Round 3 – Sun 28th June, Sedgemoor MBC, Apex Lake, Burnham-on-Sea

Report by Russ Chilcott

Thankfully the sun was out for round 3 of the series when we arrived at the Apex Lake, Burnham-on-Sea, home water of the Sedgemoor MBC. Our previous meeting at Yeovil in mid May had been cancelled after just a few races had been completed due to constant rain and gale force winds. It looked like many were keen to get out racing again after the enforced 10 week break, with many already setting up on site before 8.30am! Before long a very large collection of gazebos soon appeared around the edge of the car park, with tables covered in hulls, tools, chargers, etc. We soon had 61 boats booked in to race for the day – a number equal to our second highest ever entry.

The large entry meant that 5 of the 6 classes had to be run in two heats, Mono 1 alone had 15 boats, a few more and they would have had to race in 3 heats! For this meeting (and where possible) the heats were split with even numbered boats in heat 1 and odd numbered boats racing in heat 2. Future meetings will be rotated so if possible everyone has an equal number of races in each heat and everyone gets to race each other in their class at least a few times.

A new “manual” lap counter was out for the first time, our old faithful electronic one was showing signs of its age and didn’t like getting wet at Yeovil.

For some reason over the past few months the Apex Lake has become almost entirely vacant of any wildlife, at the test day back in February many races were curtailed to clear the course of our feathered friends. So for this meeting the course could be set out nearer to the centre of the lake, and once the Duty Rooster was completed the racing got underway right on time at 10.15am:

R2R (Ready to Run)

The 10 boats were split into two heats of 5. As this is an “entry level” class they have 4 races (all other classes have 3 races) with the best 3 counting towards the day’s total score. The first two races saw Roger Fuge (Yate & Sodbury) and Adam Truscott (Stithans junior) setting the pace in heat one with their Shockwaves, Rebecca Taylor (Yate & Sodbury junior) racing her Crackerbox was the only one close to their pace in heat 2. However, after lunch Adam was out on his own in heat 1, while in heat 2 Gordon Tiley and Nigel Taylor (both Yate & Sodbury members) got into the grove and closed the gap. The final race of the day turned out to be the decider for this class. Roger’s score of just 15 laps dropped him down the field (finishing the day in 5th place) while Gordon and Rebecca clocked 17 laps, Nigel and Adam left their best till last both scoring 18laps and a few seconds. But it was Gordon who came out in top spot with his best 3 races on the day of 18, 17 and 17 laps and a total score of 52 laps and 18 seconds he was the clear class winner. Gordon had borrowed his son’s Shockwave boat for the day, so expect he’ll want it back now! Nigel did just enough to take 2nd spot (49L, 20s) with Adam close in 3rd (49L, 74s). Rebecca finished in 4th place (47L, 32s) but had all 4 races counted she would have finished the day in 2nd place, sometimes the discard system works against you!

Formula 2

For many years this class had become nothing more than a Formula 3 boat with 7 cells! The brushed motors were pushed a bit too hard and would often expire at the end of ever race meeting, resulting in the numbers dropping to just a handful per round. A few years ago the class rules were changed to brushless motors and this year Lipo/A123 cells were allowed. In this format it has really started to gain support once again and this was reflected at this meeting with 12 boats entered to race - the second highest entry on the day. The dozen boats were raced in two heats of six.

Russ Chilcott’s Etti Tsunami with his own self-righting “black wedge” top did very well from the start scoring 22 laps in race 1. Aran Bond’s Toys’Port Joker, Tony Pearce and Graham Fright racing their Graupner Eco Powers were also quick as they all scored 20 laps in their first race, with Roger Clark also on the pace for a while until a crash on lap 18 knocked him out of the race. Aran topped the score sheet in Race 2 with a massive 23 laps (best of the day). Russ kept it interesting with another score of 22 laps, while Graham and Roger both dropped out with boat “troubles”? leaving Tony to secure his place with an 18 lapper. In race 3 Russell was struggling as water in the rudder servo caused it huge handling problems and by lap 15 he withdrew from the race while he still had some control left. As it turned out his final race didn’t matter as the two 22 lap scores were enough to win this class on the day, with a total of 44L, 25s. Aran also had a poor final race, but again it didn’t matter as his two earlier scores secured him a 2nd spot (43L, 33s). Roger kept his best to last scoring 21 laps in race 3 which saw him jump up into 3rd place (39L, 0s) just 33 seconds ahead of Tony (39L, 33s) who had the most consistent lap scores over the 3 races.

 

Formula 3

The 10 boats entered were split into two heats of 5. As usual these boats were very equally matched around the “M” course over the 5 minute race.

In fact in race 2 over the two heats there was just one lap separating the top 6 places. Just the odd little mistake or a missed buoy (10 second penalty) would drop an F3 driver down a few places. After two races for both heats there was still nothing much between the top six drivers. Mark Sutton’s Graupner Eco Power was the only casualty on the day in this class, he had had a few radio problems, possibly due to the fact his boat had only just been recovered from the bottom of the lake after sinking during a club race just two weeks before this meeting!

Graham won the days third and final race, but it was not quite enough to beat “Mr Consistency” Alex James (junior member from Yate & Sodbury) who with his three scores of 14, 13 and 14 laps meant he had won the class (28L, 42s), ahead of Graham (27L, 5s) and yet another Yate & Sodbury junior member Michael Hickman (26L, 19s) finishing his day in a very good 3rd place against some really tough competition.

 

Formula 4

This class had 8 entries and a real mixed bag of hull types - two hydro’s, a tunnel hull, a shovelnose hydro and four mono hulls of different designs, so to play safe the 8 were split into two heats of 4.

Race 1/heat 1 was a bit of a non-event as 3 of the 4 dropped out within 5 laps leaving Chris Osman (Yate & Sodbury) racing his Dateline Marine Renagade to pick his way around the dead boats for a very long 7 minute race all by himself - not a great start but Chris did set the bench mark scoring 31 laps, 3 seconds. Heat 2 saw Adrian Hingson (Stithans) racing his “Toys’Port Sycron” and Phil Jenkins (Plymouth) own design Hydro enjoy a superb race as they scored 33 and 32 laps respectively. While Malcolm Franks (Sedgemoor) racing an old “Stiletto” and Paul William’s (Plymouth) racing his own design Hydro had a “coming together” resulting in both finishing in the reeds.

Race 2 was once again won by Chris in heat 1, but his score of 29 laps was again beaten by Adrian with another 33 laps this time also avoiding the two Hydros of Paul and Phil who were tangled together on the racing line for a while. Phil managed to recover his boat and rejoined the race doing very well to still score 29 laps.

Race 3 and Chris was again easily the best in heat 1 with another 31 lap score, despite the efforts of Russ’s “Hopf EVO Nightmare” who gave him a good race until he hit a marker buoy trying a bit too hard on lap 25!

Once again Chris’s heat 1 score was soon over shadowed as the best F4 race of the day took place between Phil and Adrian. With nothing much between them for the entire 7 minute race, Adrian finished his with his best score, an impressive 34 laps and just 4 seconds, but this was beaten by Phil with a massive 35 laps, 7 seconds. As it turnout this was not quite enough to catch Adrian as he won the F4 class once again (unbeaten this year having won round 1 and the test day in Feb) scoring 67 laps and 5 seconds. Phil finished in 2nd place just 17 seconds behind (67L, 22s). Chris was well pleased as he finished 3rd (62L, 28s) with his last minute entry into F4. Paul’s miserable day was completed when his Hydro went airborne after hitting a large rock near the bank, it travel some distance before hitting a solid metal “no fishing” sign and split into two halves!

Hydro 1

6 boats entered this round, 1 up on the previous round as this class continues to slowly gain a foot hold in the SWAMBC series. All six were raced together in one heat. In Race 1 Bill Hickman (Yate & Sodbury) and Paul Williams finished just 1 second apart after racing for 22 laps! Alex James was also quick finishing just 1 lap behind the leaders. Race 2 can only be described as a bit of a lottery! These small Hydro 1 boats don’t self-right, and when one is capsized way out in the middle of the lake it is very difficult to see – even when you not focused on racing your boat at 40mph! After just a few laps there were calls from the Race Officer of “Dead Boats” all over the course, with Bill managing just 8 laps, Phil just 7 and Alex stopping after just 1 lap. So it was not that surprising when someone got disqualified (DSQ) for hitting a dead boat. In this race both Paul and Chris O were DSQ, removing their boats immediately. Only Roger managed to avoid the debris, and continued on picking his way between the boats and around the oval course finishing with a respectable 18 lap score. This left things wide open for the 3rd and final race of the day. Alex once again drove very well and exactly matched his Race 1 score of 21 laps and 12 seconds which was enough to win the class (42L, 24s) by a 2 lap margin over 2nd place Bill (40L, 11s). Paul finished some 9 laps back in 3rd spot (31L, 7s), but at least he finally got some reward from his otherwise pretty awful day.

Mono 1

The huge field of 15 was split into two heats of 7 and 8 boats. From the very start the racing was fast and furious with non-stop action pretty much on every turn for the entire 6 minute races. The Lap Counter Graham F and his Lap Caller George B were working flat out just to record them as many boats were scoring over 20 laps in each race. Having missed round 1 (and the abandoned round 2) as he was recovering from a serious heart attack, it was great to see Chris Locke out racing his boats again. His medication must have been working well as he won race 1 scoring 26 laps, 32 seconds, which later proved to be the highest score in Mono 1 on the day. Race 2 also belonged to Chris as he scored 25 laps, but this time Chris Osman’s Zarzilla (a Zardoz/Gozilla hybrid) was hot on his heals the entire race, with the two trading places on more than one occasion just a few feet apart – which can’t be good for the heart!

In the other heat Malcolm Franks, Mark Shipman and Torran Hayward (Torran still very new to racing) were in close company often with them all scoring over 20 laps.

 

The best race of the day came in Race 3/heat 1. All 8 boats started the race, and many seemed to have got the 10 second mill time worked out as they all appeared to cross the start line together! Surprisingly through the mass of rooster tail spray all 8 appeared along the back straight racing for every inch of water. On more than one occasion they were racing three abreast jostling for every position. Adrian Cooper was doing very well until he was unlucky to clip a spinning boat on the top right buoy which “killed” his boat. This happened on his 17th lap, usually a reasonable score in Mono 1, but he finished this race in last place! All the other 7 boats had finished the race ahead of him, with no retirements and all scoring between 18 and 23 laps. Graham and George had Lap Counted a total of 160 laps in this one 6 minute heat race – both they and the drivers need a rest after that one! There was some really good racing and excellent driving by all involved.

Heat 2 was a little less frantic as Chris L decided to relax and sit it out. He’d done a quick calculation and knew Chris O would need to score at least 28 laps to have any chance to catch him and a few others would need to score close to 30 laps to nick a class win. As it happened 4 DNS (Did Not Start) so Chris O had almost a free run and tried his best to get near the 28 lap target, in the end he could managed a reasonable 23 laps score enough to secure him 2nd place on the day (48L, 49s). But it was Chris Locke who won the class with a superb score of 51 laps and 61 seconds. Malcolm Franks was the best of the rest racing his “Dragstar” and was well pleased to finish his day in 3rd place (46L, 41s).

Summary

A great days racing drew to a close by 5.15pm. The scores were added up and soon after prizes for the top 3 places in each class were awarded by the host club Chairman Malcolm Franks. The weather had been very kind with a light breeze keeping most of the lake clear and there was only a short drizzle of rain earlier in the afternoon.

A good turn-around of races in the morning allowed us time to get in a 20 minute lunch break which gave everyone a chance to see Mark and Alan Shipman’s superbly built 10th scale 1956 Ted Jones Classic Hydro on the water. It handled like a dream and really looked the part especially going flat out across the far side of the lake.

For the first time this year the true speed of the brushless oval classes could be seen as the new breed of Lipo powered F4, Hydro 1 and Mono 1 boats could really “stretched their legs” on an open Lake.

The new starting system in F2 and F3 where the boats now race out to the middle buoy before turning up to the top left buoy once again proved to very successful. The first turn carnage we often saw at the start of many races last year was absent during this meeting. There will always be the odd contact, especially with 5/6 boats all heading for the same piece of water from a standing start, but this year, at least so far (touchwood!) things have been very much better.

Thankfully there were no sinkings on the day. A few got their first “racing scratches” and unfortunately it was a complete right-off for Paul’s F4 hydro. But that’s racing, with so many boats now doing incredible speeds, these things will, and do happen.

It was good to have 4 junior members (under 16 years) racing once again at this meeting, and one of them Alex J winning two classes (F3 and Hydro 1). With Michael H 3rd place in F3, Adam 3rd in R2R just ahead of Rebecca’s in 4th place – the youngsters are now really giving many of the “old boys” a run for their money!

Thanks to the Sedgemoor Club for hosting this round, and especially those who stayed behind after a long day to help pack everything away.

Thanks also to Ricky West a visitor who just popped along on the day to watch the racing, but turned out to be the only person to supply photos of this meeting.

Hopefully the current weed problems at Millbrook Lake will be sorted out fairly soon, so we should be visiting the City of Plymouth MBC home water for round 4 on 2nd August. It would be nice to travel down south and give a few local Club members a chance to see some really quick FE boats in action.

In the meantime a group of SWAMBC FE Racers are traveling up to Bridlington MBC for the MPBA FE National Finals (25th/26th July) – good luck to all who enter.

Please check the SWAMBC web site nearer to 2nd August (or any SWAMBC meeting for that matter) before making any long journeys. We never like to change venues or cancel any meetings, but sometimes these things are beyond our control. So please always check or make a quick phone call before jumping in the car.

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