Southwater & Clevedon GOOD NEWS

Footy Class General Discussion (Footy)
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Footy Captain’s ~ John Cadenhead has advised us that the next Footy open sailing event was due to have been the Cadenhead Trophy meeting at Southwater on September 28th. Unfortunately, due to the likelihood of them not being able to get enough people together to run this event on that particular day, it has been decided to reschedule the event to 30th November. Sorry for any confusion this may cause, but on the bright side, not so many of you will be on holiday at that time. The NOR and Entry Forms will be sent out in early November.

Ok now the Exceptionally GOOD NEWS.
Now that you have a free Sunday, Mike Mayhew, Chairman of Clevedon & District Model Boat Club, is very eager to take up the space and is prepared to help with the event with some of the member’s assistance as well!!! Thank you Mike

Even Better News ~ He has also said that he would like Clevedon to be a regular event in the Footy calendar. So I believe this is a wonderful chance to come and try out the lake and experience the clubs hospitality.

Footy’s are starting to become popular with local club members who are fascinated by their size and performance. Members have also invited Lawrence Hartley and I to display models at the Clevedon Festival and have also asked me to give a talk on Footy’s and Bottle boats at the clubs meeting in October.

I do hope you support me with your turn out to this event?
I have already had confirmations from a number of Footy Captains so this has the makings of a good day even more so with the excellent facilities by the lake.

Clevedon is reasonably close to most of you and very close to motorway connections being beside the M5.

All the usual details will be sent out as soon as I can get them typed up – Please put Clevedon in your diaries for 28th September.
Best wishes

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We were guests of Clevedon MBC and sailed on Clevedon’s large, enclosed, saltwater pond at the foot of the sea wall.

The five skippers competing arrived in the mist of the early morning fog, admired the patient herring gulls and waited for the sun to burn through, which it duly did to produce a pleasant but very light breeze at about half past ten.

We were to enjoy what turned out to be immensely cheerful, sometimes extremely funny day, but tense, my goodness how tense towards the end when one point separated the leading skippers with one race to go! It was just the best sort of Footy racing.

The first race took an hour, then the breeze firmed up and fourteen races which followed saw the breeze increase steadily until one or two of us were looking a little askance the big rigs chosen for the day. Trevor Thomas sailing his McCormack rigged Mistralette lead the way in the early races until Charles Smith’s swing rigged Stollery Ant came into its own and began a long winning streak which saw very close tacking at the wing mark. Trevor responded with sail adjustment s which pulled Mistralette a fraction closer to the wind, and began to take back the places.

Finally there was one point between the leading boats with two races to go.
A win for Thomas in the first of them; one to go.

The race officer was counting off fifteen second starts in the light breeze, cleverly calling in the boats like the starter at Aintree.
Trevor slipped out to windward at the top end of the line in the perfect position on the short course and the race was won: Trevor Thomas first Charles Smith second, John Birnie consistently third sailing a nicely prepared one design followed by Andy Trewin sailing his fascinating and innovative bottle boat, and finally Lawrence Hartley who had worked so hard to prepare his modified, una rigged 507 the day before, and began to put in better and better performances to the delight off all the skippers.

We did pause the racing mid afternoon so that Alistair Trewin (12) could rescue Lawrence’s 507 that had suffered a switch failure and a minor slip by Lawrence into the water trying to retrieve it! Alistair demonstrated excellent boat handling skills with his V12 to recover Lawrence’s boat – Well done Alistair!

So a cheerful day hosted by the Clevedon MBC turned out very well. All our thanks go to Race Officer Allan Durward who had a great feel for the conditions and to the team lead by Mike Mayhew who laid the marks and looked after us all day.

Our thanks also to Andy Trewin whose initiative this was (he also organised and endless and welcome supply of coffee and tea with the local inn) and to Trevor Thomas who looked after the NORs as usual.

Footynote: This sort of venue is wonderful for Footy racing because the public becomes so involved, sailing the boats in the breaks and cheering on of one boat or the other during the races by the bystanders.

Great publicity for Footys and for Clevedon MBC

Words by AndyT & Charles Smith – Photos courtesy of Andrew Petty and Tiffany Trewin

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This sounds like my kind of Footy racing! Count me in in future

Thanks for the account and the photos - looks idyllic
Are there any larger pics stashed somewhere?

Well done all the participants, sounds like you all won:D
andrew

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Andrew - we had a ball, I even laid on trophy’s for 1st 2nd and 3rd places.

We all felt sorry for Lawrence - but then he only got wet 1/2 way up <Snigger> and it was very warm

Afterwards, Charles Smith was very kind in giving Lawerence & I a master class in SHhhhhhhwwwweps calculations in the pub afterwards. If nothing else the day was worth it just for that!

Sorry i do not have a photo repository like you

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Andrewh,

Clevedon certainly was a good event. We were all a bit aprehensive at the start as you could only just see the far side of the lake because of the mist. I didn’t photograph the actual effect but the computer edited piccy below gives you an idea. Then, at about 10:30 I looked up and was presented with the next piccy. I’m afraid my little compact camera doesn’t do it justice at all. It then stayed like this all day - what a backdrop - I expect the local take it for granted :rolleyes:

With the generally low winds the racing was slow but tense. Poor Lawrence had no luck at all - his boat just wasn’t tuned for the drifting conditions. Andy T faired a little better with his Bottle going quite well down wind but wasn’t too keen on the tacks or into the wind. John Birnie got 2nds and the rest 3rds - Charles got 7 1sts, 6 2nds and 2 3rds whilst I got 8 1sts, and 7 2nds. The last race was an all or bust affair between Charles and myself. Charles was in the lead into the last mark, but went wide and I managed to dive through the inside. Then, inexplicably, Charles cut back too sharply and got tangled up at the mark itself. One day someone is going to get a heart attack at one of these meetings.

The effect of the sea wall was very much the same as a Ha-Ha at an old country house - it made it feel just as if we were sailing at the edge of the sea itself. The passers-by seemed, in the main, very interested. Indeed, some of them were very knowledgeable about sailing. I guess this is what comes of living near the sea.

Another Grand Day Out as Wallis would say.

Cheers,

firstfooty

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Trevor i owe you an appology - i had forgotton that you had taken sone of the photos
Rgds
AndyT