited to apply to the EB to stage the next World Championships for RM, R10OR andEC12 classes. Anew venture — subject to the necessary finance being available, which seems likely — is an IMYRU European Vane M Championship planned in Holland between August 23-27 1983 at the Recreation Park, Spaarnwonde (between Haarlem and tions to national bodies re discard and Olympic scoring, both of which were approved. It was also agreed that voting on the Mrule proposals would be undertaken by Districts, each club having votes proportional to its membership on the normal scale and proportions of yes/no votes recorded. This seems the fairest way to allow members to decide, and District Councillors will no doubt be calling special meetings for this Amsterdam) and limited to 30 yachts. Confirmation will be made as soon as possible. purpose. It was also decided that the total propor- Sweden will stage a European RM Champion- ship for members of clubs of European countries affiliated to the IMYRU during week 32, 1983 (that’s the second week in August. Exact date and venue will be notified SAP. The Rating Rules Officer presented the revised M rules, with amendments and voting papers, and it was confirmed that amendments received trom individuals, or received after the original required date (July 1, 1982) could not be included. The rules etc. are already despatched to member countries for the voting forms to be completed and returned by April 30. A final rules proposal based on the voting will then be sent out by July 31 and astraight yes/no vote must be returned by October 31. If accepted, the rules will come into effect on January 1, 1984. As a personal comment, this whole enormous exercise has brought out the advantages of the IYRU (and other bodies’) system of having a rules committee which decides the rules, full stop. A properly framed rule can surely only be drawn up by experienced people and, in a case suchas this, should not depart too far from the existing form. Differing views must of course be taken into account, but is it not better to sift these with an ‘expert committee rather than put them all out for 2 general vote by people who have not had an opportunity of having the implications explained? © it is mentioned that there are 192 questions to be answered on the voting forms some idea of the complexity of the matter can be grasped, and the wote of thanks accorded to Chris Dicks for coping “eth this mammoth task and Norman Hatfield for of typing involved is well she considerable amount Ssevec 102 Most of the other matters discussed are in mid- course and details will be given when any are finalised. Among correspondence it was noted es newsletters were that association magazinand now being received from Denmark, Belgium, Holland and New Zealand, a response to a discussion on communication at the GM. MYA AGM A fortnight later the AGM of the Model Yacht- ing Association was held, with a fairly packed agenda list which was, however, worked through reasonably comfortably. Arising from an item in last year’s minutes, a brief report was made of further activity in the Acorn Project, where Messrs Priest, Stollery and Hollom have themselves built boats to new designs and conducted trials. The 1981 boats were deliberately spread over the extremes of the rule and the lessons learned have been reflected in the higher performance of the new yachts and their potential influence on full-size design. The participating designers have all received letters of appreciation and Victory Syndicate crew shirts. The Chairman’s and Treasurer’s reports were accepted: the Secretary has a new stock of MYA ties at £2.50 each (also lapel badges) and there are still stocks of cloth badges (Publications Secretary) and vinyl! badges (Publicity Officer). For the moment T-shirt stock has been exhausted. There was some discussion on League tions should be reflected in the 17 votes held by the MYA in IMYRU voting (e.g. 12 votes for, five against or whatever) so that whatever the result, everyone should feel they’ve had the fairest possible ‘shake.’ The officers were re-elected en bloc, except that there were three vacant posts. Russell Potts was elected R/C Secretary and Dave Knowles, and Vic Bellerson Trustees. i On the motions and amendments, briefly affiliation fees up £1 per member was accepted (for members aged between 16 and 65), in- dividual membership will cost £1 more, registration will now cost £1 per yacht, and £1 per entry levy from national championships was agreed. Not agreed was the proposal (Motion 2) that it would be possible to revert to one councillor per district instead of the present two, nor that the date of the AGM should be more flexible, but approval was given to end the financial year on September 30 in order to give more time for drawing up a statement, auditing etc. to allow circulation to clubs before the AGM and to the deletion of reference to ‘Associate Members.’ The date at which club membership should be assessed for affiliation was discussed and the motion carried as amended by Birmingham. r (d, Motion 7 was carried as amended by Leiceste e and f), with some agreed adjustments proposed 13 lost, by Ashton, 8, 9, 10 and 11 carried, 12 and and 14 carried. These motions were detailed in the December issue of Model Boats. In view of the number of amendments (about 40 for Motion 7!) business proceeded briskly and with good humour Model Boats
