Ranelagh Sailing Club 

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DeMay Vintage Merlins June 14th 2008

Just 6 boats turned out Saturday with only one visitor and a couple of moonlighters. On a sunny morning with a gentle NW wind the river at Putney was a fine place to be and it’s a shame more competitors couldn’t make the trip. The 10.30 start meant just one race with the tide turning at 12.15 and quite a bit of water still coming down the river.

All boats got away cleanly on the down tide/up river start, early leader Jon Holroyd with crew Jane Rusbatch having their first sail in a Club Merlin, Joker. They were followed by Christopher Edwards with Thomas Stolper in Scoobee Doo and Andy Harris/Phil Plumtree in Merlin’s Moon though the latter rounded the up-river mark right on the tail of Holroyd, Edwards holding 3^rd. Ben Marshall and John Wilkey in Fat Marce were locked in battle with Mervyn Allen and Lora Stock in Keto leaving Ranelagh Commodore, Nick Price with his daughter Catherine as tail end Charlies after the first beat. Spinnakers were universally deployed on the first run with Holroyd dropping back to 3^rd behind Edwards and Harris as they passed Craven Cottage. Ben Marshall held a slender lead over Mervyn Allen and Nick Price but the gap between them and the leaders was closing as the run approached the leeward mark opposite the Club. Edwards still led from Harris with the other 4 boats arriving at the mark 4 abreast. A bit of trouble with the spinnaker drop left the Prices firmly last again and the boats set off on the beat up river. Allen, Marshall and Price all got ahead of Holroyd on this beat but some nifty work at the mark saw Holroyd up to 4^th after the rounding. As on the first lap, the fleet closed up again with dramatic results. The crews were searching desperately for wind on different gibes, out in the stream and by the bank.  Leaders at the mark were Holroyd/Rusbatch having snuck up from 4^th. Edwards/Stolper followed with Harris/Plumtree 3^rd, the last three boats rounding line abreast yet again just a minute later. With just one lap to go, Holroyd maintained his lead at the next mark from Edwards with Marshall/Wilkey up to 3^rd and Harris/Plumtree 4^th from Allen and Price. These positions stayed pretty constant with the fleet all together apart from Holroyd who was enjoying a comfortable 3 minute lead after nearly 90 minutes of racing. The last 5 however were all within a minute of each other at the bell and the new Vintage handicaps were to play a part in the final places, Ben Marshall dropping from 3^rd to 5^th and Christopher Edwards dropping from 2^nd to 3^rd, the beneficiary being Nick Price who went from 5^th on the water to 2^nd overall in Diabolo. A fine win for Jon Holroyd and Jane Rusbatch recovering from last place half way through the race to win by 3 minutes. The final gap between 2^nd and 5^th on handicap was just 61 seconds, same places on the water, 68 seconds.

Report Nick Price

1^st Joker 1993, Jon Holroyd/Jane Rusbatch, Ranelagh SC (100)
2^nd Diabolo 214, Nick Price /Cat Price, Ranelagh SC (100)
3^rd Scoobee Doo 2444, Christopher Edwards/ Thomas Stolper, Ranelagh SC (98)
4^th Merlin’s Moon 2406, Andy Harris/ Phil Plumtree, Ranelagh Sc (99)
5^th Fat Marce 2529, Ben Marshall/john Wilkey, Minima YC (98)
6^th Keto  799, Mervyn Allen/ Lora Stock Ranelagh SC (99)

MERLIN ROCKET SILVER TILLER APRIL 6th 2008 Photos

Report to follow 9/4/08

RTYC MERLIN ROCKET AUTUMN TROPHY 11th November 2007

November 11^th followed a week of strong winds with the promise of an abating wind in the afternoon but it wasn’t to be. A gust just before the start of 27MPH was a warning that Mother Nature followed up on and a good if shifty wind ensued for the duration of the race, rounded off with Putney’s own version of the floods of the past week.

4 home boats and 8 visitors took to the water for the 57^th Anniversary of the first race for the Graham Donald Trophy, won in the past 4 times each by Jack Holt and John Harris, 3 times by Brian Southcott and John Stokes. All boats save the author, over the line by 3 seconds, got away to a good start with a beat to the windward mark at Crabtree on the Middlesex side and a long spinnaker run back to a mark above the Club house also on the Middx side. Unfortunately the forecast NW wind shifted somewhat East of North once you got back past Craven Cottage which left a bit of a shadow down that bank. There were a couple of first broach/lap capsizes on the run from Prologue/Onions dropping them to the back of the fleet, Mojo capsizing the following lap.  A number of boats crossed early to the Surrey side on the first lap but the field bunched up again as the mark was approached with William Warren getting a small but significant lead as he came back past the Club to start the second lap, Andy Harris led 4 boats all within 12 seconds of each other with 3 more following in the next minute.  After the gybe mark second time around The Black Pearl still led with Ranelagh member Chris Whitehouse, crewed by Ellie Bremer holding second from Mike Stephens and Andy Harris. These three continued to shadow Warren but couldn’t get the gap down to less than a minute and at the start of the second lap Mike Stephens was second from Chris Whitehouse and Andy Harris. The rest of the field was a bit more spread out with a 2 minute gap to Tosh in Headcase and Phil Plumtree in Splatter, the first vintage boat.  Positions were unchanged through the 3^rd and 4^th laps except that Andy Harris and Sara Warren started a late run moving up to 3^rd and finally 2^nd on the last lap. At the end of 1hr and 40 minutes Will & Chris Robinson had won by nearly 5 minutes from Andy Harris with Mike Stephens 3^rd and Chris Whitehouse 4^th. Report:-Nick Price

Prizes were presented by Margaret Stokes, RTYC member and honorary life member MROA

1^st The Black Pearl            William Warren /Chris Robinson             Shoreham SC
2^nd Millie                         Andy Harris/Sara Warren                      Tamesis
3^rd Aloha                          Mike Stephens/ Andy Douglas               Tamesis
4^th Boing Went Zebedee    Chris Whitehouse / Ellie Bremer             Ranelagh SC

1^st Vintage(5^th)   Splatter    Phil Plumtree/ James Warren                 Tamesis

Video by Richard Tolkien, 1st time with camera and on his own in safety boat!
The video does not seem to be playing on Windows Vista but is OK on XP?
Curious because it was made on Vista! link here is to a shorter version . Nick
 

Photos have been moved to another page.

Vintage Merlins June 2007

Lukas Kolff sailing a Merlin for the first time

Just two visitors turned up for this event to compete against the six home boats on a day where the forecast was for showers, thunderstorms and a light South Westerly wind. All of the above duly arrived at different times and the first race was delayed 20 minutes as a large black cloud passed by, grumbling as it went. The 1^st race finally started with a beat up the Fulham bank to the first mark short of Putney Bridge. Lukas Kolff in Merlins Moon made a strong start, leading at the first two marks but was overtaken before the end of the lap by Christopher Edwards in Phantom Spinner who went on to win after 1.5 laps and 45 minutes, much of which was spent going backwards as the wind stayed light. Mike Stephens of Tamesis, sailing Flinkidink for the first time, came through the field to take a good second place 7 minutes behind Christopher. Old boat handicaps were used but no places changed hands in the first race as a result. After a short break, race two started, trhankfully with better wind and this time a reach with the tide to a buoy at Crabtree, a mile up the river towards Hammersmith, after which there was a difficult beat against wind and tide back past Craven Cottage to a buoy just above the start line. Mike Stephens quickly established a lead from Christopher as the latter lost his way and Nick Price in Mojo narrowly held 2^nd place at the start of the 2^nd lap, keeping that to the leeward mark before dropping back into a hard fight for 3^rd place with Mervyn Allen in Keto and Ben Marshall in Fat Marce. The bell sounded at the end of the 2^nd lap after just over an hours sailing with Mike Stephens winning by nearly 3 minutes from Christopher. Finishing 3^rd on the water for Mojo was not enough to take 3^rd overall from Keto in the 2 race series, Ben Marshall, visiting from Minima YC taking 5^th.

^{1st Mike Stephens / Andrew Stephens - Flinkidink 1097
2nd Christopher Edwards / Robin Huber - Phantom Spinner 2744
3rd Mervyn Allen / Charlie Morgan - Keto 799
4th Nick Price / Cat Price - Mojo 2134
5th Ben Marshall / John Wilkey - Fat Marce 2529}

Ranelagh Merlin Rocket Trophy February 18^th 2007

 Parking can cost you the race! 

First sailed for in 1946 and won by Beecher Moore, the Ranelagh Trophy has seen most of the great Merlin names engraved on it since then. With light winds forecast and a heavy tide just 10 Merlins from 5 Clubs made it to the starting line. With the wind veering from East to South East or dropping off altogether at times it was always going to be a slow business beating against the Spring tides. Most got away cleanly having launched well upstream and first to the bottom mark were Duncan Salmon and Richard Page, a further gaggle of 6 boats squeezing round just after these two. At first it was an easy reach back but as the river turned the tacking started and the 4 most proficient finally got away from the chasing bunch with Salmon and Mike Stephens rounding the windward mark ahead of Richard Page and Stuart Jenkins. There was then a big gap of 20 minutes before the chasing pack arrived in a second fleet. By this time the tide was still 20 minutes away from it’s high and already well over the embankment where Duncan Salmon had parked his car. Stopping by the railings he leapt out and moved the car coming back in time to rejoin just a few positions down. Mike Stephens in the resplendent, newly refurbished Luka couldn’t believe his luck and pressed on to finally take the bell just 10 seconds ahead of Duncan in Smoked Salmon and Restless IV (3 time winner of this race in the 60’s) and Ella.

Merlin Rocket RTYC Open Meeting 2006

Competitors were greeted with a clear crisp morning with light winds for this years RTYC Autumn Trophy on Sunday 19th, also the the last in the River Thames Series. The fleet got away to a clean start, with the tide pushing them up to the line, and the first beat upstream to Hammersmith Bridge. Rob Wilder moved through the fleet to take the lead and pull away from Tosh and Pat Blake, with Mike Stephens chasing hard.

The leading group stretched out through the second lap and broke away from the rest of the fleet. With the tide slackening going into the third lap the leaders began to close up, with Pat Blake taking Tosh on the final leg up the river, and all boats closing up coming back past Fulham football ground. Wilder seemed comfortably in the lead, however Blake was closing hard and managed to find some wind in the middle of the river to pip Wilder on the line and take the day's trophy. However, Wilder had done enough this year to win the overall River series.

Another great days racing was rounded off with customary Ranelagh hospitality, and the prize-giving for both the Autumn Trophy and River Thames Series.
Report: Andy Jones

                Merlin-Rocket Open Meeting.  Ranelagh Sailing Club, 26^th Feb 2006.

            A cold and blustery greeting was in store for the 18 Merlin-Rocket teams that made it to the first open meeting of the

            60^th anniversary year, fittingly at  Putney, where it all began. Five home boats were joined by boats from most

            of the other Thames clubs, and a few others besides.  Perhaps  because of the forecast, several previous winners

            of Ranelagh meetings weren’t present including Bomber Harris, Duncan Salmon and Colin Brockbank.  Nevertheless,

            there was a healthy distribution of river talent in the assembled fleet.

            One race was scheduled with the turning mark about a mile from the Ranelagh line.  A healthy incoming tide plus the

            huge variation in wind speeds around the course made for some interesting tactics, both sailing and surviving.  The early

            pace was determined by the group of boats that were somewhere in the vicinity of the line as the gun went. 

            Many were concerned about the strong tide and a large lull with 2 minutes to go prevented them from being on the

            start line.  The Hywel Perkins’, reunited in the windy conditions, Will Rainey/Rachel Williamson and

            Phil Plumtree/Ellie Bremer were in the leading group at the end of lap one, with a gaggle of others hot on their transoms.  

            This being Ranelagh though, the race was far from over!

            Plumtree/Bremer in 1631, Splatter did a good job of holding off the newer opposition in the tricky conditions, but

            gradually the more modern kit managed to overtake them.  At the end of lap two Rainey/Williamson and

            Rob Wilder/Alex Jackson had broken away from the rest of the fleet, with Antony/Frances Gifford and

            Judith Massey/Chairman Williamson leading the hunt.  The Giffords’ performance in the race was highly commendable,

            having only recently purchased a Merlin, but their years of experience of sailing National 12s at similar venues was

            standing them in good stead.  At the next turning mark however, Mr and Mrs Chairman’s charge came to an
            abrupt halt as they capsized in a huge gust whilst hoisting their spinnaker.  This enabled Mrs Chairman’s usual crew,

            Phil Dalby, steering his in-laws’ boat, to overtake his helm.  Now the race was really on!  By this point

            Wilder/Jackson had taken the lead and weren’t in the mood to give it up.

            The close racing continued with places being swapped all around the track.  In the end Wilder/Jackson won convincingly

            from Rainey/Williamson who played a final joker in the last 150 yards to just hold out Dalby/Downham. 

            Massey/Williamson nearly snuck ahead at the last when everyone thought they had been left for dust and the Giffords

            completed the top five.  Mike Stephens overtook Splatter in the last lap – a burst of speed possibly prompted by seeing

            on the previous lap how far up the wheels of his car the tide had come!                                                

            Chris Downham