NOR - Region 1 AMYA Footy Championship

Footy Class General Discussion (Footy)
1

In two weeks, the Region 1 Footy Championship will be held at Lily Pond in Gilford, New Hampshire. It is hosted by the Laconia Model Yacht Club in the beautiful Lakes Region of New Hampshire.

I hope to see all you New England skippers there. Racing will be around the bouys, and trophies will be presented to the top three skippers.

Bill H

NOTICE OF RACE

Region 1 Footy Championship

Laconia Model Yacht Club Sunday August 26, 2007

Eligibility: Any AMYA registered Footy conforming to class rules may participate in this event. Boat registration will be permitted at the race site for those not registered in advance.

Entry: Any eligible skipper may enter the regatta by emailing Bill Hagerup at billhagerup@hotmail.com or calling 603-284-6642. Please indicate all the frequencies you can use for each boat entered. Payment of the $7.00 entry fee may be made at the regatta.

Measurement: Measurement will be conducted, at the time of registration, on a random basis, as determined by the Class Secretary.
Schedule of Events:

9:00am On-site Registration
10:15am Skippers Meeting
10:30am First Race
3:00pm Awards Ceremony

Races: Conditions permitting we will strive to run 12 races, but 3 races shall constitute a regatta. If time permits, a thirteenth race will be held to allow one throwout. No race shall be started after 2:15pm.

Sailing Instructions - Frequency Assignments: A copy of the Sailing Instructions and frequency assignments.

Regatta Site: The regatta site will be at Lily Pond in Gilford, New Hampshire.

Prizes: Trophies will be awarded for first, second, and third place finishers.

2

Things are looking good for our race on Sunday, but you could make it great!

I put the bouys in last week, the trophies arrived, and I’ll test the course timing Friday or Saturday when I return home from a business trip. Thanks for the suggestions on placement.

We have a few entries from MA and NY, but I haven’t heard from the CT contingent. There’s a number of registered skippers in Connecticut…I’d love to have you come up for the race…Barrett???

The Region 1 Championship will have a good turnout from my Laconia club, along with Scott S, Jim L, Alain J, and a couple maybes (Niel G, Al F??) but I would really love to see some more from MA and CT to get a BIG fleet! It’s never too late to register for the race.

BTW, I spent last weekend at Marblehead, MA for the Vintage M nationals. A great regatta. Jim L was there and brought out his Footy during a lull in the vintage racing. Of course, I had mine in the car, too, so we put on a little Footy show. It got a lot of attention, including that of a reporter from the Boston NPR station. So, of course, I let her sail my Footy! Hopefully, Footys will get some publicity in the program about the vintage race. I’ve attached a pic that Pat B took of me (great shot of my bald spot) talking with the NPR reporter, while Jim talked with AMYA President Pete Maxon (who has a Footy, too.) My wife just sent me a pic of the Footys sailing on historic Redd’s Pond with the vane M boats, so I added that too.

See you at Lily Pond!!

Bill H

3

I found an article on the Vintage M regatta but no mention of Footys yet.
http://www.mineralwellsindex.com/statenews/cnhinsall_story_228235452.html

Good luck on Sunday. I hope you get a big turn out and then we can follow it up with another in Oct here in Raleigh.

4

A quick report…I’ll follow up with pics when I get caught up.

We had 10 boats show up for the Region 1 AMYA Championship. Wind conditions were much stronger than expected…10-15 mph with stronger gusts. Since that’s a lot of wind for us wimps in the USA, most of us were there with the wrong rig. Boats were so overpowered that a few broke during practice, and it was clear that others had too much sail, overpowering the rudder and making consistent control impossible. The two boats I brought fit that category nicely…sigh. I got one race in when the wind calmed a bit Cutlass looked good for a bit, but couldn’t repeat as the wind picked up again.

But what could have been a disatrous day turned out to be interesting and fun. Scott Spacie brought two boats and a variety of his beautiful rigs. He chose to sail a Una Rig, and gave his number two boat to Jim Linville, after the bodkin broke on Jim’s boat. The father and son team of Byron and Paul McKitrick also had boats with rigs that handled the wind, so it became a four boat race.

Midmorning, Byron dropped out with what appeared to be servo problems, so it was down to three. And they sailed beautifully…an inspiration to the rest of us to get busy building some smaller rigs. Scott’s boats are beautifully built, rigged, and balanced. They handled the wind and chop with aplomb. It sure proved what Footys are capable of in the right hands.

By the end of the day, it turned out Scott may have made the wrong choice of boat. The conventional rig on the boat he gave to Jim seemed to handle the chop a bit better than the Una rig, and Jim went on to win the day.

Congratulations to our new Region 1 Footy Champion, Jim Linville. Also to the second place finisher Scott Spacie, and third place winner Paul McKitrick.

Paul felt a bit guilty taking a trophy for what he called last place, but I pointed out that he earned every bit of the trophy by beating 7 other boats. You have to finish to win.

Jim showed a nice bit of sportsmanship by giving the champion chevrons to Scott, saying they should go with the boat. He seemed to be perfectly comfortable keeping the big trophy, though!

Thanks to all who participated. In spite of the dissappointing conditions, it was a good day. We all enjoyed comparing boats, we all learned something, we had a good time…and we’ll do it again next year. Don’t get complacent, Jim…we’ll be back!

Bill H

5

Congratulations to all that attended and a special thanks to Bill for hosting. :zbeer: Sounds like a fine race, even if some boats were a bit overwhelmed. Keep learning and try again next time.

Speaking of next time…Oct 14 is the Rally in Raleigh. I don’t have many entries yet and would like to see a good turnout. Let’s get these boats racing!

6

Sounds like you ran a good event with rather tough conditions. Congratulations to Jim for taking the honours and to everyone else for taking the plunge as it were.

I am looking forward to reading the full report and the photos Bill.

All the best,
Graham

7

Sorry I’m a bit late with the congratulations: I’ve been very busy.

Well done to all and especially to Bill for arranging the event. Given the huge distances in the USA, I’m very impressed by the turnout. Answer to getting more: more Footys. And it snowballs: I’ve registered 12 boats in the UK in the month sinde Gosport with more known to be on the way. I reckon we’ll be up to 150 by Christmas.