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Marblehead Ranking 5&6 Results Tables
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Marblehead UK Rankings 5&6 at Datchet
Marblehead UK Rankings 5&6, November 18-19th, Datchet Water
Datchet hosted the UK Marblehead Ranking 5&6 event over the weekend of November 18-19. Considering that the edge effects of Storm Debi were passing through the area, there were an excellent number of competitors from widespread regions. Fourteen competitors raced in Ranking 5, and ten raced in Ranking 6 the following day.
Saturday emerged from the earlier rains of the week and produced excellent conditions in the A-Rig to B-Rig range. Craig Richards of Datchet, with his F6, was the strong winner of the fifteen race series, with his scoreline never outside the top three. Ever consistent, and with six wins, Darin Ballington finished second, fifteen points behind Craig Richards.
Behind Craig and Darin it was pretty close with plenty of top three finishes. Honours here were shared by Peter Stollery, Graham Bantock , Nigel Barrow and Robert Wilson.
As Sunday dawned, the wind properly got up to remind us it was a good job if we had brought all our rigs. Generally, the westerly breeze was 15-20mph, gusting in the high twenties and sometimes the low thirties. Datchet in these conditions produced some interesting waves, one to two feet in height at times. Racing was fast and furious.
From the start, it was going to be about rig changes and rig choice. Most competitors were switching to whichever of C1, C3, B2 rigs seemed to work best for them in that race. Considering some of the gusts, the fleet managed a relatively minor injury count with nothing all that serious.
Rob Vice of Guildford, with his Grunge, put in a barn storming performance and properly stamped this blustery day as his own. Of nine races, Rob won five. Not that there weren’t other masterful performances. We had terrific consistency from Tony Edwards of Yeovil who finished second, and a couple of blistering wins from Craig Richards who finished third overall. In the final scoring, only four points separated third to sixth place. A couple of ties were resolved only on countback. In these positions, Graham Bantock, Nigel Barrow and Darin Ballington were simply never far from the front.
Final results scoresheets to follow.
“Antenna Frame” Anyone??
When I read up about my transmitter’s working range, of course it’s all about airplanes and drones. “1.5km range”, I think it said.
Honestly, if the boat is further away than about 150m, frankly we’re on the limits of my eyesight! I’m sure most folks would pay no attention to the layout of the onboard antenna (two wires that stick out of the onboard receiver). I’d forgive anybody who thought it doesn’t really matter. I did notice though that when we initially rigged my new IOM at the Datchet club, the first thing PH told me to do was walk a really long way away and see if I could waggle the sails via the mainsheet joystick. The “voice of experience”, I suddenly thought to myself.
Did you know, the theory is that the two antenna wires should lie at right angles to each other?? The IOM I had been borrowing from a totally amazing man at Chipstead had this simple idea.
Aboard my new K2, the builder has integrated something into his proprietary pot that ties the antenna at right angles. Very neat actually, … job done.
For the F6 Marblehead, GH suggested looking at two potential antenna frames on the Sailsetc website. We chose this one….
You might miss it at first glance. The frame is that little black moulding at the top of the photo. The two “arms” at right-angles are hollow – you can thread the wires inside them easily. It weighs about the same as a sheet of Kleenex. I’d guess its is 3D printed. Very neat. It simply sits inside the pot and grips the edge. It is shaped for the standard 60mm Sailsetc “pot” that the majority of us have. You thread the antenna wires through the 90 degree “V”… then what? I just wound my antenna tails around the pot rather than thread them back over the frame. It keeps it jolly tidy in there, plus at least some of the wires’ length lies at 90 degrees.
Datchet Radio Sailing - Making It All Much Easier !! 