- Description of contents
ee iS oe Z ~ AN ARGUS SPECIALIS!I PUBLICAIION — JANUARY 1991 £1.65 Fs HFM Thames Sailing reviewed ~ 2 B oe Competition =Es315 0) in prizes ‘| ee / =” “SW Schoolboy builds seg Atlantic Challenger fe) 9 “770144291022 ~~ to IMRU rules – by Nick Weall – Part 7 hristinva Qup Before we start anything this month, I would just like to apologise to my regular readers of the column for missing out last month’s article in favour of my report on the Worlds. I hope however that you found the report interesting and the photographs to your liking. An event such as the Worlds is the pinnacle of achievement for our sport. Merely to be participating in such an event representing your country is a great honour. To be fortunate enough to win or even come in the top twenty is beyond most of our dreams. So I feel to devote one article to those lucky 75 skippers was the least we could do. New it is time to wish you all a Happy Christmas and the best of luck through 1991. To help you spend some of your leisure time over Christmas whilst recovering from over-indulgence, I have compiled with the help of friends the following quiz. The prizes being offered have I believe never before been equalled in Model Yacht journals. Once again Model Boats scores a first in publishing this competition. The first prize is a hull kit for a one metre design called Rhythm. This is the design that was recently sailed by Phil Playle to first place in the first One Metre Nationals. Naturally enough it is a Graham Bantock designed boat and Sails etc. have generously donated this kit as first prize for the following quiz. Equal second prizes of two sail winches are up for grabs. One from David Andrews of Whirlwind fame and one from Tony Abel the TR8, both of these powerful and fast winches are used extensively by radio controlled model yachtsmen. Third prize is a set of sails by my sailmaker, Peter Wiles of your choice. Fourth and final prize is a year’s subscription to this magazine together with a copy of Trevor Reece’s successful book, R/C Model Yachts. The competition is open to allcomers and will be judged by myself. It is to be hoped that the prizes may help to introduce some newcomers to our sport or to help an existing participant to expand into another class of yacht racing. Naturally enough the questions revolve mostly around the rules. In fact all that should be required to answer most of the questions is one up to date rule book and lots of common sense. As 44 usual it is to be hoped that the questions provoke thought and conversation with other yachty types. Although of course with the prizes on offer, people may becomea little guarded with their offered opinions for a month or two. The competition will remain open until the last day of February so as to give our overseas readers ample time to get their replies in. The person that gets the most answers correct will be the winner and so on. Should more than one person get all of the answers more or less right, then presentation and logic applied will be taken into consideration. Good luck! Question 1 You are luffing a windward yacht, when her Skipper calls “Mast abeam stem.” What must you do? Question 2 You are on starboard, close hauled and approaching the bank. Several boats are approaching your projected course running on starboard close to the bank and on a course parallel to the bank. They are on a collision course to you if you tack off the bank on port. What do you do? You could soon be making up your own hull and enjoying some exciting sailing. Rhythm, the Graham Bantock designed One Metre yacht hull kit is first prize in our Great Christmas Competition. Photo: Graham Bantock. backstay before B actually goes through head to wind. This is the situation described to you by A, and B completely agrees with A’s description. What is your decision on the facts found? What rule or rules apply? CHRISTMAS QUIZ QUESTION 2 << WIND Question 3 What effect does altering the tension in the down haul have upon the mainsail? CHRISTMAS QUIZ QUESTION 5 Question 4 What effect does altering the tension in the uphaul have upon the mainsail? Question 5 You are acting as a one person protest committee and hear the following case. Yacht A on port protests yacht B on starboard. Yacht B counter protests yacht A. Yacht A was on port, close hauled approaching yacht B who was on starboard and crossing A’s bows. Yacht A bears off just enough to miss B and duck under her stern. However as A is in the process of ducking under B’s stern, B luffs up prior to tacking. A’s jib boom touches A’s “CONTACT!” "PROTEST!" GNIM hen practical introduction Coy-r © if Bhad gone beyond head to wind, would your decision be different? What rules now apply? Question 6 If you hit a mark on the “wrong side” before rounding the mark and you wish to avail yourself of the alternative penalty, what does this involve? Please give the exact source of your interpretation. Question 7 After the start and having cleared the startline, a yacht to leeward that has never been clear ahead, but has always had the front half of its hull ahead of your bow, suddenly and violently luffs you up, just touching your hull before breaking away again. What do you do? Question 8 You are taking part in a race on a day when the wind is blowing hard. Your boat is running before the wind on a course parallel to the far bank which is a vertical concrete one. An out of control yacht is on a converging course with your yacht and approaching the bank with good speed. You have the opportunity to push the out-of-control yacht around onto the opposite tack and thus point it back heading towards the Question 9 Just before the start of the first race of the day in an open race, a skipper comes up to you and tells you he intends to protest your yacht because the mainsail numbers are mounted too low. After the race, because you are off in the next race, you have the time to replace the numbers in the correct position. Meanwhile the protest has been lodged and you then have to attend a protest meeting. What action do you think they will take? Question 10 Whilst on the second circuit of a triangle, sausage course, you forget that you do not have to round the wing mark and you sail your second circuit going round it! Unfortunately as you go round it you hit it and an observer calls out the touching of the mark. What must you do? Question 11 You are approaching the finishing line on a close reach. At the four boat lengths there is a yacht overlapping you to windward. The windward yacht calls overlap. You hold your course just aiming to cut close to the mark not CHRISTMAS QUIZ we — QUESTION 11 Fin!sl OC & t. i) bank the skippers are standing on. Alternatively you can simply avoid the out-of-control yacht and let it sail straight into the bank, inevitably "CONTACT!" damaging itself. You are lying in third position at the time, clear ahead by some boat lengths of the following boats, so you decide to attempt to save the out-or-control yacht. You successfully POSITION divert the out-of-control yacht but drop three places whilst doing so. Can you ask for redress? If so under what rule or rules? Do you think redress would be POSITION ® granted if requested? his is the seventh article in a series that is concentrating on explaining the racing rules as applicable to Radio Controlled Model Yacht Racing and, in particular, the tactical application of those rules from both defensive and attacking points of view. The first twelve articles take the reader completely around an imaginary Olympic type of course doing one triangle and one sausage. We have adopted a yacht “C”’, one of five which are involved in a race. The fortunes of C fluctuate as the race progresses so as to illustrate more clearly some of the basic tactics and problems to the complete novice. After the first twelve articles, we will then repeat the whole exercise looking at it from an intermediate’s point of view. That is someone who has had a sailing season or two of racing experience. As soon as the first twelve articles have been published, I plan to consolidate them into a book, so if you have only just discovered this series and find this article of interest then you can either wait until the book comes out next year, which will be handy for pondside reference, or you can simply send away £2.50 to the publishers for a photocopy of each article to date that you have missed. JANUARY 1991 Keeping Warm and Dry Winter is rapidly approaching now and we ought to consider how to be prepared for it. Personally I always take a sailing bag full of extra clothing articles around with me, winter or summer. I hate feeling cold and dislike being wet even more. Therefore I always have a full set of waterproofs in the car and either short waterproof boots or waders available depending upon the facilities at the waterside I am racing.on. Thermal underwear, leg warmers and gloves all have a part to play at some stage through the seasons. As of course do various types of headgear, in the summer to stop the brain from boiling and in the winter to prevent heat loss. The reason why so many radio controlled yachties wear long peaked caps is to keep the glare of the sun out of their eyes. They are extremely useful if the sun is anywhere in the 180° that coincides with your field of vision of the course. Having made sure that you are going to survive the rigours of our weather it is prudent to offer your radio gear some protection as well. The transmitter is the most obvious piece of kit that works much better when kept bone dry. To this end there are various solutions ranging from the simple plastic shopping bag to allowing the overlapping yacht room. The overlapping yacht bears off so as to also aim to cross the line, passing the mark on the correct side. In doing so, she gently hits your boat. Who is at fault? Question 12 You are rounding the windward mark to starboard. You have just tacked to port and are beginning to bear off to aim for the wing mark, when to your total surprise a yacht on starboard comes round the mark on the wrong side! (She thought she had to leave the mark to port, as we usually do!) It all happens so quickly that there is a collision, although it is a very minor one, you having managed to bear off enough just to brush the starboard boat’s stern. But a contact is a contact; who has to do the penalty turns? Or if it goes to the protest committee what are they likely to decide? That, dear readers, is twelve questions for the twelve days of Christmas. Do have a go, no one I would guess is going to get them all right. Remember that the various books explaining the yacht racing rules for 1989 to 1992 will contain most of the answers you need. Although you may need to search and read more than one version of the three main guides to the rules by Mary Pera, Eric Twiname and Bryan Willis. Remember the rules of course are exactly the same in each; it is the interpretations and explanations that vary. Your local library should stock the ones you don’t own. Or else give yourself a treat and invest in one or two yourself! Have fun! Remember that the first prize is worth around £140, the second two prizes around £75 each and the third prize around £40.00, whilst the final prize + from ASP is worth around £25.00. That ]7,; is a lot of prizes, all consisting of top @ \ quality goods. 2 >» purpose made polythene bags from Swan Models. You can also get Perspex covers from certain model shops. The important thing is that whatever you use, should not only keep the transmitter dry, but should allow you easy access to the control sticks and also allow you to see what you are doing. The other point about transmitters that I always do is have a strap fixed to them so as you can hang the thing from your neck. It allows you much more freedom to handle your boat when launching or recovering it, it also stops you dropping it into the water too often. Mind you I have still managed to dip two transmitters into the water this year as I have bent over my yacht in the water to alter the trim of some part or other. For this reason I always carry a spare transmitter or two. When the weather is foul and wet, it is also useful to havé a towel or rag to hand to dry off your hands each time you wish to gain access to the receiver pot for switching on and off or for changing batteries. I always carry a roll of tissue toilet paper with me too. I pack out the receiver pot with dry tissue. It stops the battery and receiver rattling about and more importantly the tissue can soak up any minor ingress of water, which in rough and wet conditions seems to find a way of getting everywhere. With a few 45 precautions as above, it is possible to still enjoy your racing throughout the year rather than being just a fair weather skipper. Enjoyment should reign supreme Enjoyment should be the key factor, racing radio controlled models yachts is a sport and should be done for fun. There is certainly a terrific feeling the first time you win a race, but there is also just as good a feeling for the novice to finish last, but know that he or she kept up with the fleet, well for most of the way anyway, and if only I had done so and so I might have done better. There should be a certain pleasure in appreciating the skill of the yacht that outsmarts you and the benefit of cataloguing the manoeuvre in your memory for future use yourself. Of course, racing is competitive and we all are trying to do the best we can, but if you find you are getting up-tight take a breather and ask yourself why you are taking part in this SPORT? Relax a little and concentrate on sailing your boat to the best of your ability. The whole beauty of radio controlled model yacht racing is that no sooner is one race finished, than a whole new race is about to begin. Not only that, but there is satisfaction to be gained for all the participants in a race in either achieving a personal result better than the norm or just knowing that, although you did worse than normal, in final position placing you have just had a cracking good race. I have certainly enjoyed my sailing from day one when I had purchased an old Skippy radio Marblehead some years ago and would fight my way round near the back of the fleet. It soon encouraged me to build a new Marblehead, a Nylet Gypsy and to pass the Skippy on to Lindsey. There is an awful lot of satisfaction to be gained out of building your own boat and a greater understanding of what makes everything tick is gained. However, the building of boats is not what this series of articles is about, there are a couple of good books on the subject and regular articles appear on the subject also, both in this publication and our sister magazine Radio Control Boat Modeller. So let’s get back to racing; I think it is probably worth repeating the ten points listed in the previous article for the novice to remember as they struggle up the windward beat. Second Windward Beat (1) Don’t get into irons. (That is stuck head to wind, sails flapping with no forward motion.) (2) Nice smooth tacks. (To avoid getting into irons and to maintain good boat speed. Because if you turn your rudder too sharply it acts not only to alter your direction but as a very good brake!) (3) Remember what tack you are on. (This is very important because of rule 36: Port tack boats give way to Starboard tack boats) The tack you are on is the same as the side of the boat opposite to the side that the main boom is nearest. Whilst beating it will be the windward side of the yacht, that is the side nearest to the direction the wind is coming from. 46 If you were a dinghy sailer sitting on the side of your dinghy facing the sails to stop it from heeling over too much, then your right arm would be nearest to the bow if you were on a starboard tack, or your left arm would be nearest the bow if on a port tack. (4) Remember to call for water when approaching obstructions close-hauled, (i.e. as you are approaching the bank or shallows and there is a yacht close to you that in normal circumstances would prevent you from tacking, you call “Water to tack to miss – Bank, Shallows, etc.) (5) Remember to wait for a response or an immediate tack from the hailed yacht. (Such as “You Tack” or “Take my stern’’) (6) You then must follow the hailed yacht’s immediate tack by tacking yourself immediately they have or immediately obey their instructions, tacking immediately if so instructed, either in front of the hailed yacht or behind if instructed to take their stern. In either case your tack is immediate and if you then hit the other yacht then the fault is with the hailed yacht. (7) Try and get “Command” over boats just ahead. This means trying to get to windward of a boat clear ahead so as that boat cannot tack (because if it did tack it would be tacking in your water) until you tack. (8) Think about sailing in “Clean air” and “undisturbed water”. Clean air is air that has not been disturbed by the passage of other yachts sails through it. If you remember as the wind hits a yacht’s sails its direction is altered as the wind is split to bend in front of the sail and to flow along the sail and off its leech. There is then an area of low pressure downwind of the sail with confused wind vortexing and filling in the low pressure area. There is also a high pressure area on the windward side of the sail which bends the direction of the wind. The area of influence is approximately half a boat’s length to a boat’s length to windward and three boat lengths to leeward. Disturbed water is the wake moving through the water of yachts that are ahead of you or sailing on another course near to you. usually sailing through such water will slow you down; the exception is when the wake approaches your yacht from astern as it is possible to gain speed from the wake if . you can “surf on it”. (9) Keep an eye on what is happening around your boat. By keeping an eye out you should not be caught unaware by any starboard close hauled boat that you have to give way to. Do remember that if you are on port with another port tack boat near to you, that a starboard boat approaching on an intersecting course is considered to be an obstruction and you can call for water to tack to miss the starboard boat. (10) Keep an eye on the “Hot Shots” now and then. “Hot Shots” come in all shapes, sizes and varying abilities. They are the ones that are winning all the races or most of the races that particular day. They may show you a good course to sail up the windward beat and they might respond to windshifts first, but don’t bank on it. In fact, as you get better, it can pay to do the exact opposite, but we will cover that at the intermediate stage. For the moment they can provide some useful pointers for the struggling novice. Windshifts You will probably notice through this series that we spend more time on the windward beats than any other point of sail. This is because the windward beats are the major battle ground, more positions are gained and lost on the windward beat than any other leg of the course. Why? There are obviously more opportunities for errors to be made, the sort of errors that I have just warned you about in the ten points listed. It is the leg of the course that boats will meet each other on port and starboard tacks most as they zig-zag up the course towards the windward mark. As soon as you get three or more yachts converging on opposite tacks there is always the distinct possibility of an incident occurring resulting in penalty turns for someone to do. The windshifts will play a major part in the changing fortunes of yachts beating. In fact in normal conditions the windward leg is the only leg where playing the windshifts properly can gain you enormous advantages. However, as mentioned before, I do not intend to cover windshifts in any depth until the intermediate stages of racing are covered next year. Just be aware that the wind can and normally does shift direction fairly regularly, such shifts being measured in minutes rather than hours. The wind also bends! Depending upon obstructions that lie in its path. Look around your local sailing water; there are bound to be objects within a mile of the water that will influence the direction of localised wind. For example a solitary tree will cause the wind to split each side of it and to rise up to go over the top of it. The result is confused wind way downwind of the tree. Air behaves much like any other fluid that is flowing. Have a look at a stream or river sometime and study the way the water flows around obstructions. It will give you some clues as to how air behaves as it rushes along in a wind. Again this is a subject we will cover in depth as the series progresses; at the moment it is enough just to be aware that such things exist and to understand that the wind will not behave in the same way all over your local sailing Opposite page, middle left: this is the sort of confusion you have to thread your way through to lay the windward mark! The mark is in centre of pic, hidden by the leeward of the two central beating yachts. Two yachts are beginning to bear off to round it – slightly to windward and ahead. RM Ranking Race at Woodley. Middle right: RA’s beating up towards the windward mark — Poole 1990. Bottom left: this could easily be our imaginary yachts C, D and Ain the foreground with X (07 in photo) cutting across on port. R10R Districts at Gosport 1990. Bottom middle: Miss Q on the Gosport Tweaker trying to show the relationship between jib and main sail twist for moderate winds. Bottom right: if you want to get an idea of slot settings and twist set in sails, look at a winner’s yacht! There can be no better boat to study than National Champion Graham Bantock’s RM Nimrod. MODEL BOATS 4 a = ~ j M = Oo ia 7 1 Beating to windward after the start provides tight formation dancing. The yacht that gets round the windward mark first on this beat has a very good chance of winning the race. Taken at RM World Championships at Fleetwood. Leon Talaic’s 001 disappears to the right of picture — whilst Peter Stollery hogs the foreground on port! Guy Lordat (12) appears to be tacking to port to find the lift. > JANUARY 1991 water even if it is coming from a constant direction. I can certainly remember whenI first started sailing a dinghy finding it quite difficult to keep track of where the wind was coming from. When later learning to windsurf it wa even more annoying to discover that not only was it shifting in direction all over the place but its strength was up and down like a yo-yo. Which, when you are hanging onto a sail to keep yourself up, tends to get you rather wet until you learn to respond automatically to all the wind’s little idiosyncracies. When you are watchinga race that youre not taking part in next time, concentrate on watching the pattern of the wind on the water as it passes over, this will help you to understand the sort of things I have been writing about. It is also very helpful in any case to learn how to read what the wind is up to by Below left: two RA’s approaching the windward mark on port — have to bear off dramatically to give way to two starboard close hauled yachts on the layline. Poole 1990. Below right: another typical pattern traced by windward beating yachts. R10R Districts at Gosport. watching the patterns it makes on the water’s surface. You will notice in time that different strengths of wind leave different patterns. Back to the Race Now let’s return to our mythical race take a look again at diagrams 1 and 2. We as usual are skippering yacht C with yachts D and A behind us, but to windward. Yachts X and B are several boat lengths ahead of us whilst being three or four boat lengths to leeward. They both had rounded the leeward mark well ahead of C, D and A, but lost a Below left: windward beats are often a tangle of yachts on converging opposite tack courses. A fine appreciation of geometrical patterns and a good spatial awareness are needed to successfully avoid collisions with the minimum of speed or position lost. RM World Championships at Fleetwood. Below right: in between race heats there is always 1,001 things to attend to. R10R District Championships. Below left: Chris Boisnault at the RM World Championships at Fleetwood with the orange number bib 13 sits behind his boat, jib number 13, a Beringo design by P. Lucas before the final A fleet race, already assured of his title, World Champion. Below right: Booles at Cleveland. RM National Championships 1990 – Hugh McPeake throws, Gordon Sears and Lindsey Kirk await their turns. All pics: Nick Weall. 48 MODEL BOATS o_ if LONG TACKS PORT SIDE 12-8 Lag! 3-2 8: & 32-1 CENTRAL ROUTE 2-4 6 @/ 6 8 1-5 / 6 6 43 32-2 / / f / 4 / ~ / . o TM WING 6. / wf el boa tat all iss ~4 ’ l / “Sing / ae. a ~*~ ih ~J / / | ‘ =~ Pe ata i ‘_-@ ae / boa a k; / e.L 9 af f ~ Jf / LONG TACKS Ae 5 _ Sika) ~~ / ee ee i. af geet: WIND « vi! / ; Se iy a / ~~ 45 npr A Sa ° PORT LAYLINE + ay a / A a fs +. TM/ ~/ fi i . 2 ~ ws ) / LEEWARD fo} sia / / / 4 Bs / STARBOARD SIDE f 2-4 n 14-3 115 STARBOARD LAYLINE 2 “J OPr’ONS AFTER ROUNDING THE LEEWARD MARK, ASSUMING THE WIND IS } TMs COMING FROM A STEADY DIRECTION STRAIGHT FROM THE WINDWARD MARY. TO THE LEEWARD MARK (A VERY,VERY RARE OCCURENCE!). DIAGRAM | ARTICLE 7 WING MARK ° re) WINDWARD MARK Ba ° Xd LEEWARD MARK O G 74} ° 0”, A DIAGRAM – “ ARTICLE 7 little of their advantage by tacking quickly to starboard and sailing through the wake of C, D and A as those three had approached the leemark from the wing mark. What options do we have? The straight answer is not many, we have even less in fact since D and A hold “command” over us. That is we cannot at present tack to port until D and A tack to port because we would immediately get in the way of D and A. That is not allowed for two reasons, firstly they are on starboard and under rule 36 a port tack boat must keep clear of a starboard tack boat and secondly we cannot tack in another yacht’s water. Rule 41.1 Basic Rule: A yacht that is JANUARY 1991 either tacking or gybing shall keep clear of a yacht on a tack. Therefore it would seem that the obvious thing to do is to stay on starboard. The next thing we want to think about then is how to keep D and A behind us. The best thing that could probably happen would be for D and to engage in a luffing match. That would slow the pair of them down and would allow us to draw well clear. That is rather grabbing at straws though. It might be more positive to actually encourage them to engage in a luffing match by violently luffing up D should the opportunity arise. Another tactic we could consider would be to first gain good boat speed relative to the conditions and then to pinch up to windward as hard as we can, easing off a little as we begin to slow down. This could have the effect of slowing D and A down as they in turn have to pinch up to try to retain “command” over us. Something else we could consider is to free off our sails slightly and go for maximum speed sacrificing direction to windward slightly in the process, in an effort to get better boat speed than X and B and to try and shake off D and A. This will then perhaps become a test of concentration, how quickly will D and A spot what ever tactic we try? They will notice very quickly any pinching up that we attempt. If it came to a violent luff 49 then there is a chance that we could catch them by surprise. The slight easing out of the sheets and very slight bearing off for more speed might take them a little longer to spot. I suspect it would probably take yachts X and B even longer to spot. They would most likely be feeling safe in the knowledge that they rounded that last mark several boat lengths ahead. They are likely to be engrossed in their own private battle for what they see at present as first and second place, (depending of course very much on their level of experience. Let’s remember that this is simply an imaginary club race and not even a club cup race at that. So it is likely to be serious racing of mixed abilities with plenty of room for errors. It must be, we are a complete novice, remember?) Would we, as a novice, consider all of the options I have just written? Not unless we had read this article I suspect. We have, however, read the previous articles and thus we are well aware of the powers of luffing to defend our precious lead. We are also aware that it can be dangerous to get engaged in a luffing match with one other boat that allows other boats clear astern to overtake to leeward whilst we are engaged in the heavy luffing action that slows us both down. In this situation there are no other boats behind DIAGRAM 3 to slip through, so provided we can slow down both D and A, it is worth a crack. The most common problem in reality for the novice is getting the boat heading on a nice course to windward with reasonable speed. I’m afraid the usual temptation is to pinch the yacht far too high up to wind, losing much too much speed and dying. The other favourite trick is to pull the sails in far too tight after tacking, before good boat speed has been regained. The result is usually all forward motion comes to a halt and leeward motion increases dramatically. Let us pretend that we have progressed enough to overcome these absolute beginner’s problems and we are progressing with good speed in more or less the right direction. The next observation is that novices rarely manage to keep the boat going well to windward even when they have been astute enough to gain good boat speed and direction after a tack. The tension of having two boats snapping at your heels obviously is offputting. However, having a guiding hand help us and we manage to progress holding that all important speed and direction. Having achieved that, it now gives us a chance to spare a glance at boats D and A to see what sort of speed and direction they are making. After all they WINDWARD MARK could be relative newcomers to the sport too. They do not seem to be doing any better than ourselves, mainly because, I suspect, D is suffering a bit from our dirty wind to windward and A has the same problem with D’s wind. D of course not only has to consider ways of overhauling us, he also has to keep A firmly astern if possible. A in some ways is in the best position because she has “command” on both D and C. A can choose when she wishes to tack to break away to find clean air and water. The thing she then has to consider is that if she does tack away to port, it is quite possible that D and then C will tack to port also and thus acquire “command” over A. There is a definite tendency amongst racing yachts to act a little like sheep. One tacks so they all tack, this applies especially to any little groups that bunch up near to each other during the course of the race. Sometimes there is a good reason for the tack, such as the layline has been reached or a windshift has been correctly read by the yacht first to tack, other times it is simply the herd instinct at work. If you have the option, think before you follow a mass tack, why are they all going and do you really want to go too? Whilst all this has been discussed we have travelled half way across the oa ARTICLE 7 us \ WAY UP THE SECOND WINDWARD BEAT* ie “OWING TO X & B MISSING A WIND SHIFT THE FLEET CLOSES UP AGAIN ALTHOUGH B &.X RETAIN THEIR LEAD AT PRESENT” 50 MODEL BOATS DIAGRAM 4 WINDWARD MARK ARTICLE 7 a THE BANK (WHICH AT GOSPORT IS.A CONCRETE WALL PROTECTED BY WOODEN RUNNING PLANKS AT WATER LEVEL- RISING ABOUT A FOOT HIGHER THAN WATER LEVEL). 7 ; / “77 oe 4 / / 7″ / / Dalec. 4 / c PAN < / / 5 We / C / / / 4 / / 7 ¢ / / ae \ -7 4 / / 7 7 XN AT 37 ve Z / <1 oe ¢ / / 7 / / , Ps ry ’ J 7 te oN ae Ty ‘> cio a We “= = > s. . s 3S y ~—-3 3) = ”) yf 7 ‘ ‘ / a re x ~_ , Bees . ‘ iN ‘ a ee eee « A er ; if / / \ eee 2 / / / / \ 5 TEs ? { / / a p aeg hal ae / Fa aH ” / / ~s Pia PS oe 3 . / / 7 Fs pert er 2 f (ij / / / ee ba / ‘ ith 4 i Sa a-a= ea ef / was es C Z / a Sa ~ j= =a 4 a fo oe | = / / / —_—-y 3 ae iid 4 / / ry / Maat | 4 ¢ / . Ss ae “cA 1 ! / 7 pr 1 47 : eS weet J / ne / 3 if he – WIND ae / i / ‘ / 4 # \ Gosport water still on starboard and still just ahead, but to leeward of D and A. Suddenly X and B tack across to port and a sudden surge of excitement flashes through our veins. “A chance to chop them in half as we race towards them on starboard!” Yelling starboard we inch towards them, only to see them easily slip across our bows and away. The only encouraging thing is that it would seem that we have definitely closed the gap somewhat between X, B and ourselves. However, most annoyingly D and A stay on starboard, stopping us from tacking to port to give chase. There simply is nothing that we, as C, can do! We area bit too far to leeward of D to try any luffing tricks and too near to back to port, even if we wanted to lose a bit of ground and go.under D and A’s stern.(Which would be a crazy thing to consider anyway. We would lose far too much ground and would be in a bad position for tacking back to starboard in due course to lay the mark.) The only happy thought we have is that, before long we will be approaching the bank, at that time we will be able to call for water and will force D and A to tack to port themselves. We should then be in a fairly good position to gain an overlap at the windward mark or at the JANUARY 1991 very least hold a position near to D and A to windward that they cannot tack to starboard to lay the mark without tacking in our water. (Rule 41 remember?) Approaching the Bank Let us have a look at the manoeuvres involved as we approach the bank. Diagram 4 sets the-scene. Can you remember what to do? Rule 43 is the rule that applies: Close-hauled, Hailing for room to tack at obstructions. Well we are close-hauled and we certainly need room to tack, so ata distance from the bank that allows both D and A time to respond we hail “Water to tack please”. We then wait continuing on towards the bank. D hails A in turn, by which time over a boat length has been travelled. A responds to D’s hail by tacking. A could have simply responded to our hail, without waiting for D to hail, but perhaps she did not hear our hail. If neither A or D had responded we would have had to hail once more very loudly before taking emergency action and protesting both yachts. As it is, as soon as we see D starting to tack, we MUST start to tack ourselves, even if we would have rather gone on right up to the wall before making our tack. We must tack immediately we see or hear a response to our call. You will see from the diagram that the situation has changed the relative positions of the three yachts quite a bit. Whereas before on the starboard tack all three yachts were almost abreast with C having her nose in front, the positions are reversed. A is clear ahead, with D almost ahead of C. The difference is now however that C has command over both D and A, neither of them can possibly tack to starboard without tacking into someone else’s water! Thus C holds the all important command over D and A. As it stands she is in an excellent position to round the windward mark in third position at least. A and D will try every trick in the book to get into a position whereby they can tack to starboard without fear of tacking in C’s water. Before we consider their possible tactics further, let us just go back to diagram 4 again and, for the benefit of 575 and 590 skippers who sail without the use of rules, consider what would happen to C if Rule 43 was not available to use. I suppose the first option would be a violent luff to encourage D and A to tack, but, of course, if sailing to 575 or 590 almost non-existent rules, D and A 51 do not have to respond to a luff, so contact is likely with all the risk of hooking up and all three boats sailing straight into the bank! C could let the wind out of her sails and then tack under D and A’s stern losing way and position in the process, plus putting herself in a very bad position for later rounding the mark. C could gybe away maintaining perhaps greater speed and go under D and A’s stern with the same resulting bad position. Or C could simply carry on and just hope that D and A would tack before getting to the bank, leaving C just enough room to tack right on the bank and gain some sort of command over D and A on the new tack, very risky! So rule 43 is a rule that puts safety first. In full-sized racing there is very much more at risk than just damaging your yacht as someone forces it into the bank, lives could be lost! Thus this situation illustrates yet again that whenever a situation arises that potentially offers danger to a racing yacht there will be a rule to cover it, to allow the endangered yacht to take action to avoid the hazard whilst still retaining some sort of course in the direction of the next mark. The rules almost always manage to find a solution to a problem that resolves it in the fairest possible way, so as the yachts involved do not lose their relative positions to each other or so as one yacht is not favoured at the expense of another. In the situation that developed in diagram four, if we had taken away the bank and the three yachts could have sailed on into infinity, sooner or later they would have reached a point beyound the layline to the next mark and A would have tacked, closely followed by D and C, and they all would have ended up in much the same sort of relative positions as in the diagram anyway. Although of course the further beyond the layline they had gone the more C and D would push clear astern of A as they tacked to starboard. Against that C and D would then be able to sail a slightly faster course to the mark and ought to still be able to retain their command over A. Going back to the race, A’s objective now is to try and find a way of pinching up to windward higher than D and C, so as by the time it comes to tack to starboard again she can do so without tacking in the water of D and C. In other words she wishes to break out of the command that D and C at present hold over her. The problem is that pinching up slows you down! The trick is to gain best possible boat speed then to gently pinch up until the speed drops off a bit, then, ever so slightly, bear off to regain speed and pinch up again, etc., etc. The problems are the boats behind might just do the same, or worse, one boat might simply bear off a little with better speed and break through A’s windshadow to leeward and thus overtake A to leeward to break clear ahead! The other trick A has up her sleeve is to simply sail on with speed, but lose just enough speed to allow D’s bow to draw level with the middle of A’s boat, then a sudden violent luff will, with any luck, work wonders. D is going to have to respond with an equally violent luff, possibly catching C out. A as the instigator of the luff is in total control and can plan to smoothly bear off at the end of her luff to regain speed and direction. D and C can only respond to A’s alteration of course back towards the mark once they see it, so have to be slightly behind A in bearing off themselves to regain speed and course; if the luff was very violent it is quite possible that C or D could have been put into irons or even across to the other tack which is all time delaying stuff. Those are the sort of thoughts that ought to be going through the mind of the skipper of A. D has the problem of considering what tactics A might employ against her and what she can do to keep C behind herself and to gain space to windward over C. Sailing in the wake of A and being slightly in the back wind of A is likely to slow D down slightly, but provided she can retain command over A, it will not matter much, because at the windward mark she will be able to tack to lay the mark before A. Being a truly competitive skipper, D would like very much to round the windward mark before C as well! However, if D engages in luffing warfare with C it will possibly allow A to break clear enough ahead to be able, when the time comes, to tack to starboard and complete the tack before coming into D’s water. D then, of course, would have to give way to A and if A had tacked right on the layline then D would probably have to take A’s stern before tacking herself. To make that problem even worse, if C was still in command of D she would have to let C have enough water to avoid A as well, and still would not be able to tack to starboard until C tacked. Now as C’s skipper once again we have had some insight into the thoughts running through the minds of the two skippers close to ourselves. As a racing skipper you must develop the ability to look ahead, to be able to evaluate the possible tactics of the boats that are near to you, to be able to project what might happen at the next mark. Because what can look like a losing position in isolation on the water, can become a winning position when the next mark is taken into consideration When trying to overtake boats it is vital that you attempt to overtake on the side that is going to offer you an inside overlap at the next mark, unless you have such speed and are so far away from the mark that you know with certainty that you can overtake on the other side and be clear ahead and more by the time the next mark is reached. Reader’s Question Another view of the first prize hull kit on offer in the Christmas Quiz – Rhythm. Photo: Graham Bantock. 52 Dear Nick, I have a problem relating to finishing a race that I cannot seem to get the correct ruling confirmed in the rule books. Both black and red boats are on a running leg to a mark where they have to pass to port before a straight beat through the finishing line as shown below. MODEL BOAT: ee AG re aeteS It is rule 42.4 that only applies as quoted “AT A STARTING MARK SURROUNDED BY NAVIGABLE WATER?” the rule goes on to state: When approaching the starting line to start until clearing the starting marks after starting, a leeward yacht shall be under no obligation to give any windward yacht room to pass to leeward of a starting mark surrounded by navigable water, including such a mark that is also an obstruction; but, after the starting signal a leeward yacht shall not deprive a windward yacht of room at such a mark by sailing either: Black takes the mark wide due to the strong wind and enables red to establish an overlap after rounding the mark, both boats now proceed to finish. The problem now starts, red boat claiming an overlap demands water to the finishing mark whilst black boat claims that the finishing mark is not a racing mark and luffs red boat and asks for windward boat to keep clear. Who is in the right? Answer: This is a problem that confuses a lot of people at all levels of sailing. Indeed at the last ranking race I attended at the Cotswolds someone denied an overlapping boat room at the finishing mark and was not protested! JANUARY 1991 The confusion arises because people tend to think that the finish line equates to the starting line. The fact that the same two buoys are often used perhaps strengthens this confusion. First let us have a careful look at rule 42, Rounding or passing Marks and obstructions. In particular let us search for the exceptions to the rule. The only times Rule 42 does not apply are listed right at the start of the rule: (a) between two yachts on opposite tacks: (i) when they are on a beat, or (ii) when one, but not both, of them will have to tack either to round or pass the mark or to avoid the obstruction, or (b) when rule 42.4 applies. (a) to windward of the compass bearing of the course to the next mark, or (b) above close-hauled. There you have it. I’m afraid I have to disagree with the skipper of the black boat, the finishing marks most certainly are marks of the course. Try hitting one before clearing the line! Rule 52.1 (iii) will award you penalty turns. Therefore, as marks of the course rule 42 applies and an overlap can be claimed if properly established at four boat lengths from the mark. (I take it that in real life there was more than four boat lengths from the so called leeward mark in your drawing to the finish line. I hope that this answers your question to your satisfaction, if not, please don’t hesitate to question me further. May I lastly make the observation that if the leeward mark was really laid so as the course to the finish line was a straight beat then it was not a well laid course. The object being not to be able to lay the finish line in one from the leeward mark, because it denies one the tactical plays involved when a proper tacking beat is required to get to the finish line. Places can then be gained or lost according to skill! With the benefit of hindsight black’s correct tactic in the situation you illustrate was to go into the last marka little wide turning hard so as to almost clip the leeward side of the leeward mark. That would have kept the red boat firmly behind where it belonged. 53 _ CURVED AiR Russell Potts at Vintage Group regattas — Daniels and Tucker – and in the Antipodes informal racing and steering competitions that are organised for them. There is talk of promoting a meeting for two masted scale sailing craft at Fleetwood next summer. If it comes off it should be an attractive sight. There is another group of schooner models in Wakefield, many of them based on the scale GRP hulls available from Model Boats and probably others scattered round the country. The use of superseded racing hulls for scale or semi scale models is quite common and there are a number of surviving examples from earlier times. The photos show what is probably a 1920’s or 30’s 10-rater hull worked over to a quite convincing schooner with a rig very similar to that carried on Prospero, Bill Daniels’ seminal design of 1913. The hull itself is rather crude both in design and execution, but the boat will look well enough on the water. One of three sailing at Fleetwood. o start with, a few photos which I took at Fleetwood when I was there in August; they have only now been released from the inside of the second camera when I came to the end of the film. They show some of the schooners that members of the scale section of the club sail. Some are built on the basis of superseded Marblehead hulls, others are more seriously intended as scale models and one is to the Harry Andrews wishbone schooner, an MAP design from the 1950’s, but doubled in size. They make very attractive models and all of them sail well enough to give satisfaction on the water as well as on the bench. The degree to which they carry scale detail and fittings varies widely, but all compete equally in the Another from Fleetwood. Vintage Days at Clapham and Beale Bird Park Not a schooner, but an obvious candidate for a two-masted festival. 54 The Vintage Group met at Clapham on 9 September and at Beale Bird Park, near Pangbourne, on 14 October. The weather was similar on both days with warm sunshine and very light and variable winds. The sun ensured a good turn out on both days and the wind meant that there was not a lot of serious sailing being done. This mattered very little, as the most important activity at Vintage days is chat and discussion of new old boats and what we are doing (or more frequently planning to do) with our boats. The rate at which boats get restored is amazingly slow. At least one member missed the Clapham meeting because he was ashamed to reveal that he hadn’t got any further with his project in two years. He needn’t have worried; this rate of work is par for the course, except for a very few keen The third of the Fleetwood mixed bag. members and those who have become professional boat restorers to the gentry. One of the encouraging things about the vintage movement and its growth is that there is now a sufficient number of collectors and enthusiasts who know enough to be sure that the average antique dealer’s ‘little man’ is not likely to be the right person to entrust with a restoration that you don’t want to take on yourself. The skills may be there but the knowledge of how it should go together just can’t be had outside the Vintage Group. Among the very keen members are the Burn family, who have progressed from a single scale model of one of their own full size boats to a family collection of vintage models, a 10 Tonner replica, Cupid II, for Mike, a genuine Edwardian model that may be a 5-rater, Dolphin for Jane, a 24in. or so superior home built toy from the early 20’s for Christopher, aged about seven, and Speedy, a 15in. model, again built in the 1920’s, for Frances, who has yet to start school. They all enjoy their sailing and turn up to nearly all the Vintage Days. Christopher was sailing his boat Avocet for the first time. She was acquired in A 1920’s 10-rater hull made over to a schooner. Photo: Piers Eyre. MODEL BOATS pond had her nearly full of water and barely afloat. Discretion suggested that she should be gently emptied and left to July and thoroughly restored by Mike; Jane made the sails and drew the avocet on the mainsail. The boat looks very good and sails well; a very competent piece of home drain and dry out before an attempt was made to seal her seams. In fact when she came to Beale nothing had been done but she was much less leaky, as the thorough wetting she had had a month earlier had caused a lot of closing up. Not perfect, but able to sail off and on during the day without causing her owner the least anxiety. She is a particularly nice example of a style of boat that was the standard racing vehicle for a fairly brief period round the turn of the century and survived in some places until the late 1920’s. Over the winter she is due for a major refit and will be good for many brewed design by whoever built her 60 odd years ago, nicely brought back to life by some careful work. Dolphin has a gorgeous transfer decoration of a dolphin on each bow and it would be inevitable that the boat should be so named once her original owner had laid his eyes on the transfers. Indeed it’s not impossible that the boat was built to carry the transfers. The attraction of the antique obviously runs deep in the Burn household; they now have two vintage full size yachts and a sailing canoe from the late 19th century, to say nothing of a cycling tent of similar vintage that belonged to more years to come. To show what the style could look like when not in the hands of a man of taste and discretion a smaller and less serious model, dating from the same period. Though quite nicely built, the hull is less Mike’s grandfather and a 1920’s Dennis motor mower in regular use to keep the lawn in a fit condition for games of well formed and the fins are Christpher Burn makes adjustments to his 1920’s boat, now named Avocet. and a gaff rig. The steering is by weighted rudders, but these have been lost, so for the present she is sailed without the benefit of any steering gear. She was bought at auction during the summer and by one of those strange quirks that delight collectors of the unlikely one of the spectators for her first voyage in years was the man who had sent her to the sale, who had come along with a friend to assist in the sailing of a radio ‘A’ boat. Gladys is in a pretty good condition, with a new coat of varnish and a new suit of sails, but her seams have opened from being so long out of the water. A couple of lengths of the rome disproportionately deep and ‘leggy,’ allowing the ballast weight to be Underside view of Dolphin. relatively small. Even so, I would expect this boat to be tender even for a toy of her period. The steering on this model is also by means of weights but this time a sliding weight on a rearward facing tiller. The rig, which is a later addition, should be disregarded; something about that area but of lower and broader proportions would be appropriate, probably with a gaff mainsail, but without a topsail. Beale Bird Park is run by the Childe-Beale Wildlife Trust and has a whole range of ponds for its wildfowl, some of which are very suitable for sailing models. The one we were using was about a foot lower than it was when I first saw it last January and this posed a few problems for the free sailing boats, especially on the far side, which is not yet boarded to give a firm edge. When we Another view of the 10-rater. Photos: Piers Eyre. croquet. The tent and its fly sheet are made from the very finest Union Silk and would make admirable sails for a model, but so far Mike has prevented my attempts to creep up on it with a pair of scissors. There are not too many photos from these two events. At Clapham the camera packed up part way through the afternoon and much of interest went unrecorded; at Beale I seem to have spent too much time sorting out my five tonner Laura to have taken more than a very few shots. One of the ‘new’ old boats that was attracting attention at both Clapham and Beale was Gladys, a 10 rater from very early in the century with twin fins JANUARY 1991 * Another model from the Burn collection, Dolphin, an Edwardian model. And Dolphin’s steering gear. 55 go back next year, as we intend to do, the water conditions are bound to be better and an even more enjoyable time will be had by all including family members who don’t want to sail all day. The good weather was one reason for the good turn out; the other undoubtedly was that the park offers other attractions for those who are not obsessed with sailing old boats. Some of you may have seen announcements earlier on the year about the impending formation of a model boat What the Vintage Group was invented for: left to right: 10-rater Gladys, five tonner Laura and 10-rater Aphrodite at Beale. Fl fo bowsprit would need to be a good deal longer to accommodate the size of headsails that she needed, but as a first cut I made new sails in plastic sheeting as big as could possibly be accommodated in the existing fore triangle and a balloon jib to fill the whole area between the bowsprit end and the upper of the two hoist positions. The first of these rigs was an improvement but the boat was still not a practical sailing machine. The balloon jib made her just about manageable, but gave no facility to reduce sail in more than the very light conditions for which such a sail was intended. In a fairly major re-organisation, I made a new bowsprit with nearly twice the outboard length of the original and a pair of headsails to match. The result is seen in some of the photos from Beale. I’m afraid that I don’t have pictures of the original or the intermediate states to hand at present. The new rig seemed to be a success with the mast in the rear of its two positions. In the very light weather the boat would go to windward readily and Gladys, a 10-rater from the turn of the century afloat at Beale. also sailed on a reach and downwind without much trouble. I was pleased about this because Laura is a classic Tonnage Rule boat and has no steering provision at all, just a fixed rudder shape Aphrodite and Laura showing off her new rig at Beale. My own main activity at Beale, apart from chatting to members, was to give a trial run to a revised sail plan that I had A smaller and less elegant example of the twin fin style of boat. exhibition there; some of the boats are now placed in a building, but the show is not yet fully open to the public. When it has been finally laid out and labelled it will be a useful addition to the attractions of the park. Most are scale models with electric power and radio control, but there are a few sailing craft. 56 devised for my 1880’s five tonner Laura. This boat was originally restored by Cliff Money as a display piece and the sail plan was devised by eye. After she came to me, I made a few changes to the rigging before attempting to sail her, but kept the sail plan essentially as it was. This proved to be very unbalanced, so much so that she would not sail at all regardless of what trim I put on her. The problem was that there simply wasn’t sufficient area ahead of the mast to balance the main. The boat has provision for two mast provisions, but even in the forward position the rig wouldn’t work. I suspected that the tacked on the back of the hull. Though I didn’t get round to trying her under a reduced rig, the theory is that she will still balance with the jib and topsail removed, possibly needing the mast to be moved forward to retain her sailing qualities. Further trials are needed in rather more wind than we had on that particular day, not least because the new rig has considerably increased the already substantial sail area. The original rig was 777 square inches and the new one must be close to 1,000, ona boat with a waterline length of about 31 inches. I need to know how much she can stand in a blow, because she is going to have a sail in whatever weather there happens to be on the day. It seems a bit perverse to have to make a second suit for a boat that will be sailed only comparatively rarely, but her present rig is very much a racing top suit and if she is to be sailed in anything like a blow, MODEL BOATS diverse for the racing not to be very well matched. Think big As a change from the old models and modern replicas to old designs that normally fill these pages, a variation on the single handed ‘sit-in’ model that has been turning up from time to time recently. Most of you will be familiar with the one man 12-metre J//usion and possibly with the Victorian cutter that Bob Underwood made a few years ago. Another view of Gladys. she will almost certainly need to reduce sail more than can be achieved by playing about with her existing sails. This is slightly different as it is intended as a single handed sailing boat for children and for that reason the builder looked for something with a keel. He found it in Bill Daniels’ 10-rater design Thetis, a racy five-rater Some time ago, following last year’s ME Exhibition, one of the visitors to the MYA/Vintage group stand sent me some photos of his boat. He had had her for only eight years, but the family from which it came to him had had it for ‘many years.’ It appears both from her size, 44in. loa, 7.75 beam, from her style and from the inscription on one suit of sails that she is a five-rater to the Length and Sail Area Rule. From the style of the fittings she seems to be in her original condition and to have been built in the early 1920’s. The hull is a fairly extreme sample of the skimming dish style, though the beam is relatively small. The whole style of the boat and her fittings suggests that she was built by an active model yachtsman or at least by someone A And another rig ton. Brian Ea on Thetis. Photo: ballast is glassed into the inside of the fin. The rig is again adapted to modern materials and spars with a single piece main extended by a through batten. You can see by one of the photos that she is just as tender as the original must have been in a breeze, but in weather suited to her proportions and rig, she moves along quite fast. As she is now used by disabled sailors the rig area has been reduced by 15%. This is not of course the first full size keel boat to be derived from a Daniels 10-r design, Bill himself built a who was aware of what was going on in the model yacht clubs of the period. The adjustment of the tension of the Braine gear elastic is by means of a rack; this is a commercial fitting which I have seen on other boats of the period, but I don’t know who made it. The choice of rigs is unusual and the gaff main is about 15% less in area than the bermuda option. I think that the headsail is common to both rigs, which suggests that the bermuda sail was an afterthought and that her original rig was the Solent rigged gaff sloop, very typical of racing model practice at the time. The five-rater class was never recognised nationally by MYRA or the MYA, but was sailed by a number of Thetis with one of her alternative rigs. Photo: Brian Eaton. from before 1914 Elektra. This has been blown up in size to three times the original, about 15ft. overall, but no changes have been made in the proportions; she is exactly the same shape as the original model. No allowance was made in the design for the : Five-rater Thetis, a typical smaller yacht of the 1920’s. Photo: Brian Eaton. clubs and continued in use until it was superseded as a small class by the 36in. restricted class in the early 1930’s. During the overlap period, some clubs sailed five-rater and 36’s together, but I would have thought that the performance of the two classes, even when you look at the style of the first generation of 36’s, would be sufficiently -JANUARY 1991 additional weight of the crew and she sails below her designed lines. The construction was adapted to modern materials, with a foam sandwich and GRP basic structure. The internal structure is limited to a pair of bulkheads, one under the mast and one to form a seat back. These, with the cockpit sides, form buoyancy tanks. The A 15ft. version of Daniel’s 10-rater Electra, designed for use by children and disabled sailors. Photo: Roger Mackinder. 57 Half-Rater version of his boat Onward in 1912 or so and sailed her on the Lea and on the Welsh Harp. She was built in his third workshop in the City and lowered out of the sack hoist to a horse lorry in the street when she was finished. He then sailed the newly completed boat from Westminster Pier to his moorings on the Lea which involved taking a small and untried sailing craft through the Thames and the Pool of London By chance, she was seen in mid air by a young import-export broker on his way to the office. He was sufficiently intrigued to go back later to seek out a man so singular as to build racing boats in the middle of the City. They became fast friends, H. B. Tucker was drawn from full size sailing into model yachting and the partnership that produced most of the published material on model yachting between then and the 1950’s was founded. Fremantle Model Yachtsmen 1911 Another view of the 15ft. Electra. Photo: Roger Mackinder. when it would be heaving with every form of commercial craft. It says something for Daniels’ confidence in his design and his sailing skills that he felt able to tackle this alone. There are some nice photos in the Model Engineer of the period of the boat on the hoist and on the lorry being taken though the streets. It was a very well calculated piece of self promotion by a man who was later to advertise himself as “‘the designer and builder of 95% of the successful model yachts of the metropolis.” Finally a photo from Western Australia which shows model sailors assembled at South Fremantle Beach. This is roughly where the 12 metres were housed in Fisherman’s Harbour during the America’s Cup extravaganza in 1986-7. The photo turned up ina bookshop complete with the original negative and provides evidence of some fairly serious, if mixed, model sailing in the area a long time ago. A very long time ago by Australian standards. The interesting things apart from the clothes, the fact that they are all (with one exception) wearing hats and that getting their photos taken was sufficiently important for them all to wade into the Indian Ocean without a thought for their trousers, is the variety of the boats in use. Even if we discount the very small boat held by one of the boys, there seem to be at least three sizes, each represented by three or four examples. The hulls are very difficult to make out but there is at least one that has a typical fiddle bow that I associate with a deep and narrow Tonnage Rule type of hull. There are also at least two that are clearly of the later skimming dish style. If the boats are to classes that we are familiar with in this country (and there is no reason to suppose that Australian modellers weren’t aware of what was going on at home ~ all the magazines that covered model yachting, from the very earliest in the 1880’s, have had subscribers in Australia) – they might well be 10, 5 and 25-raters, with the fiddle bowed boats representing some early transitional designs of the type that appeared in England in the 1890’s before the skimming dish style had become pre-eminent in the rater classes. The rigs however are remarkably uniform and again suggest that the builders were in touch with what was going on in small boat and model design in Europe. That said, the most interesting boat is undoubtedly the catamaran in the foreground. The design, in its narrow spacing of the hulls and what may possibly be an arrangement to permit the hulls to flex relative to one another, is clearly influenced by the cats, both model and full size, that were built in the USA by Herreshoff. The rig is also interesting, using a lug sail suspended from a bipod mast. This is, apart from the extra windage of a bipod, a theoretically efficent way to rig a multihull and the boat would probably have been extremely potent provided that she could have stayed on her feet. Finally, the sail insignia is almost exactly the same as that used by the Laser dinghy 50 years later. Contact addresses MYA Matters, Ian Taylor, 115 Mayfield Avenue, London N12 9HY. Tel: 081 446 1625. Vintage Group, Old Boat Queries, Curved Air Press, Russell Potts, 8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP. Tel: 081 850 6805. Model yachtsman in the Indian Ocean, Fremantle 1911. Photo: unknown, via Mile Beilby. 58 MODEL BOATS
