A Fleet took all 6 of my results and averaged them to produce a score for me in race 1. It did not allow me a discard before averaging.

Other competitors had 2 discards over the 7 races, I had none - which seemed a little unfair. Is there a way of setting things up so that RO averages are worked out to allow discard(s)?

Any guidance appreciated

David

In 1922 there was an active model yachtsman in the London area, Bill Daniels, who challenged “any model yachtsman world wide” to meet him in a race or series of races.  He convinced his friend the editor of the sailing magazine Yachting Monthly, to donate a trophy for this contest and the “Yachting Monthly Cup” annual event was born.  The yachts used for this challenge, which we now know as A class, were built to a formula, devised by the editor and Bill, and was loosely based on the 6 metre rule at a scale of 2 inches to the foot, and produced boats with an overall length limit of 19 feet 6 inches! although most were around 6 feet in length.  The class was called the “Yachting Monthly 6metre”

There was a club founded for this class The YM6mOA (Yachting Monthly 6 metres Owners Association) was founded in 1924, probably by Mr W J Daniels at the Rick Pond in Home Park Surbiton, south London. This club still exists but is now known as Hampton Court MYC. 

The first event was held at Gosport MYC in 1923 and was won by Bill himself sailing a boat he had designed & built for its owner J Scott Freeman a solicitor and keelboat sailor from the Upper Thames YC. Daniels went on to win the next two years securing the YM cup outright for his owner Scott Freeman, who donated the cup to the UTYC for competition in 14 foot dinghys, where it remains to this day.

That could have been the end of the story, except that Yachting monthly very kindly presented a further very grand silver cup in 1926, which cannot be won outright and this trophy is still raced for to this day.

The Yachting Monthly Cup centre.

The Cup was challenged for every year in a similar format to the America’s Cup with the previous winner defending and a new hopeful skipper challenging.  Many Americans challenged unsuccessfully as is reported below from a story in an American Model Yachting publication.

In some articles, John Black, who had represented USA on several occasions, was described as the “Sir Thomas Lipton” of the model yachting world, in that he failed to win the Cup, time after time. According to a later article in Marine Models of 1937, this point was echoed: “a well-known model ”. yachtsman has said that this Cup has caused as much grief to America as the America’s Cup has to England The point being made here is that it was a period (1923–1948) when America would dearly have loved to win; it was by far the biggest challenge in model yachting. A win for Bill Bithell and Fred Pigeon in 1948 on British waters would be momentous indeed. This is just what happened.

The Event continued every year and reached it’s zenith in its 50^th anniversary year, 1973 at  Fleetwood  when 56 competitors raced for the MYA National Championship and 13 boats from 8 nations challenged for the YM cup.

As time passed interest in the A class fell but the National Championship survived and celebrated it’s centenary in 2023 at Gosport. Although the large number of entries are a thing of the past, there are a dedicated number of about 20+ boats racing each year with many 2 & 3 generational families taking part.

The 2^nd YM Cup which celebrates it’s own centenary this year is still raced for, although not in it’s original challenge format.  In 1986 as overseas entries dried up,  the event was changed to a knock out competition held on the Wednesday of the Championship week, and was won the first time by a boat from Portugal!

The Fleetwood club, the centenary hosts look forward to welcoming as many boats as possible to the centenary celebration regatta. 

Derek Priestley

President 

Fleetwood MYC  & MYA

New airbnb house on Fleetwood promenade half mile from lake. 47 the Esplenade.

5 bedrooms

3 bathrooms

spectacular sea views from Gin & Tonic balcony

Recently tested & approved by Gosport MYC classic & vintage marblehead sailors!!

John

Sadly Ian Vickers passed away today holding his daughter hand.  
What an incredible talent, what an amazingly nice person.  He will be missed by us all. 

Trying to get my head around how a skipper scoring 3 x 1sts and 1 x 5th placing out of a possible four results can be placed behind another skipper counting an 8,8,9,12 as their best results?

I see no problem with a Nationals having an increased scoring weighting but feel the recent introduction completely misses the mark and ignores the Australian system weighting that the MYA based theirs on from the outset.

That an individual Ranking event winner will score less points than a 25th place at a Nationals takes a baseball bat to a system designed to choose the best ranked skippers for International events.

I would be interested to hear the logic on the changes and how they will better encourage ranking event participation.

As for the volunteers giving their extended time, why do they not enjoy the increased weighting?

At HRYC, as bosun, we have 2 E motors that anyone can use and jump into the recovery inflatable with external battery, and a small Honda petrol with kill cord and the lake we are based on, requires RYA Powerboat 2 for this engine.

Question

We would love to hear your views on which E engine your club uses, or has used and works well so when we come to replace we have some valid opinions from other clubs.

Clearly the replacement must be…

1 affordable

2 practical for a large open lake (but when windy petrol used)

3 that other clubs are using and is recommended

your views and replies very welcome…. Either personal or from a club.

Yours

Stephen

Bosun Brown.

• On circular booms ~5-11mm dia., for measuring foot depth (e.g. IOM/DF95/DF65). 

• Against the mast, to measure gap to jib boom ("3 fingers" is a subjective measurement!)

• Against the backstay, to measure leech twist.

• Measurements can be taken between inside-edge(s) if you prefer, or the V underside allows for measuring from the centreline regardless of spar diameter. (Just add/subtract radius if necessary). 

Happy to hear any ideas for improvements.
A variation to sit on SAILSetc rectangular boom could certainly be done - the relative dimensions just don't allow a one-fits-all.

The g-code file is offered for free, but please don't make/sell for profit. If you find it useful then a modest donation to https://prostatecanceruk.org/ would be kind.

Thanks in advance

Derek P.

I understand that there have been a few comments posted on Face Book.

I do not use Face Book and have not directly read the posts, but am responding here to what I have heard.

So firstly I apologise if I have been misinformed, but here goes.

I don't understand why our Sail Makers appear to be looking for problems and not solutions.

My article was not about 'IHC In House Certification' or getting around the rules.

As I understand it, IHC is where a company directly employs its own sail measurer.

An independent MYA measurer, measuring a clients suit of sails, is working for the purchaser, not the sail maker.

If a sail maker is concerned about conflict of interest or liability, then they could stipulate, that the customer phones the measurer and asks them to measure sails.

Where they are measured is irrelevant. The sails have to be measured somewhere.

There are no additional costs for the Sail Maker, other than to update web sites to include the option, to buy pre measured sails.

The independent MYA measurer is paid by the purchaser separately to the cost of the sails.

The sail maker has no input in the process other than to pass the clients payment to the measurer (even that could be avoided by bank transfer between client and measurer)

and to ship the measured sails to the happy customer.

For One Design classes, why are we complicating , what is such a simple process?

Dimensioned for an IOM, with 11mm mast and 1.6mm linking rod.

The inner piece is intended for also helping to check angle equality after-the-fact, when shrouds are already installed in the tips and so can overhang the ends of it. [Unsure of the best width vs. 'discrimination of angles' for that - tried to aim for narrow enough to suit typical B rig on a typical narrow hull....]

I have received my MYA Digital Year Book today and first impressions is, I like it.

Fresh, bright and informative so well done to team MYA for this new year book. If you don’t mind, I would like to show the example to my US colleagues.

Regards

JT

MYA: Yearbook

After my sailing today ruled out by ice, I was wondering if anyone has looked at designing a 3d-printed ice skid assembly (to slot into the keel box of, say, a df65)? It might end up being the future of MYA lol

Sending my very best Christmas good wishes to all from an unusually sunny Fleetwood!!

May your sailing be good & may you hit every shift correctly in 2026.

Derek Priestley

President.

After attending the AGM and jumble sale, I came away feeling quite disappointed. The MYA make a huge effort to organise this every year, and the traders dutifully turn up with their goodies to show and sell. There were some amazing bargains on offer from brand new boats to RMG winches at half price. Yet the members that did turn up were only interested in parting with a pound or two here and there.

Personally this has cost us two days out of our production facility, and £200 in accommodation and fuel. I know others went to huge effort to bring their boats and rigs to the event with nothing to show for it.

Another disappointment was observing members turning up, having a Quick Look round, then sitting down to eat the free lunch, and leaving while the jumble sale was still in full swing, not bothering to stay for the AGM. I personally didn’t eat as by the time I had finished and packed up, most of the food had gone.

I always like to support the MYA AGM, and another observation was that most of the members in attendance were the regulars that you see every year.

This brings me to these questions:

Do we need a jumble sale or trade show at the AGM if it’s attended by pretty much the same members each year ?

Should the AGM and jumble sale be in an area where some of the bargains to be had might be more appreciated .

Should it be in a more central location, like it used to be.

Your thoughts please.

Nigel Brown.

Today one of our Skippers turned up with a RC Laser! As a club our base classes are IOM & Marblehead, since the pandemic hit the UK  we have mainly sailed IOM's as currently not many of our members own Marblehead's.

The question is can anyone assist with setup info as when I took a turn at the helm the boat was not balanced and I did not really know where to start as mast rake does not appear to be adjustable. I presume that sail camber and leach twist have to be right to obtain a controllable yacht. Any tips on starting settings for these and boom offset would be appreciated.

Absolutely hated sailing the Laser, have to assume a well setup version would possibly change my opinion! 

Appreciate any help as I know a few clubs sail only this class so I cannot believe they are as bad as this one appeared to be. Any info web sites would be also helpful.

Regards Eric 

Back in the 1970’s David Hollom, donated the “Champions Cup” for competition amongst the class Champions in Radio sailing. . Invitations were initially extended to all National & District Champions and later when the Ranking lists were introduced ther were used to select the invitees.

The event held over 2 days with day 1, 2 boat Match racing, and day 2 fleet racing and the scores combined to find the winner.

Initially the Marblehead was used successfully for many years, and later the event was sailed in the IOM class.

Interest from sailors fell away, and the event has not been held for several years.

Readers of the Yachts & Yachting website will have seen the report of the recently held Endeavour Trophy, (Champion of Champions) in the Dinghy world.

This annual invitation only event was held as usual at the Burnham on Crouch YC and for the first time for several years, all boats were supplied and were all the same Melges 15 Dinghys. None of the Champion entrants had the chance to sail the boats before the Friday of the event.

It occurred to me that we in the radio sailing world could attempt to revive our “Champions Cup” by adapting a similar approach using one of our “out of the box” classes, Laser, DF95 or the new up coming IOM “Mint” from Joysway.

So is now the time to bring this once very popular event back?

I like the new layout of this forum. I havent gone round all the pages yet but first impressions are very positive.

If there are any new features, please can someone provide a brief discription of the changes.

Regards

JT👍

Gary

Way back then I put in quite a bit of detail about how the boat was built, but sadly the website lapsed and the boat stayed in the attic for many years. Recently I found that I could host the website on github, so I am pleased to announce that the boat and website are back.

https://kwikius.github.io/kwiki/Kwiki/uber_frame.htm

Video of the boat at recent Mini40 meeting at Gosport ( Kwiki can be seen sailing at the end)  

I recently joined the RC section of Whitefriars sailing club in Cotswolds Water Park and it turns out the lake there is perfect for model multihulls and since Whitefriars is such a great water and with great facilities, I am tentatively putting proposing an event there along the lines of a "Marvelous concoction" sailing event, to include all those weird and wonderful "out of class" experimental speed models, as well as multihulls, hydrofoils, proas,  etcetera. Would have to have a speed course, as well as round the cans racing, and maybe other prizes. The only solid rule so far is that the model cannot be powered by anything other than wind as Whitefriars doesn't allow power boats ( except for full size safety boats!)

If you are interested in participating in such an event and have suggestions as to categories and classes, please let me know below.

regards
Andy

I came across these on the old internet sold mainly on fishing shop sites and wondering if anybody use these as we are RC sailer there a chance to fall in the water?

I sail at Weecher and have not done a full year yet and have experience most weather conditions already.

Any thoughts