4 members of Gosport MYBC headed up to Fleetwood for the Classic & Vintage Vane Marblehead meet over the weekend of 17/18 May. Derek Morland who was mated by Alistair Colville to sail “Wazp”, a Stan Witty designed boat dating back to 1960 and Wayne Stobbs and Nigel Brown to sail Wayne’s “Skylon, a 1950’s wooden boat of unknown design or provenance.
As normally happens Team GMYBC spent Friday evening talking tactics in various pubs and restaurants around Fleetwood before heading to the lake for the 10am start on Saturday. “Team Tactics” covered many topics, many of them sailing related and some, very few, of those related to Vane M’s…….
The event held annually by Fleetwood MYC is for Vintage and Classic Vane Marblehead’s and the NOR describes the two sub classes as follows:
For the purpose of this event we define “Vintage” as the yachts designed from the inception of the “M” Class rule in the early 1930’s, through to the late 1960’s. During this period it was a class rule that the circumference of a 2” disc must fit between the hull and the garboard. Typical examples of these designs are “Witchcraft”, “Foxtrot” and the many Stan Witty designs such as “Manta”, etc. “Classic” covers early fin and bulb designs, when the 2” garboard arrangement was discontinued, up to circa 1980, e.g. “Blood Axe”, “Reflection”, Bill Sykes “Sula”,etc
Entry was down this year as there were some late withdrawals due to illness and we ended up with 7 Vintage and 3 Classics, down from the usual 15 or so boats. Many of the vintage boats sported their original varnished terylene sails and overall there is very little “modernisation” on all of the boats, most sporting a lot of scars from decades of racing.
As is tradition at these events TOTS were drawn (Teams of 2) and as luck would have it the two entries from Gosport were drawn together.
The wind forecast was for NE moving the NW later in the day which is not ideal for Fleetwood and so the first few heats on Saturday had us running down the lake from the clubhouse end and beating back. After a few heats the wind reversed and we were beating up the lake in strengthening wind and running back, some with spinnakers making for lots of puffing and panting of us old folk trying to keep up with the boats.
Wayne’s Skylon on one of the early beats
At the end of Saturday’s racing with 5 of the 9 heats completed Alan & David Bell held a 4 point lead with a closely packed bunch hot on their heels including Wayne & Nigel just 4 points off the Bells.
Skylon hunting down and eventually overhauling her prey
After a good social at the North Euston on Saturday evening we reconvened at the lake on Sunday to similar conditions. Very light out of the NE which delayed the start a bit but eventually we got going, once again running up the lake for 2 points and beating back for the 3.
David Mathers with his classic “Black Prince” was struggling with his mobility and so handed over the control to Dave Geldard who had come to the lake for a visit. The Bells struggled initially and after the first heat of the day their lead had evaporated so it was all to play for. Wayne and Nigel on the other hand started to turn in some good scores as did Derek and Alistair although they were coming from further back and Black Prince, under the control of Dave Geldard, was on fire.
The penultimate heat of the day had Wazp up against Skylon with Skylon nabbing the run but the beat was another thing altogether. The two boats were very evenly matched close reaching all the way up the lake with perfect trims. There were many close passes and at least 5 changes of lead before the boats eventually touched just yards from the finish while Wasp was in the lead. Rather than trudge all the way up the lake Derek and Wayne opted to leave the resail till the end and do it if it was needed.
Wazp under perfect trim
The wind switched direction and built very quickly and so the final heat of the day was back to the traditional beat up the lake and run back. We all should have considered changing down rigs but by then we were all a bit tired, and spinnakers should not have come into play… but they did.
Skylon heading to the bank under spinnaker
At the end of the 9 heats the scores were totted up and the RO made it quite clear that the resail between Skylon and Wazp needed to take place and that it needed to be done in the same direction on the lake as the original board. As the wind had switched direction we now had to do a run for 3 points. By this time the wind had built significantly but that did not deter Wayne and Nigel who decided to take the risk with the spinnaker.
The boats were very evenly matched, once again straight down the lake with Wazp holding much of the lead and Sylon struggling under spinnaker, death-rolling all the way down the lake. Two thirds down and Wazp started to head up towards the bank while Skylon held her course and took the win and 3 points.
At the prize giving Team Gosport were in the money.
Wayne’s Skylon won the concours d’elegance with 9 of the 10 of the votes (fortunately he did not vote for himself or that would have been embarrassing).
Black Prince sailed by David Mathers and Dave Geldard won the Classic class with 29 points from Peter Iles on a distant 14.5
Wayne and Nigel won the Vintage class and the overall event with 33 points followed by Alan and David Bell on 30. Those 3 points from the resail came in handy.
When all the scores were totted up Team Gosport also won the TOTS.
Now THAT is a set of results for Gosport MYBC.
Huge thanks goes out to the team at Fleetwood. Peter Whiteside who organised everything, Bob Jolly who managed the racing, the two ladies who handled the scoring and of course Uncle Derek Priestly who kept us all in check, as well as all the others behind the scenes and roaming polers.
Unfortunately this event only takes place at Fleetwood once a year. There are so many of these old Marblehead’s around and wouldn’t it be great to see more clubs holding similar events, including Gosport if a slot in the calendar could be freed up.
