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= Guide to Selection DESIGN , \ SailingasYac sh hts a new i ht to give e ve irable features Ante every ofas water, cota aw, pearsatt both yok» and sinehea Ce po ay ea er e ‘‘th t ter ly ough in ees thor ae popularity (oft assess a real Pr CATION 4 eosenast : on Best quality janetgrained te balane Marconi rig, giving maximur , wi ; SparsMast vi rinkable buff sailcloth,_ he hall. Uns Sails. il area for the size sali arye wate Sails, Mast af Spars onl} rline, red below. varnished. PRICES 412 6 pen ee ° wa clear k 19 in. “ ¢3: 10 0 some No.1. Length of deck 44 i,” No. a No. 3. no” oAl “ga 12 6 _— Russell Potts on Akela, a 6 Metre, and America in the 1940’s hough the half tone illustrations that I used from the Bassett 1937 catalogue a couple of months ago didn’t reproduce too well, I want to return to it because among the offerings that I didn’t feature last time were two that have a bearing on the Southwold style of model racing that I have written about at various times in the past. One, which is called the “Southwold” Racer, is explicitly designed as a top class racing yacht at a modest price. It is in fact a pretty simple affair with what looks like a plate metal keel and even in the catalogue illustration it is hard to tell whether there is any lead bulb on the keel. I think there must be, as the sail area is really much too big to be held up by a simple piece of %in mild steel. 16 10 £2 eck. Cr rn oe = The hull and keel form are distinctly old fashioned for a new offering for the 1937 season and had we not been told it was since the early years of the century. least ten and possibly twenty years earlier. There appears to be some form of automatic steering gear, probably a simple sheet to reverse tiller arrangement, which form and rig to make a more practical sailing model. The accompanying puff makes specific reference to “races at various east coast resorts”, and to the use of booms on the sails as a model convenience. This model was offered in only one size and would presumably have been acceptable as a Southwold competitor as the rudder was controlled only by a rack and is described as being “normally set new, I would have placed its design date at could have been introduced at any time after about 1890. Only the rig, a fairly high bermuda sloop, is in any way typical of up to date practice in the late 1930’s. Even so the retention of the bowsprit and the tacking of the jib some way outboard of the stem suggests very strongly that the hull is in fact much older in its origins and that only the rig is new. Had the two been designed together, the rig would all have been inboard, as in the White Heather and Clyde Craft offerings that I wrote about the last time I delved into this catalogue. Despite its title, this is not a Southwold racer. The provision of a rudder and steering gear would rule it out of competition in the August regattas held on the lake by the Southwold pier, which have continued essentially unchanged The second is something much more like the Southwold version of the beach yawl, with the characteristic amendments of hull amidships”. I have not seen anything at Southwold in recent years that can be clearly identified as a Bassett boat and I wonder if anyone knows whether they were used in competition there. More to the point, has anyone got a surviving example? They must be pretty rare, as I don’t think they were in production for very long nor do I believe that they would have been particularly popular compared with the more obviously “yachty” models that Bassett Lowke normally sold. MODEL BOATS More on Akela Not any more about my own example, which has not made much progress recently, but some input from John Bone, who designed her, and who wrote to me commenting on my discussion of the way I was going about building her. The important things for those of you who are still working on your models is the advice that the pivot fixing for the sheet arm really does need to be substantial. John and both of whom are well pleased with the end result. It looks as though John has that he hadn’t actually sailed a boat with radio in before. He says he was beginning produced a good one here, which has the power to attract those who are primarily to get the hang of it by the end of the day. aircraft modellers or, if into boats, have not previously attempted a sail powered craft. One builder included a couple of photos of the boat and the proud grandson for whom it was ostensibly built. We all know the importance of having children or Lydia, K32, built in Fleetwood in 1932 toa design by the Norwegian Sam Berge called Gudrun Elvira. The design was published grandchildren to justify the time and about a year ago and, rather unusually, One of the oldest surviving 6 m must be in Model Yachtsman in 1929 and quite a number of boats were built to it in this country. Lydia came up for sale at auction comments that he has had one break up under shock loading and that it’s a very difficult bit to reach for repair once the boat is finished. The other point is that John was concerned that if the hatch was taped down, as mine will be, it will be difficult to keep the water out and difficult to check whether any has got in until there is sufficient to do damage to the radio gear. This is a sensible warning, as is John’s suggestion that there should be a drain hole through which anything that gets in can be regularly poured away. Though I didn’t say so in my discussion of my own example, I assume that water will always get in and always make provision to get it out. The rear bulkhead is cut away at both sides to provide good sized limber holes leading into the stern compartment and there is a small drain hole in the turtleback about half way up the curve and close to one side. In this position it doesn’t need a bung and it is simplicity itself to’ up end the boat periodically to drain off anything that has entered the hull. I have had letters from a couple of other builders of Akela, both of whom have made their own variations on the construction Opposite page, Bassett-Lowke’s 1937 Southwold Racer; and 1937 Pilot Lugger; the latter is much more like a Southwold beach yawl model. Above, Lydia, a 6 Metre from 1932. Photo: Malcolm Dyke. trouble we take over our toys. As Curved Air is about the encouragement of unmanned wind powered vessels, I cannot but be enthusiastic. Are there enough built to make it worth while starting a register and possibly organising a meeting for owners? In the first instance, I think it would be sufficient if those owners who are interested in this sort of development were to write to John Bone, c/o Model Boats, so that he can see what the size of it is. A Very Early 6 Metre Those of you who read the rest of the magazine will have seen Bill Green’s articles on the rapid growth of match racing with radio controlled models to the 6 m Rule. The reinvigorating effect of being down graded from international status by [YRU MYRD has to be seen to be believed. One of the attractions of this Rule is that boats designed over a period of fifty years or more can still compete on more or less equal terms, at least in match racing where the skill of the skipper is a very big part of the final result. The modern boats have an advantage in better ballast ratios, deriving from better construction techniques, but otherwise there does seem to be very little in it. The match racing circuit is attracting new blood at least in the sense that John Gale, one of the few true craftsmen left in model yachting, has built himself a beautiful wooden version of an up to the minute John Lewis 6 metre and against all expectation has put a radio into her. This Gareth with the Akela built for him by his Grandfather. JUNE 1991 is his first radio boat and when he went to Brentwood recently for the first of this season’s match races he found himself engaged in his first race and then realised bought by someone who wanted to sail her again. The photos show that she is just about complete though the paint work has suffered badly from the passage of time. The fittings are typical of the best practice of the period; some of them are commercial fittings from the Alexander and Bassett Lowke catalogues. Others are clearly designed and built specifically for this boat, including the unusual main horse, which is built up to span the tail of the Braine gear and incorporates stops to limit the movement of the jockey across the horse which also give a pair of eyes on either side. There seems to be no fore horse; presumably the jib steering lines were used exclusively, though there appears to be a series of eyes on the deck which would permit the use of a simple jib sheet, though given the way the jib would be rigged there would be great difficulty in keeping the clew of the jib down without a horse. The only feature that is slightly surprising is the deck stepped mast and the rather slight spars. The photos also show the general ignorance of auctioneers of how a model yacht should be put together and should not be taken as indicating how the boat looked in her prime. Can I just remind you that Bill Green is looking for more members for the 6 m Owners Association. Anyone who has a 6 should join; it costs only a derisory couple of pounds at present. The American Scene in the 1940’s At the ME Exhibition I had the great pleasure to meet Bud Salika from Chicago, who was over exhibiting a scale model in 17 Green and myself all writing regularly, Model Boats is beginning to look like Model Yachts, also incorporating some stuff about other sorts of model boating. I’m not complaining, but will the present tilt of content attract more model yachtsmen to actually put their money down for a copy, rather than give it a quick skim in Smith’s. During its five year run, Model Yachting Monthly contained, along with the usual boring race results and internal squabbling over the running of MYRAA, some very interesting material, — nese Sea sc! (ae eee — ee” aa. A midships view of the 1932 6 Metre. Photo: Malcolm Dyke. Below, cover from MYM, Novem ber the competitive section, but whose name I knew as an active competitive skipper on the US radio scene. I hadn’t realised that he had been in model yachting more or less since the end of the last war and I was very pleased when he offered me his collection of Model Yachting Monthly, the journal that MYRAA (the Model Yacht Racing Association of America) produced for a period from 1945 to 1950. These have just arrived and contain a great deal of useful information, which I shall be drawing on in the future. For the moment however the most significant thing is the extent to which MYRAA struggled and eventually failed to keep the magazine going. The US has always had great difficulty in supporting a magazine devoted to model boats, let alone specifically to model yachting. I cannot pretend to have a firm grasp on the whole story, but it is clear that there was no national model yachting magazine for much of the interwar period. A very slim magazine called Model Yachting ran from 1931 to some time in 1934. This was edited by Arthur R Brown, who was active in model yachting in the Boston Marblehead area and cost 20 cents a copy or $2 a year. This seems to have folded and in 1935 there was something very similar but slimmer and half the price called Model Yacht Racing edited by Carroll F Sweet from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Neither of these were newsstand publications and appear to have sold only by subscription. Though both of them offered blue prints by the well known designers of the day, I have not yet come across a copy with a design in. Many top designers chose to publish their designs in more commercial magazines, such as the wider ranging Model Craftsman and even Popular Mechanics. By the late thirties there was no US based model boat magazine and the English Marine Models agreed to carry / inadequate, particularly as model yachting continued fairly vigorously through the war and many technical innovations in design and in the development of the vane steering gear were taking place. In April 1945 Model Yachting Monthly was launched at $2 a year. From the outset it was run on a shoe string and struggled to attain the minimum of 450 subscriptions that was thought to be necessary to keep it afloat. This at a time when MYRAA had perhaps as many as 70 clubs each with a minimum of 10 members. It is clear that it depended on the patronage and direct financial support of some of the senior officers of MYRAA. By 1950 a more commercial approach was tried with publication being taken over by a small company. Despite the inclusion of some model power boat material and an attempt to sell the magazine through the newsstands, it became necessary to ask MYRAA for a subsidy equal to $25 a year for each club on the roster. This was felt to be impossible to sustain and the magazine folded in October 1950. The outbreak of the Korean war was again used as a convenient excuse for laying aside childish things, rather as Marine Models had used To meet this desire to keep model yachting the way it had always been, MYRAA introduced a one design class based on an M design dating from before 1939 and to the development of the first model use of moulding techniques to produce identical hull shells for this project. I shall write more about these developments in future. If there is anyone who has copies of other US journals covering model yachting I should be very glad to hear from them. The other striking feature of MYM was its covers. The best of these, such as the one illustrated from 1945, were the work of Ains Ballantyne, a New Zealand born architect, who was a mainstay of MYRAA and one of the crew who came to England in 1949 and won the Yachting Monthly Cup with the “A” Class boat Ranger. 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 0) Dey Road, London SE9 6EP. Tel: 081 850 6805. the 1939 outbreak. Only in recent years with the growth of radio yachting and the practice of the present AMYA (American Model Yachting Association) of enroling individuals direct and including the cost of the AMYA quarterly in the sub has the US had anything approaching a national circulation magazine for model yachtsmen. For reasons that I have discussed here recently there is even less design discussion in the quarterly, which now trades under the title of there is in magazines published here. f years produced only an annual yearbook of contact addresses and racing dates, largely paid for by adverts taken by those members who had businesses that could 18 afford this indulgence. It was clearly monster M’s. Model Yachting, than MYRAA news in return for a guarantee of an additional 400 subscriptions. Marine Models was by then in financial difficulties and the editor, H B Tucker,was looking for someone to take it off his hands when the outbreak of war in September 1939 gave him a colourable excuse to close the operation down in a rush. MYRAA was left with no organ for dissemination of its news and for a few 1945. particularly on the development of the vane gear and on the reaction of many of the old fogeys of MYRAA against the trend to vane gear, “gadgets” and unbalanced The poor take up of £& magazines by model yachtsmen has always surprised * Caw a Pe me; it’s not that they can’t read, but many of them seem to feel that information is best absorbed by direct contact with other model yachtsmen, rather than through the eye. At present with Nick Weall, MODEL BOATS i i W o t s e Rul ast month you may recall, we were summarizing the main points that we had covered in the previous ten articles. We also covered some more basic points such as tuning again. This month we continue to wrap up the first series of articles, before moving on next month to the start of the intermediate series on winning club races. Whilst there will be less emphasis on the rules, it has to be remembered that the rules do play a large part of the game, when racing, if you wish to consistently achieve good results. There are an awful lot of Skippers racing who are too lazy to bother to acquire anything more than the most fundamental basic understanding of one or two rules. Some have the attitude that racing should be pure fun and that rules spoil that fun. Some are frightened of the rules. The rule book when you see it for the first time is somewhat large and contains all sorts of mumbo jumbo. If you eactually take the trouble to read quickly through the rule book, you’ll soon realize that three quarters of it does not apply to day to day racing. We have already covered all of the rules that matter and if you look back through the articles, you’ll have to agree that really they did not take Nick Weall looks at With the inevitable fag in his mouth John Cleave casts off. In light winds John uses the cigarette to give himself clues as to what the wind is up to! At the 1990 RM Worlds, Fletwood. courses and schedules is in the right breaking away and doing two turns! However if that is how some people want to enjoy our sport, fair enough, I’d hate to force anything upon them that they do not want to do. But, they are never going to be as successful as they might be and that seems to me to be a pity. : Anyway enough of this moralizing and on with our summary of the previous articles aimed at the novice up that much space, despite repeating some of them several times! Some people just can’t be bothered, which is a pity really because they are missing out on the opportunity to develop their ability to its maximum potential. It also means that The easy points to remember are: You must concentrate from the moment you put your yacht on the water to the moment you take it off again. You need to keep your eyes not only on your own yacht, but also on all those yachts that are near to your yacht or that are sailing courses that will take them near to the course your own yacht is sailing along. You need to constantly be aware of what when ever they are involved in an incident they have to accept the penalty turns, because they do not know whether they are in the right or wrong. Thus they have to take the opinion of the other Skipper involved as being correct. It amazes me the number of times I see the Skipper who tack your yacht is on. You need to know what course you are going to sail. You need to have on the same sized sails as the majority of the fleet or to have good reason to be carrying a different size. Since a windward yacht has to keep Minao Hirao’s RM, built by Japan’s Kazuo Takei. Notice all the pulley’s at the stern. Fleetwood Worlds 1990. 30 ae : ltd Tuning, tuning, always tuning. Graham Bantock checks his lightweight rig for optimum performance in the almost nonexistant wind at the Worlds. MODEL BOATS clear of leeward yacht you have to know what that means.Rule 37 (Article 1) Since a port boat gives way toa starboard yacht you need to know the difference. Since going round a mark an inside boat at the four boats length gains an inside overlap and certain rights you ought to know that as well.Rule 42 (Article 3). The alternative penalty may need to be employed by you so perhaps you should know all about that as well. Rule 52.2(a) and Appendix 3.1 (720 degree turns, you remember the ones you have been practising!) Armed with the above you can probably struggle round the course; if you have read all of the previous articles you can do a lot If you are not a little bit nervous I’d be very surprised, it is nothing to be ashamed of, it actually is quite good because it should be keying you up to be that little bit extra vigilant and hopefully having you firing on all cylinders. Starting Time and Line The start if you remember was where we needed to try and time ourselves from a reference point to the startline, wanting as a reference point something between fifteen and thirty seconds from the at the four boat lengths, don’t tack in the water of a yacht close astern to you. As a yacht clear astern at the four boat lengths you must not luff up above close hauled in an attempt to stop a yacht clear ahead from tacking to round the mark. If you are leaving the windward mark to port and you have approached it on starboard, as will most yachts, there will not be any tacking to do, but if you have to leave the mark to starboard and you have approached the mark on starboard there will be plenty of tacking going on and it is startline that allows us to approach it on a close hauled course on the starboard tack. Why on the starboard tack? So as we do not have to worry about yachts on the yachts tacking to port in front of yachts approaching on starboard, you have to opposite tack. They are going to have to give way to us, not us give way to them. Remember also at the start that it is better to be one second late, than one second early. It is also better to approach the line a full speed rather than having to slow down as you approach and then try to accelerate away at the gun. Once over the line and into the race all we have to remember is to zig-zag up the windward beat and do our final approach approach the mark really tight, luff up as you pass the mark and then slam the yacht across to port tack. That way a yacht clear astern is going to have to luff up whilst on starboard to try and hit you and that is not allowed under Rule 42.2(b). If you simply tack as you pass the mark the stern of your yacht may well swing out and into the close hauled path of the yacht close astern, who may quite legitimately tap your stern and protest you for tacking a very dangerous moment in the race with time it just right! The best plan is to On the right the man who kept all under control. Race Officer Derek Priestley, enjoys a a sail on practice day at the RM Worlds. Graham Elliot and Martin Roberts make up the Northern trio in the foreground. to the windwards mark on the starboard tack. We also have to remember which side we are to leave the mark on! ; Don’t forget luffing both as a defender of position and as an overtaker of boats to leeward. Don’t get engaged in luffing battles that allow the rest of the fleet to sail on past. Remember that a line projected from your transom at right angles to your course will give you a good idea of when you have reached the layline for the mark, it will also help you to calculate whether Top quality that emanates from the Sails Etc stable! What craftmanship! more than struggle round the course. You ought to be able to sail round it with some confidence and some idea of what to expect from other racing yachts. What ever,you ought to be able to have some good fun, once you have overcome your nerves. JUNE 1991 the tack you are on is the correct tack to be on, the one that is taking you nearest to the windward mark. When about to round the windward mark, remember rule 42 and all the business about overlap. The inside boat that has the overlap established at the four boats length, has the right to room at the mark, even if the outside boat has subsequently drawn clear ahead. Remember your obligations if clear ahead in their water! That means two penalty turns to do as soon as possible! On the off the wind leg to the wing mark remember to keep the wind in your sails and to try to place yourself to get the inside overlap at the wing mark. Remember that you will be gybing at the wing mark and that on the usual port rounding course you will be gybing from starboard to port. If you are wise you will sail as close to the mark as possible and then gybe as quickly as possible. If you sail very wide of the mark you do not have divine right to gybe to a port tack and get in the way of yachts still on starboard tack, so be very careful. On the second reaching leg down to the leeward mark, the main objective again is to gain the inside overlap at the leeward mark. This leg is perhaps the most dangerous for dramatic luffing games, as you can easily find yourself being diverted well off course up to windward as the yacht close to you that you are trying to 31 establish an inside overlap on decides that there is no way that you are going to achieve that at his expense. Remember to try and maintain boat speed as you round the leeward mark, be prepared to have yachts slowing down in front of you and be prepared to find yachts tacking quickly across to starboard as they round the mark. AN OLYMPIC TYPE OF COURSE ARTICLE 12 DIAGRAM 1 WING MARK ‘ WIND DIRECTION : START./ FINISH MARK ° The Second Windward Beat Try and remember on the second windward beat how to get command over a yacht clear ahead. Don’t forget that as yachts are approaching an obstruction that they may well be calling for “water” WINDWARD MARK LEEWARD MARK (Rule 43), remember that you MUST make a reply or tack yourself immediately. If you in turn have a yacht close by that you need to call to before you can tack, make that call immediately and wait for their reply before tacking. Thus when approaching obstructions all yachts need °o LAP 1 START / FINISH MARK START WINDWARD MARK TO PORT WIN ” . « LEEWARD LAP 2 WINDWARD MARK TO PORT on sm EEWARD FINISH CONTROL BANK thls A Fleetwood eel in fin-catching form! Fellow hack Mike Kemp had this little fellow wrapped around his keel. His appeal for redress under Rule 69 for ‘An eel round the keel’ was refused. yourself at which stage you should be in front. If the yacht clear ahead stays on port tack after rounding the leeward mark you simply sail on port tack as well keeping slightly to windward of the yacht clear ahead. That yacht cannot now tack to starboard without tacking in your water, again you simply push it way beyond the layline to the finish so as when you tack Basic Maintenance Bring your yacht back to the bank and check that it has not taken on water. Do remember every few races to change your batteries! It is most frustrating to be having a good race only to see your yacht suddenly start going round in large circles as you loose control of it due to battery failure! to be very alert and the first yacht has to allow all of the yachts time to make their calls and reply before being able to rely on getting the water being demanded. This is a rule that is rarely properly understood. Once round the windward mark for the second time remember that this time it is a straight run down to the leeward mark. Think about getting your yacht directly between the direction of the wind and the yacht in front so as to blanket his wind. Once again be thinking of gaining the inside overlap as you approach the four boat circle. Remember that a yacht clear ahead that has a yacht approaching from astern that is trying to overhaul her to leeward, shall not sail below a proper course once that boat astern is within three boat lengths of the yacht clear ahead. (Rule 39) This makes gaining the overlap on the run and reach a bit easier than it would be without the protection of this rule, so make sure that the rule is firmly in your memory. Rounding the leeward mark again you have exactly the same objectives and considerations as the first rounding. The only difference is that now time is running out*as regards gaining places, all that remains is the final beat. The Final Beat However there are still places to be gained and lost so keep concentrating and trying. Gaining command over the yacht clear ahead can now pay dividends. If it tacks to starboard you sail under its stern and then immediately tack yourself. The yacht clear ahead cannot now tack to port to lay the line until you decide to let it, so you push it way beyond the layline before tacking 32 Mike Ewart studying a fleet system board at Woodley 1990 Ranking Race using the Stollery Racing system. you become in front. Don’t forget however the rest of the fleet, it is no good beating one boat in front, if whilst doing that three slip past from behind! Remember therefore to keep an eye every now and then if not more on the entire fleet. This becomes easier to do, the more practice you have. Remember to keep an eye also on the sails and direction of sailing of the rest of the fleet as they should give you clues as to what is going on regarding wind direction and any shifts or bends about. Once you have finished the race sail well clear of the finishing line preferably to windward thus keeping well out of the way of any yachts still racing. If you are lucky you might get the odd clue just before the battery runs out. The sail winch often becomes very slow to operate; if you suspect this is happening, get your yacht to the bank quickly. It is worth carrying a spare battery set in your pocket to enable ultra quick changes to take place in emergencies. It is however much better never to require such measures by simply only using your batteries for a conservative number of races! If you do carry a battery around ina pocket, do not carry anything else in that pocket! I have almost set myself on fire, forgetting that simple rule! Any coins or other metal in a pocket may just short across the terminals of the plug and start MODEL BOATS cooking you. If you have never seen it, you participation. Don’t be put off by the would be very surprised at the amount of destructive power stored in our little battery sets. It is also quite possible to ruin all of shouting that sometimes goes on. It is rarely personal or lasts for any length of time. There is bound to be the odd skipper who shouts at you as you sail on port across his bows ruining his start or chances of winning, or so the shouting skipper believes at the time. He’ll soon calm down and realize that if he had your wiring, whilst fiddling about with the boat sticking your nose into the various circuits trying to find a problem. If you start to see smoke coming from anywhere, disconnect your battery fast! Now if you really are a complete recognized that it was your boat he ought to have given you a wide berth! newcomer to our sport and this is the first article you have read, you are not going to remember all of the prompts I’ve listed in this article, so let’s just have the most basic requirements listed in order to enter a race. Basic Requirements At least know how to control your new love. Be able to tack and gybe it with Temper Temper Skippers do get cross with each other on occasions; some will take protests very personally and have a little sulk when disqualified, but because the next race happens almost immediately such incidents are soon forgotten! It is much better however that protesting skippers just accept that there was an incident on 12 DIAGRAM 3 ARTICLE START / FINISH eo finish fifth then you will score 5 points etc., etc. After eight races perhaps, you will be allowed to discard your worst (highest) score for one race. This helps to cover for any really bad luck that comes your way, such as weed around your keel that slowed you down badly. At the end of the day all of the scores are added up, after discarding discards and the one with the lowest score is the overall winner. It is possible to win the day without even having won a race! For example if you came second in every race and three or four other skippers won a couple of races each, your final score is likely to be lower than theirs, because in the races when they did not come first they must have come third at least! The more races that are sailed in a day the more discards that will be awarded! It does all depend on the racing and scoring system being used by the club. Some clubs use their own systems for internal club races and some do not use the discard system at all. There will often be a club racing system that covers many of the club races over the entire season. Whereby the skipper that wins the most events over the season becomes the club champion for example. Some clubs will run a handicap system so © as even you as a complete novice have a chance to win something! So once again I write do not be put off by the shouting of starboards, overlaps, water, luffing, mast abeam stem and protest that ring across the calm waters of the lake. It is all a part of yacht racing and you will soon not only become used to it, but will be calling your own rights too! Setting up a Race Meeting Now then, for those of you that have formed a new enthusiastic group of G of CONTROL BANK confidence. Have an idea of how the sails set in relation to the position of your control stick. This way you will havea rough idea of the set of the sails, when they are too far away to see properly what the actual setting is. Tell all the racing skippers BEFORE you race that you are a complete novice. Not only will they keep reasonably clear of the water and that one of them, whilst being in the wrong does not recognise it. So both Skippers firmly believe that they are in the right, until the race observers and witnesses all help to piece together what really happened. At that stage it you if they have any sense, but some will offer you words of encouragement and advice as you struggle to come to grips with it all. Try and work out the difference between port and starboard tacks. Do approach the start on the starboard tack; it makes life so much easier. Just the time, so it is no big deal. Sometimes it is because it is such a little used bit of the aim to keep clear of the boats that are all trying to keep clear of you, but not too clear or elsexyou will be too far behind at the start and will never catch up. Don’t be afraid to copy the other boats and follow any boat that happens to be just in front up the windward beat. Keep an eye out for all the other boats and follow your particular leader. Do this for a few races just to get the feel of the whole thing.Remember that as your yacht is sailing towards you, you have to move the rudder control stick in what appears to be the wrong direction to turn the yacht. This takes a race or two to get used to. Above all, enjoy the day and the JUNE 1991 often becomes obvious that one of the Skippers had misunderstood the situation or the rule that applied. It happens all of rules, that no one has it in their memories and there is much searching through the various copies of the rules with their illustrations to find the appropriate rule to apply. At the end of it all, someone usually gets disqualified, just for the race that the incident occurred in. No one gets shot or black listed, it is just a simple disqualification that gives you last place plus one extra penalty point and usually can be discarded as a result, once a discard comes in after a certain number of races. budding racing Skippers here are a few tips to set up your own little race meeting. First how many yachts do you need to start a race? Two or more is enough! If there is just you and a friend, then it is easy to engage in a bit of what we call match racing. It is a particularly enjoyable form of racing because it does allow you to concentrate more on sailing your own boat and trying to beat one other boat without having to worry about other boats popping up from nowhere getting in your way. All the manoeuvres around the marks and at the start become so much simpler when there is only one other boat involved. Wherever you are sailing, you are going to need some marks to sail around. If you can make up some buoys to use that will be the best solution, although of course you may then require a rowing boat to put the buoys out on the water. If the water is shallow then waders maybe enough or a pair of shorts depending on the time of year. Remember to watch out for things like broken glass if you are considering going bare foot into water. If for any reason you cannot put out buoys, then Points maybe you can use some existing mark in the water or simply use a landmark and turn when you have gone past it. It is not very satisfactory, but perhaps will allow It is perhaps worth knowing, that as you to get some racing practice in. racing yachtsmen we are looking to score the least number of points over the day’s racing in order to win! If you win a race, you may score nothing, % of a point or 1 point, according Otherwise just trying to beat each other going up on beat can be done. Followed by a race down wind. Buoys can be made from all sorts of things. The main object is to have to what system your club is using. If you something that floats and that can be held 33 at anchor in one place. The more visible the mark is the better and I certainly feel that it is a great help if it is not so large that a model heeling over can touch it with its sails. However the interests of visibility sometimes conflict with this objective. Anchorage is usually achieved by means of a line attached to a fairly heavy weight. The line should either be adjustable in length by using a bowsie or should be self adjusting by using a line with one heavy weight to lie on the bottom of the lake and a lighter weight at the other end of the ARTICLE 12 DIAGRAM 4 COURSE FOR WILD SWINGING WINDS! \e] OPTION 1 START / FINISH LINE line which hangs in the water under the buoy and is just heavy enough to hold the buoy upright. The line obviously passes through an attachment point on the OPTION 2 START / FINISH LINE e underside of the buoy and must be of a length that keeps the secondary weight off the bottom. This system usually takes a bit of trial and error to perfect, but is by far the best system because it achieves the final objective of a good mark, which is that the ground tackle should be vertical. If you have an anchorage line that is not vertical, then there is a very real chance that a passing yacht’s keel can hook up on the anchor line and that is very annoying. The problem with keeping the ground tackle vertical on a buoy that has the bowsie method of line adjustment is that whilst it will work fine when the water is fairly flat, once a chop builds up on the water the mark can start to move as the ° . peak of the waves lift the weight up off the bottom of the lake. If the line is too slack, then the buoy tends to lie on its side and can move about around its anchor line. Once again the anchor line can easily now catch unsuspecting yachts! The marks that it is most essential to have taut anchor lines on are the start and finish marks together with the windward mark. Three buoys are required to set the course plus a couple of smaller buoys for the start/finish line. Diagram 1 shows the CONTROL BANK windward mark. The wing mark should be out on side or the other by ideally 45 degrees. The is no compulsion to use this type of course, but as it is the sort of course used in most open events. all ranking events,national and international events it is worth getting used to. It is thought to provide the best challenge to racing Skippers. It can be fun to set up different types of course. ~re am such option, although of course having the four marks allows all sorts of different courses to be sailed with the cross over section occasionally providing good excitement. Diagram 4 develops this four square set up a little further by laying a triangle of starting marks in the middle of the larger square. Now you can use which ever line happens to be nearest to square to the wind for each race. In thundery conditions the wind can easily swing through 180 degrees several times through the day and whilst the storm is actually.overhead it is wise not to race, there can often be good racing in between storms. In fact at Gosport the storms have a habit of moving all around Gosport without ever hitting Gosport itself. With a bit of imagination you could set up all sorts of different courses. It is quite amusing to occasionally set a course that includes both port and starboard rounding of buoys, it brings new tactics into play, especially when trying to establish overlaps! Having set up a course the next thing you really require is a starting signal. When there are only two of you, it is not so important, since you can take it in turns to start each other off, making sure that you are both close to each other. However it is very easy to make a starting tape that can be played on a portable tape recorder. All you need is a one minute warning of count down, i.e., “In Lindsey Weall enters the results of a race on a for square schedule at Gosport 1990. There seem to be around 15 entries. Notice tape recorder on top shelf for start countdowns. usual sort of Olympic type course used. The start line should be a minimum of one boat’s length width for every boat racing at one time and should be laid square to the wind. The windward mark should be dead up wind from the start line and the leeward mark dead down wind of the 34 Diagram 3 gives one idea that is particularly useful when the wind is regularly shifting through 45 to 90 degrees. You can then set a course that with a bit of luck will include a fair bit of windward beating, rather than just reaching legs. The diagram shows one ten seconds a one minute count-down will commence.” Then using a watch every ten seconds go 60, 50,40, 30, 20, 10 and then every second, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO. The start command must be very short and sharp. The last thing you’ll need is a sheet of paper to record the results. Diagram 5 illustrates a simple racing schedule that can be drawn in seconds. This is perfectly O.K. for all club racing. It can be varied to MODEL BOATS Diagram 5. A simple Racing Schedule. i \Frequenc |Skipper/Boat Name Lib No. Brown _jJoe – Lollipop 99 iver Fred – Scamp 15 Red Mike – Tornado 21 Yellow {Lucy – Gypsy 36 Blue Robert – Fugitive 18 Blue/ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Etc Total Discards Final \Result you simply start off the diagonal line downwards at the top of the next racing x column. Once you have a good number of skippers all wanting to race, you can use what I call the four square method. Literally, you divide the schedule up into blocks of four squares by four squares and x XxX i x | put a downwards diagonal across each block. That way you can stop the racing X eee Ray – Illusion anytime after completing a block of four races. Whereas in the more basic variation you must complete a complete block of the x main diagonal so as everyone has been off once, twice or thrice etc. In the four block system it does not matter if the lowest block of four is not all filled with racing skippers. The skippers in that block simply don’t sail as usual when their X is in the racing column. Diagram 6 gives the example. I have successfully used this system to run a twenty four boat meeting and I think Winner Scores Tpoint Second 2 points Third you could handle more. Whilst the diagram shows columns for ODiscards 1 after 5 races 2 after 10 3 pionts sixteen races it is as well to draw in up to twenty four columns for races. At Gosport club events eighteen races are easily completed between ten thirty am and three thirty or four pm with half an hour for lunch. It all depends upon how keen 3 after 20 (In this example every 6 races completes a set.) suite your requirements. When there are skipper are to start and stop the tape, write down the results, watch the line at the start and finish and to walk around with the fleet watching out for incidents. only a handful of you racing, it is not necessary to have any boats off in any race. Simply have all boats on, with one person nominated to start and stop the tape recorder. After the first race the winner writes down the results. The winner then has the handicap of starting this schedule I have varied the diagonals from both downwards to upwards per block of four. This is simply to give variety as to ” off for that particular race. Once you get to and stopping the tape in the next race and soon. your own group of racing skippers is.In All you do is put a line of X’s diagonally downwards across the columns of race results. The X’s mean that that skipper is who is off with whom in any one race. You’ll notice in this schedule instead of simply using X’s to denote when a skipper isn’t racing a symbol is written in instead. RO is for Race Officer, nominating for that the stage that you want to have more than one skipper off, you put in another set of X’s. Say starting in the middle of column 1, still drawing them in diagonally downwards. Now when you get to the bottom of the column for racing skippers, — Once there are a few more skippers racing or as an alternative anyway you can elect to have one or more skippers off in each race. The duties of the non racing particular race the individual skipper to perform the task. Similarly 01, 0 and 03 Diagram 6. The Four Square Racing Schedule Freq. oereriont Name Se No. PP sy 1s Ee Ds lo hg ae Be Boe dae 13 | 14] 15 | 16 Total Discard 5 Points Orange Les Sinker 36 Blue Mike Eeling 07 Yellow Larry Hasler 09 Black Hugh Mole 69 Red Hetee Foghorn Green Tony Cain Green Chris Blue Poohstick Red Graham Orange Orange “Antic Phil wheel 39 ve Green Martin Zzzzz 47 John Mark Ol 01 Chopstick 66 lan Natking 13 Tony Vaner 11 Gunslinger _ 37 Ian Burtons 21 02 03 02 RO 03 RO ny 03 02 03 02 = Ol hed oe RO 03 a2 02 aes 02 02 02 03 RO 01 O01 03 / RO / 03 03 RO O01 03 03 O01 RO / 03 “a O1 02 03 02 RO 02 ie 03 O1 01 Positio 03 02 RO 91 Peter Stoppit 02 RO ” Brown Fourplay RO 01 O’Sophical Red O1 90 | o1 Yellow Brown | RO haan Score RO 01 O1 RO I 5 minute break after each 4 races. Discards 2 after 10. JUNE 1991 35 stand for Observers 1, 2 and 3. Observer 1 has the task of observing the front half of the fleet. Observer 2 has the task of observing the bottom half of the fleet (once established). Observer 3 acts as startline judge, keeps an open eye on the whole race and acts as finish line judge as well, calling out the finishers by jib number to the Race Officer who writes them down. This way all people attending the meeting can enjoy racing as well. It is not necessary for one or two skippers to sacrifice their day’s racing to run the different stories as to what actually occurred in any one incident. Both Skippers tell a different version and all Observers might have seen the incident from different vantage points and recorded different versions also. Witnesses again, may have caught a passing glimpse of the incident and formed yet another different picture in their mind. Do try to be objective and do try very very hard to be accurate. If you are not sure that an incident has occurred, say nothing. The Skippers involved should be watching event. Once you have twenty entries or their boats very carefully and if one of more you can use the last full block of four to act as line judge, releasing Observer 3 to full observing duties. You’ll find that by nominating which part of a fleet an Observer should them thinks there was a contact you can has occurred and you have clearly identified the offenders by calling out the jib numbers twice, do not enter into discussion with the Skippers involved other than to just say contact was seen. A Skipper cannot argue with your call, he can do his turns and protest you to the race committee after the race is over and appeal for redress under rule 69. It is however extremely difficult to convince a protest committee that an Observer did not see a contact! Contact of the masts is often missed by the Skippers involved because they are very busy looking at the hull of their boat, keeping it clear of the concentrate on tends to give much better coverage of the whole race. The Race Officer can also keep a general eye on the whole proceedings too. Observers should call out any definite contacts at least twice calling out the jib numbers of the boats involved. It is up to the boats involved to sort out who should do the turns. The Observers must make sure that turns have been properly completed. It is best also if the observers quickly jot down the bare bones of the incident; Jib No’s, relative positions of the boats involved, wind direction and position of any nearby mark. If they heard any calls prior to the collision that is worth noting down as well. Incidents happen very quickly and it is hard to record the facts correctly and fairly. However if turns on the water are not done, then there will be a protest hearing at which Observers evidence will be required. It is not at all unusual for a protest committee to hear several completely Part of the delightful Italian Team. 47: Dario Scaglia with his own design. 45: Federico Ciardi with his Jedi, designed by P Jahan. Stanley Goodwin, the oldest entrant from USA No. 75, stands in the background between the two boat’s sails. Robert Brown’s neat solution to offset cable drive to this rudder is to mount the twin cables on a radiused arm at the servo end. Possibly an adapted winch drum. Robert sailed for Scotland at the RM Worlds. almost certainly be sure that they will protest the other boat. If that is the case, you still need as an observer to note down the bare facts and to tick off the incident once penalty turns have been completed. Once you are certain that an incident other boat that is very close. Going back to Diagram 6 and the Four Square Racing Schedule you’ll notice that the left hand column is devoted to recording the crystal frequency allocated to each Skipper. On small club events this is very useful to show to any other radio controlled skippers who might bring along their tug boat to the lake for a trial run. Such Skippers can immediately see what frequencies are free and safe to use. This encourages good relationships between different groups of modellers when ever possible. Of course once all the basic thirteen channels on 27MHz are allocated, you have to allocate late comers different crystals in each race, as they use the crystal of a Skipper who is out for that particular race. By this means twenty six Skippers can be catered for. Of course the thing that now helps enormously is the 40MHz Frequencies. That makes the whole process much easier and it is thus possible to handle larger numbers fairly easily. Fleets of eighteen boats at a time on the water are becoming more common these days. Provided most of the Skippers are experienced there are few problems. At the Worlds last year at Fleetwood on practice day there were often well over thirty boats on the water at any one time. So I guess that if you wanted to you could probably handle up to thirty six entries on the Four Square System. Most people would however gravitate towards a fleet system of racing long before that amount was reached I think though. Protest hearings at Club level are not that common, most people accepting penalty turns on the water. If you ever need to organise one though, Rules 71 to 74 give you all the guidance you should need. 36 MODEL BOATS
