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One Metre Worlds Full report from New Zealand StONDIDO F easy-build FULL-SIZE -Platts f6 iner L freelance Cargo AN EASY-BUILD FREELANCE CARGO LINER BY GLYNN GUEST WORTH OVER £5.00 SUPPLIED FREE WITH ISSUE 555 OF ys eS Wryrelight’s a1ft Wa son Type Lifeboat reviewed MODEL BOATS 55> OY a a) ° S. If plan not attached, please ask your supplier fc NS oS 2 77 0144291060 0%4 VOL 47 No.555 god NEXUS £2.30 750 Ptas R/C MIKE KEMP at the One Metre World Championships Skiffs are not the only One Metres that get up and go off-wind. Here Gordon Sears’ Metrick Magick gets close to planing. art One from New Zealand. There was P: much happening at the recent ISAF One Metre World Championship that I am afraid I shall have to serialise my report. This issue will provide an overall view of the event and highlight a few key features: in the next I will have a closer look at some of the sailing issues and the boats that took part. Sailing’s big one! Thus was titled the second world championship for One Metre yachts: it could also have been titled ‘Sailing’s Big Friendly One’. Generally speaking, the model yachting world’s major events are pretty friendly occasions but there is usually an air of officialdom which prevails, often right through to the end of the meeting. Some lose their ‘inhibitions’ and get more friendly as the week progresses: this one was friendly from the start and managed to stay laid back yet efficient throughout. This is certainly my view and I suspect that of many others. It is frighteningly expensive to get to the other side of the world for many of us but absolutely worth it for the enjoyable experience. Many of the overseas visitors had arrived in New Zealand during the week before the event and had spread out around the country to see some of the sights before gathering in the windy city of Wellington over the weekend of the 8th and 9th of February. The MYA contingent had all arranged to stay in the same Motel and David and Rita Graves were probably starting to wonder just what they had agreed to as the various bits of yachting paraphernalia started to be spread around the rooms of the establishment. Not only that, but ‘coach parties’ could be seen gathering in the car park awaiting MODEL BOATS VOL. 47 – No. 555 transportation to the lakeside. Although he has relinquished the role of MYA International Secretary John Cleave just cannot seem to get out of the habit of ‘organising’ the flock. He eventually arranged a mini bus which served as the main ‘team’ transport which sometimes made two trips to the lakeside with the ‘skippers’ and then the ‘partners’. Gradually, over the weekend more and more of the competitors for the coming week found their way to the water at Seaview Marina, Lower Hutt, a suburb of the capital city of Wellington. The event was based on the Lowry Bay Yacht Club whose well equipped clubhouse provided an excellent home for the event. All members of the organising club, the Wellington Radio Yacht Club, and the competitors had been granted temporary membership of the Yacht Club for the duration of the Championship so we could treat it as our ‘own’. Sunday the 9th February at 1.00pm was the start date and time for the Wellington to Sydney leg of the BT Global Challenge, so many took off to Wellington to try and watch the proceedings. The area around the harbour was pretty crowded so spectators were liberally scattered around the many surrounding vantage points in the hills. A rather strange start line had been laid which saw the yachts doing a sort of Starboard tack reaching start and heading back in towards the Queen’s Wharf dock which had been their base since they arrived around the New Year. Close in shore they had to round a mark and head back out into the open harbour to do a Starboard rounding of a mark before making their way to a Port handed mark which took them across the front of Point Halswell before heading out of the harbour all together. The obvious reason for all these odd bits of course was to give the spectators, sponsors and supporters a bit of a look at the yachts ‘racing’. From the vantage point a group of us found, high up on a hill overlooking the second mark, the yachts resembled ‘models’. There was some agreement among us that a number of the yachts we were watching made less than ideal starts and even less than ideal sail and course selections on their way towards the open sea. This was truly an occasion when we would definitely have done something different had we the sort of control we usually have with such a view. I wouldn’t mind betting that some of those skippers would have done things differently if they could have had the view we had! The only thing that spoilt the view for us was something with which we are all too familiar drizzle – only this was rather warm, not at all like the normal stuff we have to put up with. Monday – measuring We had been told that Monday had been reserved for checking and measuring the yachts prior to the meeting. This brought back the memories of France for me where a yacht could have been presented without a certificate and gone away afterwards having had a full check – indeed I believe one or two did just that in 1994. In New Zealand the check was, on the surface, less thorough than at the previous World’s: however there were one or two who had to go away and make some alterations before they could obtain that all important stamp of approval. Commonest was modifications to weights, either adding some because the overall weight was too little or trimming some off the lead because it was too heavy. As we 37 Tuesday – the opening When we hit the water we were in number 2 or 3 suits, because it was blowing: it was At 9.00am we gathered for the first of the skippers’ briefings: this one was introduced by Ian Hull-Brown, convenor of the regatta and all-round ‘man in charge’ of proceedings. He introduced us to the mayor of Hutt City, John Terris Q.S.O., who did the formal welcoming bit and wished us all good luck, he also threw in a well timed commercial for the local amenities as well! Then, while we waited agog, the New Zealand flag was ceremonially brought ashore from ‘around the far bank’ by a suitably attired Ron Perry. At least I suppose he was suitably attired for this deed, looking resplendent in Frock coat with copious quantities of gold braid; white knee length breeches, black leather boots and topped off with a flowing, and rather fetching, blonde white wig. Having made it out of the rubber dinghy, on to the jetty, and up the steep ramp – the tide was out – Ron was assisted in hoisting the flag on the pole adjacent to the control caravan. With the formal opening of the event completed we were introduced to our Race Officer for the week, Craig Jones, acting in this capacity for the first time at a World Championship level. Craig has been involved in sailing for some time, having started at the age of ten and progressing on to sail at local, regional and national level in several local classes. While living in Canada he had a bash at the International Fireball class in international regattas. He has twice competed in New Zealand teams in the Australia based Southern Cross series of races and has sailed twice in the famous Sydney – Hobart race. Over the past eleven years he has been sailing Marbleheads as a not only blowing; it was making a very good attempt to make us, from the British end of the world, feel at home. There was dampness in the air and clouds in the sky. Although we were not to know it, the very first heat was to be a foretaste of the final result for it was member of the Wellington Radio Yacht Club. Top left: Let’s get the were to see later in the week one or two incidents out of the way skippers had to add some later: funny how boats lose weight once they start exercising, makes them seem almost human! before the racing starts! Graham Bantock (95) and Mark Dennis (19) get together during ‘practice’ on Sunday. Above: Michael Garden’s TS-Z shows the better side of a One Metre when going off wind: if they always went this well sailing would be fast, but boring! Right: Sometimes skiffs get out of shape when the wind blows. Terry Bracken’s TS-2 catches a gust on the way to a mark. 38 The other area where one or two had to make some minor adjustments was in the profile of sails. What seemed like a perfunctory check identified some which needed a few millimetres shaved off here and there. The whole measuring procedure was conducted in a low key manner by Alan Bryant, assisted by Struan McCulloch looking after sails and certificates – and John Millington who was in charge of the tank for overall length and draught checks. Alan had the electronic scales under his control and wielded the inevitable rubber stamp. Unlike France, where J was definitely in the group of ‘borderline’ cases, I had no problems passing the scrutiny as the fin and bulb were well under weight and the overall weight well over, relatively speaking. There were those to whom the location of the keel retaining bolt, part of the hull or part of the fin, was extremely significant. There were one or two that had to attack their weight with a file. As far as I know there were none who had to add weight to the keel. I don’t know whether anyone had their rudder weighed: I somehow doubt it! Once measurement had been completed, and those of us with low numbers had an advantage here if we chose to turn up early enough, it was off to the water to play. Time to start playing the psychological game, to check out boat trim: or in my case to screw it up – but more of that later. He is a member of the New Zealand Radio Yachting Council and has been treasurer for the past two years, he is also currently a Yachting New Zealand appointed National Yachting Judge. With a pedigree like that one might expect that he has an idea of what it is all about. His performance during the week, and the overall conduct of the regatta proved that he does! He introduced us to his main assistants for the week, including Assistant RO, David Coode, well known to the British and most of the rest of the fleet, and Australian Ron Attwood also well known to a large number of the competitors. Craig set about establishing the way he wanted the event to run and gave us a quick run down on how things would proceed, he also ran through the sailing instructions and the modifications that had been made to them: pointing out that these modifications had already been posted on the ‘official notice board’ – the inside of the control caravan French window. We were introduced to the course and the course board and told when the first of the seeding races would start: all the things you would expect from such a briefing but delivered in a slightly light hearted style. won by number 147, Craig Smith, sailing a Gary Cameron designed ‘TS-2’. Another ‘TS2’, sailed by Geoffrey Kiernan, took second place in this first heat and there was yet another, but this time under the control of a New Zealander – Alan Hayes – in third place. Fourth was taken by another Australian, Jeffrey Byerley, sailing a New Zealand designed ‘Two Dogs’: the ‘skiffs’ were making their mark. In fact they hopelessly outnumbered the ‘skinny boats’: the first of these was in sixth place where South African, Norrie Taylor, was sailing his own ‘Impi’ design. The other skinny representatives in the fifteen boat heat were Scott Chisholm, Crossbow; Gordon Sears, Metrick Magick; and Vjeko Orlandini, ‘Wild Thing II’. As we were to realise during the week this was a pretty accurate foretaste of the end result. Heat two saw the its first ‘European’ style boat finish in eleventh place: it was a ‘Stiletto’ being sailed by Peter Haworth from Australia. The third heat sawa bit of a revolution in form: in more ways than one. From the start a ‘European’ yacht hit the front and managed to dictate the pace of the heat. The striking white and day-glo orange yacht was to shine occasionally during the rest of the week, but these were its finest few minutes. I felt very satisfied, and couldn’t believe my form: yes folks, I and my ‘Dann-3’ won that one! For a very short while I was the leading ‘Brit.’: I’m sad to say it didn’t last for long. Even more impressive amongst all these doubly wide ‘skiffs’ was the fact that the second boat home was a ‘skinny’ as well, piloted by Graham Bantock it was one of his ‘Scream’ designs. Third was one of ‘those’, a TS-2 in the hands of Australian Phillip Page: then there was succession of skiffs and things until Dieter Halle-Krahl brought his ‘Red Wine’ into tenth place: there was another, sailed by John Cleave, in twelfth place and the rest of that heat didn’t finish – so bad were the conditions. Martin Firebrace brought one of his own designed “Two Dogs’ yachts into first place in the fourth of the first seeding round heats. The other seeding races were also pretty hectic and saw Martin Firebrace take another win, he was joined by Simon Kellett to become the only two skippers to score thus in the seeding rounds. Others to get a win out of this phase of the event were New Zealanders Ian Vickers, Geoff Smale, Robert Wattam and Leon Talaic together with Martin Roberts and John Cleave. As a result of these races the overall positions showed Martin and Simon on top with a zero score because the worst of the MODEL BOATS VOL. 47 – No. 555 Wednesday, the B heat as well. After the four races of the opening day the lead of the competition had been claimed by Robert Wattam with a total of three point four points. Fellow New Zealander, and exOlympic helmsman, Geoff Smale was second with 9.7 while our own Martin Roberts was in third place a further point behind Geoff. Craig Smith was a further three points back with Martin Firebrace just a shade over two more points back. So it was that the day ended and most retired to the Lowry Bay Yacht Club’s clubhouse to ‘meet the fleet’: the first of the week’s social events. Sailing: to be continued… It was the Wide v. the Narrow at the One Metre Worlds. Here Norrie Taylor (25) gets his own design Impi home ahead of Gary Cameron (62) with his own design TS-2. The social side There wasn’t much organised in the way of social events for the skippers on the second day of the event. However, the ‘partners’ spent an afternoon ‘over the hill’ doing some serious wine tasting on an organised trip round some of the local wineries. Although not wishing to be impolite to what were predominantly ladies on this trip, it would appear from their enlightened state when they returned that the trip was successful. Not only that, one got the feeling that the World Championship Measuring; Alan Bryant (right) and John Millington wines tasted were, in the main, extremely consider the weight of palatable! On Thursday a cruise had been organised on a pleasure vessel named the ‘Sweet Georgia’. In addition to cruising around the general area of Wellington harbour, which is a sizeable piece of water and not just your average ‘inside the harbour walls job’, the trip included a formidable dinner with a wide variety of fare offering the chance to sample New Zealand venison amongst others. There would also appear to have been the Glen Riley’s Gopher Gold named Rhapsody. opportunity to sample, in generous quantities, various local brews. These opportunities were grasped avidly by many who, though slightly quieter than usual the following morning, did not seem to be too much the worse for their experiences. Friday brought the celebrations: firstly of Craig Jones’s – Mr. Race Officer – birthday: his actual age was not announced to the public but the fact that some interpreted his orange bib initials as Really Old would give some clues to how they perceived him! These celebrations were marked by a presentation to him of cards and presents from both of the main parties involved in the regatta: the organisers who wrapped his present in gold paper with a pretty bow presented by Helen Hull-Brown; and the competitors who wrapped the present in a plain brown paper bag! Australian, Cameron Clarke (‘M’ to his friends), made the presentation on behalf of the skippers, with the fervent wish that he be spared any more attention from Craig and his Jurymen. Racing was cut short, despite a beautiful evening, in order for us all to get back and tidy up to attend the Valentine’s Day dinner party, amazingly held at a restaurant named ‘Valentines’. This turned out to be a pretty good value-for-money evening for one could really ‘pig-out’ if one wanted to for a flat rate A tank test was included in the pre-race checking; John Millington got this outside job. payment of NZ$24.50 (about £11.00). Apart three is temporarily discarded, they were followed by a group of four who had all scored 1.7 points after a discard, then the eventual champion and myself on 3 points, the next skipper in the list was Ante Kovacevic who had been tucking into a second and third place while discarding a seventh to claim his place in the first A heat of the rest of the regatta. Leon was sitting alone on five points while there were a group of three skippers who had all achieved a second and a fourth place to get into A heat as well. The last two A heat places saw the tie MODEL BOATS VOL. 47 – No. 555 breaking system come into play to sort two from the three skippers sitting on six points after the temporary discard. With the wind still pounding us at 30 kph or more we launched, in reverse heat order, into the first of the true heat races of the meeting. I managed to get my yacht back into working order after missing the last of my heats when my usually ultra-reliable, and ancient, Jackson winch failed and burned out half of its amplifier. This was certainly an unsettling occurrence, and I never really recovered from it to shoot rapidly out the back of first the A heat then, midway through from delivering drinks, if desired, all the waiters and waitresses did was clear away the empties. The actual choice and serving of the food was left to you the eater. Thus you could pick whether to have one or several starter courses; whether to include one or more fish courses; whether to have meat and vegetables, or just meat and fish; and whether, and in what order, to sample the delights of the sweet end of the restaurant. Some did it all! Although Craig Jones, still regarded with a certain air of authority despite the lack of orange bib, was the main ‘birthday boy’ there were several others who had birthdays in the offing and ended up with a celebratory cake and birthday balloon: 39 Convenor and a major being saved for some suitable occasion! From then until the end of the regatta Cameron had to ensure that he was constantly looking over his shoulder in case of retribution. On Saturday the racing continued into the evening after which the fleet were invited to meet in one of the semi-formal general assemblies that the ISAF-RYD usually calls during such a championship. The driving force behind this regatta, lan HullBrown, points out where it’s all going to happen during the coming week. representatives of the permanent committee that were present set themselves up behind a small defensive table in the Lowry Bay Club House to face an assembly of representative skippers. Chairman, John Cleave, was flanked by Technical Committee leader Graham Bantock, and Policy Committee Chairman – David Coode. Following an invitation from John for the assembly to ask any questions that were not necessarily associated with the current regatta a number of questions were asked which provoked some interesting, and some not-sointeresting, answers from the top table. the most notable of which in our party was Struan Robertson’s wife, Bridget, who had accompanied him all the way from sunny Sydney to sit and offer encouragement at the lakeside. Cameron Clarke, also from Australia and who had made the acquaintance of many of the international radio sailing set in South Africa and Australia for the Marbleheads, chose this evening to even the score in pranks with the ISAF-RYD chairman, John Cleave. In one very deft and rapid move Cameron planted a chocolate and cream cake in John’s left ear: the balance of the cake – which would not all fit in said ear tumbled into the breast pocket of John’s shirt, where it joined a bread roll that was Australian Ken Dobbie asked Graham why, with the recent updates to the Marblehead and One Metre rules, the ISAF-RYD has seen it necessary to insist that all yachts would need check measuring to see that they comply with the new rules. Although many could sympathise with Ken’s query about the need to re-measure yachts that obviously comply, Graham’s suggestion that only by remeasuring could one be sure that the yacht Once the New Zealand Terris – Mayor of Hutt ‘obviously complied’ made a lot of sense. Once that one had been chewed around a bit the questions started to focus on the class currently upper in most people’s minds: the One Metre. Cameron Clarke raised a City; and Ian Hull- question about the deck levels on some of Brown, the Convenor of the yachts, notably the ‘skiffs’, and what was considered a ‘deck’ for the purposes of measuring the sails and rigs. Graham’s answer seemed to suggest that the deck is flag had been run up, Craig Jones (RO), Ron Perry in untform!; John the regatta. where the owner decided to say it was. In this way one could conveniently skirt around problems of whether one should measure the height of the rigs from the foredeck, where some of the masts passed through a slot or hole, or from the bottom of the hollow well, where many of the skiffs have what they no doubt describe as a deck-stepped mast. That this is where the majority seem to be measured from provides the answer to why the ‘skiffs’ appear to have a lower overall rig height than those of us with ‘skinny’ hulls. I can visualise some interesting developments The participants! With a few exceptions everyone lined up for the Friday morning photo call. The organisers even arranged a suitably graduated sky! SAILING A PABSOLU aa Posit — 40 MODEL BOATS VOL. 47 – No. 555 The man responsible for race against the Internet connected computer and some central authority could combine the results section of the World to declare the new champion. But it Championship Fleet, wouldn’t be half as much fun, though it might be a good deal cheaper! John also went on to suggest that a plot had been hatched whereby in future championships the entry might like to declare a split in itself after the first two or three days to leave the ‘top guns’ who might still be in with a chance of the championship to fight it out. Meanwhile the ‘rest’ would reform and start again for a lesser trophy, with the implication that the secondary competition might be at a lower key than the full championship event. When a show of hands was asked for on the broad outline idea of this totally voluntary split the room was definitely divided, for a variety of the width of a large Gary Cameron finish ed sixth overall and had six of his TS-2 skiffs i n the top ten. reasons. Never the less I suspect, and fear, that this one will rumble on and on for a while. Another question over which the meeting split was that of what were described as ‘back door’ entries to these championships. One particular example was cited of a Canadian entry in the last European One Metre Championship. It was suggested aie gioco that this ‘backdoor’ entry by someone who might have been too rverssn sites: The new champion is crowned, Australian Craig Smith is handed the South Africa Cup John Cleave, recently appointed Chairman low down the appropriate ranking the ISAF – Radio list to get an entry by right in his Yachting Division. by of normally accepted country team would, in some way, have prevented an entry from one of the other ‘legitimate’ teams. We were told that, in principle, the Permanent Committee had voted to not agree with such processes. However the meeting here didn’t seem to be firmly in favour or against the concept: I don’t suppose this was surprising when one considers that the ‘French’ representative actually sailed for New Zealand at the previous Worlds in Poitier and many of the ‘Fiji’ representatives actually were carrying New Zealand registrations on their yachts; if not on their sails! Among the last snippets of interest to come out of this forum were taking place over the coming months as a importing an international jury as being that, though not yet ratified, the next result of thoughts about that one. hurdles to the running of such regattas being European Championship for the One Metre Another question arose, voiced by Robert Wattam, about the ball raced fittings raised. John Cleave suggested that it might will be Opporto, Portugal from May 24th to May 31st 1998; set to tie in with Expo 98 in appearing on ‘some of the yachts’. Graham obviate the need for jury members to be quite rightly interpreted this to be a not actually present: instead they would be able not be too long before technology would particularly well veiled comment on his own to use video conferencing and the Internet to Lisbon. Similarly, the next One Metre World Championship will be in Malta, again at the end of May but in 1999. In addition the next yacht and those with similar rigs and simply conduct the business from their respective World Championship for the RM will be in explained that the fittings match the current rule but if someone could come up with a sites around the globe. The thought passed France in 1998. simply phrased rule that prevented them without opening any further loopholes it would be considered by the Technical through my mind that, if we started to use sailing simulators instead of radio control Next time yachts we would not even have to attend the More detail of who did what to whom, how event to take part: we could simply sail our and with what: don’t miss it. committee. Also with relevance to the current competition there was some discussion about racing systems in general, and the way in * which EORS might be implemented at international level. There was also some discussion about the merits of both systems when one has to consider the impact of protests on the proceedings. Some were a little upset at the delays in racing that we had endured so far during this regatta: the thought passed through my mind that if they thought that these short delays experienced so far were excessive – they have yet to live! The whole process of handling protests at these meetings also underwent discussion at Top Ten in the One Metre World Place Skipper Club Design Ist 2nd 3rd 4th Craig Smith Australia TS-2 G Cameron Geoff New Zealand Two Dogs M Firebrace Trevor Balmforth New Zealand TS-2 G Cameron Alan Hayes New Zealand TS-2 G Cameron 16 5th Martin Roberts Great Britain Widget C Dicks 185.1 6th Gary Cameron Australia G Cameron 189.4 7th lan Vickers New Zealand Brown Sugar I Vickers 215.7 Sth Simon Kellett Australia TS-2 G Cameron 249 9th Graham Bantock Great Britain Scream G Bantock 271.1 Australia TS-2 G Cameron 282.8 10th Smale John Gratton Designer this point with the problems and costs of MODEL BOATS VOL. 47 – No. 555 41
