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2009 Ranelagh Merlin Trophy June 6th 2009
After
the sun of the previous week it was disappointing to wake up to rain on June 6th
but the forecast was for it to clear and a 10 mph easterly which, for the most
part, duly arrived.
Ranelagh Trophy results
Ranelagh Vintage Merlin results
Vintage results
Ranelagh Merlin Trophy Results
2008 RTYC Autumn Trophy results
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 3rd. 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 3rd 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 4th 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 4th. Edwards/Stolper followed with Harris/Plumtree 3rd, 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 3rd and Harris/Plumtree 4th 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 3rd to 5th and Christopher Edwards dropping from 2nd to 3rd, the beneficiary being Nick Price who went from 5th on the water to 2nd 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 2nd and 5th on handicap was just 61 seconds, same places on the water, 68 seconds. Report Nick Price 1st
Joker 1993, Jon Holroyd/Jane Rusbatch, Ranelagh SC (100)
MERLIN ROCKET SILVER TILLER APRIL 6th 2008 Photos
Ranelagh Sailing Club always
gives a warm welcome to the Merlin fleet, and this Sunday it was exactly
what was needed. After the morning's snow a somewhat depleted fleet of
11 boats rigged up outside the club, and had lots of tea and biscuits
whilst waiting for a bit more water to go sailing on.
By the start time at a very leisurely 1.45 the breeze was blowing a good force 3-4 from the north, the perfect direction for a long beat up to Hammersmith Bridge with the tide, then a run back down to the club. With the tide underneath the fleet at the start, the recall flag inevitably took a few casualties, but the fleet got away first time and proceeded to pick its way through the shifts up to a mark just beyond Fulham Football Club. Chris Whitehouse and Ellie Bremer lead the fleet out of the blocks, but they where soon over taken by the plastic fantastics of Duncan Salmon crewed by Ian Garwood, Alex Jackson and Deepy, with river rat Andy Harris crew by Liam and his new knee taking the lead at the windward mark. The run against the tide spread the fleet out with the top bunch consisting of 5 boats, Phil Plumtree crewed by lark lass Kirsty Phipps rounding hot on the heels of Chris and Ellie at the windward. The run proved typical of river sailing, balancing tucking into the bank out of the tide with staying in decent pressure. The critical decision seemed to be at what point to cross the river from the Fulham side back to the club bank. For the remainder of the hour and a half race the place switching never seemed to stop amongst the top 4, that is until Andy Harris and Liam took a dip on the 3rd run and had to retire because apparently it was a tad chilling, fair enough! This left Alex and Duncan battling it out for the gun with Chris chasing them in 3rd, himself recovering from a near miss wobble on a gybe. After 5 laps of close racing Alex and Deepy took line honours, with Duncan and Ian in 2nd, Chris and Ellie in 3rd and Phil and Kirsty in 4th. With the road now disappearing under the murky waters of the Thames the sailors did a swift de-rigging and got into the club to warm up. Fortunately this year Duncan had parked well up the hill… The club put on some reet tasty food and lots of heating, so everyone was soon back to normal body temperature. Nick Price, club commodore, who had been out in his vintage Merlin, Diabolo, presented the prizes. Deepy decided to sport a rather spiffing cricket jumper much to Alex’s dismay, there should be a photo somewhere. Thanks to Ranelagh for a lovely afternoon's sail! Report by Ellie Bremer
Report to follow 9/4/08
RTYC MERLIN ROCKET AUTUMN TROPHY 11th
November 2007 November 11th 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 57th 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 3rd and 4th laps except that Andy Harris and Sara Warren started a late run moving up to 3rd and finally 2nd 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 3rd and Chris Whitehouse 4th. Report:-Nick Price Prizes were presented by Margaret Stokes, RTYC member and honorary life member MROA 1st
The Black Pearl William Warren /Chris Robinson
Shoreham SC 1st Vintage(5th) Splatter Phil Plumtree/ James Warren Tamesis
Video by Richard Tolkien, 1st time with camera and on his own in safety boat! Photos have been moved to another page.
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 1st 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 2nd place at the start of the 2nd lap, keeping that to the leeward mark before dropping back into a hard fight for 3rd place with Mervyn Allen in Keto and Ben Marshall in Fat Marce. The bell sounded at the end of the 2nd lap after just over an hours sailing with Mike Stephens winning by nearly 3 minutes from Christopher. Finishing 3rd on the water for Mojo was not enough to take 3rd overall from Keto in the 2 race series, Ben Marshall, visiting from Minima YC taking 5th. 1st Mike Stephens /
Andrew Stephens - Flinkidink 1097
Ranelagh Merlin Rocket Trophy February 18th 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.
Merlin-Rocket Open Meeting. Ranelagh Sailing Club, 26th 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 60th 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 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
Merlin-Rockets at Ranelagh February 8th (Patrick Blake)Only 12 Merlin-Rockets risked the extreme conditions at Ranelagh Sailing Club, Putney for the Ranelagh Trophy, the first of this years River Thames series, on February 8th; although there must have been at least as many sailors watching the antics as there were sailing. With the very strong northwesterly wind blowing against the spring flood tide there were white horses all across the famous boat race course. By the time the fleet reached the upstream mark by Hammersmith Bridge, Duncan Salmon and Ian Garwood had worked out a short lead from Pat Blake and Alex Jackson from Cookham Reach with Hywell Perkins and Mark Fuller very close behind. The run was something that those of us who were sailing wont forget in a hurry! Salmon and Blake immediately went for spinnakers and flew away from the slightly more cautious crowd. By the time Fulham Palace football ground was reached it was necessary to gybe! Blake crossed the river, got one gybe right and looked as if he might have passed Salmon only to capsize on the second. Salmon could afford to be a little more cautious now. Blake righted and set off in pursuit but Salmon never made the mistake that Blake needed to get back into the race. Behind these two Perkins had capsized and it was Mark Candelas from Wembley third until their turn for swimming came. Then James Pearce and Vicky from Tamesis held third until their shroud broke on the very last lap. Rob Wilder also from Tamesis had had his disaster just after the start, capsizing on a port and starboard incident. Coming from last they had been eating up the fleet for the whole race and got their reward by finishing third in the end. Results: Photos 1st Duncan Salmon and Ian Garwood ‘Gravalax’ Wembley SC 2nd Patrick Blake and Alex Jackson ‘Kinda Smart’ Cookham Reach SC 3rd Rob Wilder ‘Insomnia’ Tamesis Club 4th Hywell Perkins and Mark Fuller ‘The Matrix’ Hampton SC 5th Mark Candelas ‘ Steppenwolf’ Wembley SC RTYC Merlin Rocket 26th October 20031st 3575 "Gravadlax"
Duncan Salmon /Ian Garwood, Wembley SC 14.29.34
More Merlin results inc Silver Tiller 2003
Ranelagh
Merlin Trophy. 25th
February 2001 Course
set to 6 laps, marks to starboard, start 1415hrs. The
start was made more interesting at the ten minute bell by the universities
rowing eights with Cambridge clashing blades with Molesey and coming to a
grinding halt on our start line. History
was made by the return of MR 1 “Kate” to the event.
Restored by Mervin Allen, he was forced to retire after the start
when the centre plate refused to roll into the slot.
Better luck next time! The
17 strong fleet got away to a perfect close packed starboard tack start
with all boats clear. By
Crabtree the race pattern was emerging and at the end of lap 1 four boats
helmed by Hywel Perkins, Andy Dalby, Andrew Harris, and Duncan Salmon had
broken clear. On subsequent
laps Duncan established a small lead with the following pack covering one
another relentlessly. The run
back to Putney was fluky with Chris Rathbone and Andrew Harris crossing
the tide to the Putney shore. Duncan
held his nerve and a small lead on the other bank.
Meanwhile Andy Jones came through from 9th place to hold
2nd place for 3 laps. Overall
results:
Many thanks to John Stokes for the colourful report
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| 1st 3599 | Andrew Harris | Harry | Tamesis |
| 2nd 3575 | Duncan Salmon | Gravalax | Wembley SC |
| 3rd 3604 | Tosh | Aunt Fanny | Wembley SC |
| 4th 3466 | Paul & Sally Gilbert | Thunderclap | Ranelagh SC |
Ranelagh Sailing Club
