Tag Archives: London radio sailing

Marblehead Hull Bags….!!

How do you protect your hull when it’s in the car boot ? Or elsewhere?

When I started with a loan IOM boat, I simply lined the car boot with old towels and travelled around like that. To be honest, it only needs a sharp dab on the car brakes and things can get a bit out of hand back there.

When I received my One Metre, the builder said not to keep taking the fin on and off – so I ordered one of those One Metre Onesie bags from David Potter – see the category named “Transporting the Boat” on this website. I’ve come to quite like that bag, but I have to remember to remove the bulb cover before sliding it in. It all feels very safe and well protected.

By contrast, transporting the Marblehead is somewhat more challenging due to increased dimensions. David Potter does supply a Onesie bag for that job, but as the fin is 55cms below the hull, most people I think, remove the fin for travelling ….. leaving the rudder in place.

For a year or so I have been using the (lovely) lower bag for the Marblehead. Albeit with the rudder sticking out at the end, but it’s still fabulous. All soft and snug! You could sleep in a human size version. It has an adjustable strap and buckle for the enclosure.

Rudder protection does worry me though – our member Richard U designed a new bag with a simple drop down section for rudder protection – the top bag in the photo. It has a velcro strip for sealing the enclosure. Nice – I’d hazard a guess that the same design will take a Ten Rater too. The first couple of car trips using this have been very promising.

So now I have two bags…. question … “what is the ideal number of Marbleheads to own?”

“N+1….. where N is the current number that you have…”

The lovely bags are available at K7yachts or you can contact us vis the email address on the CONTACT page of this website.

Sunday 22nd December – 5 gusting 8

We were greeted by fair chunks of breeze on this last day before Christmas.

I thought we’d maybe be trying C rig, but really when that breeze was pumping the lake it was pretty hard stuff and for quite prolonged periods. Our dinghy members with the K1 fleet looked to consume more tea than we did. Unexpectedly, the windsurfers stayed ashore. It must have been hard!

To be honest, as I climbed out of the car, the wind grabbed the car door and ripped it out of my hand. There was a fair bit of wind around…. probably a spot more than BBC forecast but pretty much on the XC Weather view. It came and went in squalls but on average through the morning it more blowing hard and white horses than not.

Instead we had about three hours of radio sailing chatter over tea and bacon rolls. As it was a Marblehead Sunday we tried not to discuss other classes!! It sounds like the RM GAMES 8 at Guildford was a proper success and a genuinely nice event. They managed two fleets (RM and DF95) on one course, like you may have seen on the Wynnum Manly RSC Video channel. The DFs starting a minute after the RMs and having “inner” sets of marks to provide a shorter course. Feedback from our RM team was very positive.

Amazingly blue skies….

Brass Monkey Christmas Race at Abbey Meads – Marblehead GAMES 8 & smaller DF 95/BOTTLE boat classes

Our Datchet boys do well – VERY well !!

https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/282316/Brass-Monkey-Christmas-Race-at-Abbey-Meads