M_M_I_2015_04_

18 APRIL 2015 http://www.marinemodelmagazine.com

I

t was getting a bit cold and a group of us who had been sailing

and trimming our One Metre yachts decided that a hot drink and

the warmth of the lakeside café was temporarily more attractive

than sailing and freezing in the cold and wind. So we brought our

yachts in, left them safely on the slipway, and dashed to the café.

Only one yacht remained on the lake tacking elegantly back and

forth across the wind.

In the café there was a group of fellow boaters seated at our table

and we joined them. While sipping our teas and coffees we noticed

that an A class yacht was still on the lake, but was being controlled

by ‘Orrible’ Urrell, the Shore Admiral, at our table. Now he’s not

mad like the rest of us and sailing his yacht from the warmth of the

café was proof of his superiority.

His A class yacht, built from a Bob Underwood hull, is a beautiful

sailing boat but once it is launched at the waterside it is a boat

that needs to be kept in the water. The overall length of the yacht

is approximately 2 metres and the mast is 2.4 metres tall. The all

up weight is 25 kilograms of which 15 kilograms are removable

internal ballast so you can see why you wouldn’t want to launch and

recover the yacht too many times in a day’s sailing. You can also

understand why its skipper has a permanent hernia. The A class

yacht has two winches for independent control of its sails – the

transmitter is a Robbe design (converted to 2.4 GHz) with twin

(throttle) sticks controlling the sail winches. The yacht is a picture

on the water but it is necessary to give it a wide berth because it

doesn’t tend to turn too quickly and its skipper is not known for

giving way! It is known, with good cause, in the club as the Dark

Destroyer and you should be able to see the destroyer emblem on

its sails in the accompanying photograph.

PUTTING OUT A COURSE

Now we’re seriously reluctant in the club to launch the rescue

boat to put out a course unless we have to, so a couple of

members have built buoy laying boats to set the course. These are

generally manoeuvrable tugs and the boat shown in the attached

photograph is based on a Mobile Marine Models Euro Girl tug. It

was built and specially adapted by Richard Cook, our Yacht racing

organiser, and is already proving its worth in setting out courses

on race days and the odd buoy on other fun sailing days. The

procedure for its working is as follows:

The tug is loaded with the buoy and the ballast (the ballast has a

hole through it so it can slide down the line). The line is paid gently

out as the tug is driven away from the jetty (the line is about 75

metres long with the cord being wrapped round a winding frame

which is retained on the jetty). On reaching the point where the

buoy is to be placed a sharp pull on the line with the tug motors

running will cause the ballast and buoy to fall off the back of the

tug. The ballast slides down the line until it hits the bottom of the

lake and it then anchors the buoy at the location. The line used for

the buoys is a special cord and gradually also sinks to the bottom

of the lake. The winding frame for the line is then retained in a safe

place on the jetty! This procedure is then repeated for as many

times as there are buoys to be laid out for the course.

JOHN COVERS SOME CLUB

YACHTING ACTIVITIES

INCLUDING PUTTING OUT

A COURSE, INTRODUCING

THE GOTH XP AND A

PROFESSIONALLY MOULDED

VERSION - THE MX14, AND

SHOWING A METHOD OF

CASTING LEAD BALLAST FOR

HIS ONE METRE YACHT

SAIL FREE

AUTHOR: JOHN BRINKLER GREAT BRITAIN

[email protected]

John Hurrell’s A class yacht the Dark

Destroyer (photo Alan Woodroffe)

Richard Cook’s buoy laying tug adapted from a Mobile Marine

Models Euro Girl tug

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