Etherow Model Boat club

 Model Yacht Racing

Report by John Berry

EMBC is still racing model yachts on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays starting around 9 am to avoid the rush at the park. We also have some members sailing later in the afternoon on the same days.

The most popular classes are International One Metres (IOM), Canterbury J Class and Fiestas.

We also have a few DF65s which are similar to the Fiestas and probably easier to get hold of.

A few of us have travelled to Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club to take part in their series racing and to get some tips from their list of national and world champion sailors.

Last weekend I lent one of my boats to Martin Roberts (Housemartin Sails) asking him to tweak it for me, I think he just put the sails on and won 8 out of ten races sailed. 

I cannot blame the boat anymore. 

I did manage to win one of the races with my other boat but generally I was at the back of the fleet.

Martin borrowed a Lintel MMX and I sailed a Viper both made by Dave Creed and rigged by myself with Housemartin sails.

Over last winter I completed 5 of the 6 races in the Northern District IOM winter series finishing 9th out of 43 entries, the high position was mainly down to a lot of competitors not entering enough of the race days. The racing was good and as a newcomer to the sport I felt very welcome. My highlight was winning one race when the wind blew up a bit and I changed to a smaller sail when other boats were struggling to round the marks with bigger rigs. In the next few races the wind dropped and I did not have time to change up and subsequently lost out big time.

The clubs I travelled to were Birkenhead, Fleetwood, Ripon, Rotherham and Askern. I did not go to Scarborough and Keighley was cancelled because of the weather.

The Fiesta racing series is still on going on the third Sunday of each month the placings at the moment are as follows:-

Trevor Redford 8 points  3 wins

John Berry 8 points  2 wins

Dave Lee 16 points

Ken Jones 19 points

Dave Percy 24 points

Andy Spencer 25 points

Terry 31 points

Phil Davies 31 points

Steve Toulson 38 points

Arthur 43 points

Phil Davies sailed a DF65 with a A rig at the last race and finished mid fleet.

We are still sailing with a maximum of 6 sailors on the landing stage with rotation as required on the day. We will not turn anybody away, however they may have to wait for a short time for a slot to become available

John Berry