Competitors from seven clubs were subjected to foul weather with heavy rain and a cold and strong northerly wind at the start of the second 2008 MYA Marblehead ranking event at Guildford MYC’s Abbey Meads lake. However the rain eventually eased off and the wind blew even harder straight down the lake giving superb sailing conditions over a long triangle and sausage course. Sixteen races were sailed.

Full area rigs were soon abandoned for smaller rigs, as control down wind became difficult. There was plenty of spray and rudders in the air, as boats were pushed to their limit. Flat-out planing speeds created excitement on every offwind leg in the 18-25 mph winds. There were an unusual number of rescues required as boats suffered entanglements, rig and gear failure.

John Cleave reinforced his reputation for winning the first race by doing it again! He couldn't stop Mark Dennis winning in the increasing wind conditions and finished second in Race 2. Peter Stollery was the first to change down to a smaller C2 rig and it paid off, as he won the next 4 races from Mark Dennis and Roy Stevens in Race 6.

After lunch it blew harder and Roy sailing his ‘Starkers’ with beautiful new BG sails won the next 2 races from Mark and Peter. As the winds were the strongest of the day, well over 20mph with much stronger gusts, Peter changed down again to win Races 9 and 10 from Martin Crysell and Roy. The latter went on to win Race 11 from Peter, who had started badly, but picked the right shifts to get to the first windward mark in the lead only to hit it and drop back again. However he made no mistakes in the next 3 races winning from Roy, Graham Bartholomew and Mark, utilising the ‘Crazy Tube’s swing rig power, tacking downwind on the offwind legs.

Race 15 was won by John Cleave, who made the best start and was never challenged. In the final race it was Mark sailing his deep finned ‘Prime Number’ who started well, never made any mistakes and won from Graham, sailing another ‘Prime Number’.

Despite the rain and the cold everyone thoroughly enjoyed racing these light narrow super-fast boats at their maximum speeds. The prizegiving was unusual in that the 8 prizes including for the winning boats, furthest travelled, last etc matched those who were still sailing in the last race! Prize winners thanked the Guildford MYC team for running another good event.

The Club used the MYA web entry system for the first time. It worked well and is recommended for those clubs running open events. There are many benefits, the best being that the host club gets the full details of the entries. If you would like to try it contact MYA IT guru, Richard Rowan, who will be only be too pleased to help you set this up for club open events on the MYA events calendar.

1st Peter Stollery Guildford 'Crazy Tube Too' 17, 2nd Roy Stevens Killingworth 'Starkers Cubed' 35, 3rd Mark Dennis Chelmsford 'Prime Number' 44, 4th Graham Bartholomew Chelmsford 'Prime Number' 46, 5th Martin Crysell Guildford ‘Rok’ 47, 6th John Cleave Ryde ‘Skalpel’ 57, 7th Vernon Appleton Chelmsford ‘Monarch’ 89, 8th Craig Humphries Leicester 'Roar Edge' 101, 9th Alf Reynolds Chelmsford 'Paradox' 136, 10th Martin Houlton Solent 'Constellation' 151, 11th Peter Crisp Swanley ‘Starkers Cubed’ 165, 12th Paul Midgley Guildford 'Crazy Tube Too' 171, 13th David Croom Chelmsford 'Starkers Cubed' 178, 14th Mark Mortimore Guildford 'Roar Edge' 187.