Category Archives: General

Race Report – Datchet August 6th 2023

Fantastic day’s racing at the Club on Sunday. Pretty blowy at times and we had the B Rigs on, in general. Marbleheads were at their most thrilling! I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it! The most fun you can have with your socks on !!

Report from The Fleet Captain follows :-

This Weekend’s Marblehead results:


Another great days racing in B & C rigs with 7 boats and 9 races completed. I will do a report for MYA Downwind later.


1st Rohan 11pts, 2nd David 12, 3rd Nigel 19, 4th Phil 22, 5th Les 33, 6th Richard J 35, 7th Graham 37.


Next Marblehead Series Race Session is on 20th.


On Wednesday 23rd there is an evening barbecue at the club, we will be having early evening racing (Marblehead’s) starting at 1700hrs followed by barbecue. Let me know if you are interested and book your place in the barbecue.

Improve Your Tacking !!

Racing a modern day marblehead is exciting and exhilarating. They are fast and have a presence on the water…

But if you are wondering why every time you tack you are slow through the tack, that you are loosing ground. we need to think about rudder control !

Such a simple thing, but something that cannot be emphasised enough. With these big boats, speed is key and as we know the rudder acts as a giant brake. It’s all to easy in the excitement to slam over onto another tack – or to force the boat over only to end up in irons ….something that l was doing all to regularly until l was shown how to manoeuvre my boat properly !!


The key is small rudder inputs and time. The boat can glide from one tack to another. It just needs patience and practice from the operator – treat her like the lady, softly and gently. You will find you are able go through the tack with out ending up in irons. You will do it maintaining speed.

The next thing that’s also important is sheet control. Once you pass head to wind you should ease the sails slightly, build speed, then sheet in. These might seem basic but need practicing so we can gain that much needed lead. 

Happy tacking:)

RW

Take a Look Around This Prototype Website…

Three of us at Datchet have been discussing the two facts that there are no consolidated Marblehead Knowledge Bases online… and more broadly, how very hard it can seem to potential newcomers to enter into the Sport regardless of Class they sail.

This little prototype website has been built around all our club fleets to give us an impression of what it might feel like if we were to build the idea out more fully. Try and imagine it populated with a thousand items of knowledge scattered through the subject categories listed.

In earlier years, when this gap in the market for the Flying Fifteens was identified, we at Datchet embarked on the idea to build a knowledge-led website, that did race reports as well. It quickly became followed in 26 countries and it now treated by many clubs worldwide as a way of supporting newcomers. We wrote about 2,000 items about buying, owning and racing Flying Fifteens. To date it has been read more than two thirds of a million times.

It would be focussed mainly on our Club, its members, our classes – and trying to encourage potential members to join up – whether they be World Champions, or more importantly, potential new members in the South East who are considering the sport, and DWSC members in particular.

Don’t worry about the pesky adverts – if we go ahead with this kind of idea, for a nominal annual fee we can turn the ads off.

It works on a browser or your mobile. Let me know what you think. Richard J.