Vane A National Championship, first day, Sunday 31st July 2016, at Gosport Model Yacht and Boat Club.

In from Mervyn Cook of Gosport MYBC

19 boats are entered for this year’s Vane A Event, including 7 designs by John Simpson, 6 by Bill Sykes, 4 by Dave Hollom, 1 by Roger Stollery and 1 by Graham Bantock.  Displacements vary between 27.5 lbs and 46 lbs.  There are 5 boats newly launched this year, three of which didn’t see the water until the Saturday practice day.  Today’s breeze started light and fitful, oscillating between the north and the south-west and often doing all of those in the same board!  By the afternoon it was a little more settled, and stronger, at a good top suit maximum and making spinnaker runs exciting.  Despite that the lightweights didn’t have it all their way in the lighter winds, and similarly the heavyweights found them-selves beaten by the good lightweights in the strong and gusty afternoon sea-breeze.

Five heats were sailed in the day, and at close of play the top boat, with 23 points, were Peter Fothergill and Andy Fernie’s lightweight Hollom.  Second with 17 points were Nigel and George Sharp sailing a heavyweight Sykes, and third was Alan Bells superlight Simpson.  There were only five points between second and ninth!  Tomorrow’s forecast is for stronger underlying breezes, so it’ll continue to be a fascinating show-case for the closeness of racing between the varieties of designs this wonderful class has made possible.

Current Standings:

1^st         Peter Fothergill and Andy Fernie  23 points

2^nd     Nigel and George Sharp  17 points

3^rd     Alan Bell    17 points

4^th     David Bell and Margaret Bell  16 points

5^th     Mark Dicks  15 points

5^th     Shaun Wyeth and Graham Wyeth  15 points

5^h      Lewis Wyeth and Ray Baker 15 points

8^th     Robert Bell  14 points

9^th     Rob Vice and C.J. VIce 12  points

9^th     Jacque Cook and Eric Meighen 12 points

11^th   Malcolm Eales and Paul Edwards 11 points

12^th   Martin Roberts and Simon Clarke  10 points

12^th Rob Walsh and Tomas Walsh 10 points

14^th Anthony Warren and Lester Gilbert 8 points

14^th Arjan van der Cingel and Eric van der Cingel 8 points

16^th Peter Whiteside and Steve Poole 7 points

16^th Damian Ackroyd and John Bush 7 points

18^th Derek Priestley joint skipper with John Brooks 6 points

19^th Dave Geldard and CJ Vice 2 points

More as we get it.