Reading Sailing Club

Our Model yacht section meets on Tuesday and Friday mornings. The Reading Sailing Club model section use International One Metre Class (IOM) models.

The final round of the Met and Southern IOM 2011 Championship was held at Reading Sailing Club on 15th October.

With the Indian summer continuing to maintain its grip on the conditions the 17 entries were greeted with an early morning frost, giving way to a bright and warm sunshine. But of course this resulted in light and variable winds being the order of the day.

Race Officer Ron Perkins initially set a standard Olympic course, but this was later modified to a windward/ leeward course to make better use of the light and variable condition. This worked well, as the wind constantly chopped through 180 degrees, and the starts were reversed to suit the wind direction.

Consistency proved to be the requirement for the day, and Peter Popham from 3-Rivers, showed the rest of the fleet how it should be done, scoring only 24 pts for the 12 races, always clean off the start line, and in the leading group round the first mark. In second place was John Male, also of 3-Rivers, holding off a late challenge from Keith Tyson of Eastbourne, who after an indifferent few races to start, found another gear to chase after the 3-Rivers pair.

The prize for the first triple crown went to Chris Brill of Woodley MYC.

2011: Marblehead Open - Reading Sailing club 16th April

Reading SC hosted the third event of this years Marblehead Travellers series ( GAMES 3 ) at their Sonning Lake, Reading.

There were thirteen entries for the event, with 12 boats making the start line.

The weather was more fitting for July than April, with shorts making the occasional breakout in the glorious sunshine. However, whilst the anticyclone covering the country may be fine for trips to the beach, it does not necessarily produce the best conditions for sailing.

The 5 knot southwesterly wind at the start allowed the race officer , Ron Perkins, to set a course using the full length of the sailing area and racing was competitive, if not at full pace, on this course until lunchtime. The early leader after these first six races was Martin Crysell of Guildford, followed by Roger Stollery, Peter Popham and Roy Stevens all struggling to find consistency.

Whilst the skippers enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the sunshine, the wind decided to swing to the north west causing a few headaches for the race officer. It then moved again to the north for a race, before deserting the lake altogether. The final race took over 30 minutes for the leaders, with the back markers being finished on the water. The PRO called a halt after 9 races.

In spite of an impressive afternoon sailing by Roger Stollery, with three bullets, he was unable to catch Martin Crysell, with Hugh McAdoo just pipping Peter Popham for third place, making it a clean sweep for the Guildford skippers.

The racing was keen, but friendly, in the manner that seems to be a characteristic of the Marblehead fleets.

Results

Model Yacht Open Meeting 16th October 2010. Watch it on Youtube. The model yacht section uses International One Metre Class (IOM) boats

RM Inter-Club 3 Open Day report - 2010

The event got under way around 10.15 with a smaller turnout than expected. Light to medium north-easterly winds remained for the day with some sun and rain later on. A triangular course was set with a "sausage" leg, and with the start and finish over the same line.
Of the five entries (down from 10 the previous night!) two were from Reading and the other three from 3Rivers Sailing Club at Rickmansworth. Sixteen races were run with 10 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.
Both Peter Poham (3Rivers) and Tony Brailsford (Reading) sailed consistently well throughout the day with Tony securing first place and Peter in second place. John Male (3Rivers) gained third place.
John Male had to overcome some winch problems and whilst a number of yachts got caught up on the course buoys the recovery boat, being shared with the "dinghy yachtees" doing capsize training, was not required – much to their dismay!
The weather remained fine all day with a short shower in the afternoon. Lunch was about 12.00 and sailing finished around15.00 followed by prize giving of bottles of wine to the first three.

Model Yacht Open Meeting 17th April 2010. Watch it on Youtube.

15 helms took part in the 1 metre class open meeting held at the club on 21st April 2007. Here are some photos of the event.