- Description of contents
OCTOBER Model S| Radio Control 1961 The [961 A Class Champ Championship will always be remem- and the International Race for the ‘Yachting Monthly centration on detail. Fleetwood, August 13th — 20th wre Position Number 751 779 778 wo SDMA 720 743 746 1770 771 767 782 616 740 679 783 652 D44 773 752 676 776 766 723 780 603 755 623 Ks6 1772 Skipper Name Highlander Red Gauntlet Moonshine Juanita Reward Fate Moonraker IT Ulster Lass … Elvira Quest Exodus Rapture Clansman Vanity Fair … Classic es Cumbria Revanche IL Nocturne Firebird Moonraker Katy Mistral Shikara Jill I Rayo Bad Susan Wise Grenadier Haylie … es Blue Marlin … Never Mind … ies Tarpon Miss Grisbi Goath-Nair My Fair … Lady Fleetwood Lad Oberon He dropped only 10 points in Idaho Tomboy Ladybird Cohoe Morag the first 100! Asnapped mast (# in. dural tube) on Friday afternoon, at slide level, was temporarily Top right shows “Highlander” and her skipper, and (inset) about Raven to be stopped by her mate at the end of a run. Below, left to righi, ‘‘UlIster Lass’? (dark spinnaker) and ‘‘Revanche II’’, **GoathNair’ (striped spinnaker) and ‘‘Highlander”’, and ‘Miss Grisbi’’ and the Irish boat again, all competing in the International. The scene in the clubhouse corner gives some idea of how tense the racing became in the high winds. Far right shows “Ulster Lass’’ at the windiest time, when several boats clocked 65 secs. for the 200-yard run. Pinocchio Konigen Germania Delphin Viola Ken-Len 558 “& = H. Priest O’ Connor Jones G. Lippett Burton A. West … H, Tregenna roe Dight K, Rodrick Atkinson … GOS SAE ROMNCS MAMPOSPOMAADIOMZLSARTAOONKD 1961 bered as one of the windiest ever—1957 was perhaps windier on a couple of days, but this year there were only two reasonable “top suit” days, and on Friday a steady 42 m.p.h. and occasional gusts of 50 were measured! O.0.D. Frank Boardman had given skippers a choice, and the 47 entries elected to sail a full tournament, presenting the officials with an extremely hard week’s work and the necessity of a rigid schedule to get through in time. The fleet was split into four divisions, sailing went on from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and a deadline of noon on Saturday was set. In fact, by this time the tournament was two heats short, mainly due to time lost by skippers whose boats had sustained damage and who had not had the forethought to provide themselves with spare rigging; nevertheless, so many rounds completed under the conditions was a fine achievement, and the officers must be congratulated on a hard task well carried out. By the end of the week few boats had escaped scars Or more serious damage; several were down to bare wood where they had rubbed the concrete edges, and many were patched with sticky tape where planks had been sprung or, in one or two cases, stove in. One of the four German boats was seriously damaged in transit, and another dropped in the high wind, driving the skeg up into the hull, but the chief reason for the withdrawal of a German entry in the International was the Berlin situation —home town for the party, which left early on the Saturday. The 1961 champion is Dick Priest, returning after two or three years of dinghy sailing to demonstrate that he has lost none of his artistry in trim or con- J. Fish on Dicks os L, Dawson Mustill … Westerden Ipsen Gardner Porter Bruce … Levison Amlot Schollar A, Quigley Smith Paton Jacobsen … Mitchell Boussy Shields Blundall W. Brown W. Roberts A, Wilkinson McIntyre Lynn Chalk Miller Parkinson … MAMEA MAH EY if Mae . . Dutton Pollahn … Kretschmann Lohmann Buchanan Leech j = a +o uly’ Cup, Points Club Birkenhead Birkenhead Birkenhead Birmingham Clapham Gosport Ulster Y.M.6m.0.A, Morecambe Design(er) Priest a Fleetwood Fleetwood Clapham Birkenhead Fleetwood Denmark Gosport = Y.M.6m.0.A., 5S. London Bury Bury Bury … ts Y.M.6m.0.A. Birkenhead Gosport Birkenhead Port Glasgow Ulster Germany Fleetwood France Greenock Fleetwood Fleetwood Fleetwood Fleetwood Fleetwood … Port Glasgow Fleetwood Saltcoats Fleetwood Fleetwood Germany Germany Germany Saltcoats Fleetwood > 100 Moonshine Moonshine 92 77 Priest Highlander After Turner Priest Saxon … a 76 Daniels Leeds & Bradford … ! ais Lewis Lewis after 24 Heats TOTAL Hill sn eve Priest Lewis Roberta Moonshine Priest Nash Priest Priest Ipsen Highlander … “ab Saxon Highlander … os Alexander Littleiohn Turner Arabesque Lewis of Be Corby /Feltwell After Daniels Turner Tulip Nash Turner Ex-Gill Priest Boussy Seri id2 Highlander sa Lewis Moonshine Priest High!ander A, Wright Littlejohn J. Edwards After Daniels R. G, Bailey Parkinson Littlejohn After Priest … After Priest (?) After Priest (?) Priest 80 73 77 87 73 72 77 72 72 73 74 74 65 72 55 55 59 53 62 52 56 51 =f 37 47 40 56 49 47 47 50 178 156 155 151 145 136 135 135 134 134 133 132 129 129 128 120 119 118 115 111 110 109 102 96 95 93 90 89 87 87 82 77 76 aD 71 69 35 68 33 50 26 36 27 48 48 47 30 29 45 42 37 30 18 repaired with an oak plug and the boat was sailing again on Saturday morning. After the end of the Championship, and before the start of the International, in which Highlander was the English representative, a crowd assembled for the prizegiving, and where was Dick? Sailing up and down the lake to ensure that his boat was giving maximum performance! Careful preparation also paid off for Red Gauntlet and Moonshine, second and third placers—incidentally the first time any one club has placed 1, 2, and 3 in the Championship, an event celebrated by a bottle of Moet et Chandon provided by Birkenhead’s Commodore, coincidentally O.0.D. of the 61 race. Both boats had been week for the preceding seven ditions, without fail, to make at its peak. It was a thrilling Moonshine designer, and Ken Withdrawn sailed three times a weeks, under all consure their tuning was week for John Lewis, Jones, who built both boats side by side, not to mention J. O’Connor, who achieved this success after only two seasons of 559 WWOWEL MIANKIER Left, ‘‘Haylie’s’? storm suit had the tiniest jib we’ve seen on an A. Inset, “Red Gauntlet” lifts as she nears planing speed. Right, latest registered boat ‘‘Classic’’? carried away her spinnaker (can just be seen in water)— one of many to suffer minor damage. Below, *‘Moonshine’’ used polyurethane paint and suffered far less abrading than most; one of the German boats opened up and was taped as shown. Few boats escaped. Below, ‘‘Tarpon’’ off on a run against ‘*Germania’’, while ‘“‘Moonraker’? and ‘Moonraker Il” await their turn. Note Peter West is using a flattie spinnaker — at this time the wind was a true reach and caused some head-scratching as_ to what rig to use. Bottom right, N. Fish anxiously awaits ‘“‘Rapture’’, highest placed boat from the home club. last dozen years, it seems that here is still the greatest potential for additional performance. sex.ous racing. Both top designs, incidentally, are in M.M. Plans Service. Also noteworthy is the fact that the next five places went to skippers from clubs “foreign” to Fleetwood, i.e. yachtsmen from inland or Southern clubs who might have been expected to wilt under the ferocious breezes predominating. The results tend to indicate that relatively recent designs are beginning to show some slight superiority over many “classic” models, some of which date back twenty-five years in design if not construction. Shades of future development were to be seen in Kai Ipsen’s sails, undoubtedly superior to most. His mains were cut with tremendous flow, which was controlled by bending the mast; in the winds experienced he was unfortunate in breaking two masts. One of his spinnakers, cut with rather less belly than is usual, was tried on another boat after official sailing had finished for the night, and in the words of several reliable observers, showed “noticeable im- provement”. With all the advances in sails in the The general standard of sailing was, in the opinion of the O.0.D., not quite as high as might have been expected, there being a marked difference between the top few boats—trim, well-found craft, handled well—and some of the lower-placed yachts, some of which were frankly parish-rigged. Disqualifications were, however, low, and general sportsmanship as high as ever, while the number entered is a pretty effective answer to the dismal Jimmies already writing the A class off as a dead duck! The International consisted of three rounds, the first of which was sailed in a moderate westerly wind on the Saturday afternoon and the remaining two on the Sunday in a fresh Northerly wind backing South on West. Final positions were: 1. Highlander 50; 2. Ulster Lass 31; 3. Revanche 24; 4. Gaoth-Nair 23; 5. Miss Grisbi 22. The “Wing and Wing Cup” for the fastest run went to Highlander with a run of 68 secs. 560
