2001 Central Qld Radio Marblehead Championships

Hosted by the Mackay Model Mariners

14th & 15th April 2001

Spread Sheets at the bottom of page

Sixteen Marbleheads from Brisbane (1), Bundaberg (1), Mackay (6), Whitsunday (4), & Townsville (4) contested the Central Qld Marblehead Championships at the Gooseponds in Mackay over the Easter weekend. The weather was threatening to pour copious quantities of rain, however after a few scuds the weather turned kind and the regatta began. One down point was that the pond had been inundated with a type of weed that grows very quickly and the club members of the Mackay Model Mariners spent a considerable  time and effort to keep the menace at bay, unfortunately there were a few bits & pieces left that had all the skippers frustrated at certain times.

Saturday night saw a good shower of rain that raised the level of the ponds and Sunday was a better sailing day, with the better sailors taking advantage of this to progress up the ladder. With sixteen (16) boats nominated, it was decided to run a two (2) fleet series, and this proved to be the right decision as all skippers agreed that they had fairer sailing, for the series. Race officer for the weekend was Tim Parker, from the Whitsunday Model  Yacht Club, and after the three seeding races in which everyone started at the same time, he had  the two fleets up and running at a smooth pace.

From the outset, no particular design or skipper  showed any dominance, the regatta was therefore going to be one of consistency and good sailing. The Breeze was a fluky South Wester, that ranged from 0 to 20 knots and so rig selection was critical, though the "B" Rig suit was popular.  A total of 35 races were held over the weekend, with each skipper having 19 races (3 Seeding + 16 Point scoring races) , this proved to be enough to decide a winner as everyone was getting tired by 3:00 pm Sunday afternoon. Racing was very clean and sportsmanship reigned supreme as a lot of penalties were completed before the RO had to call for them to be done.

The winner at the end of the series, was Lawrence Prest sailing his swing rig "Paradox" (33 pts), 2nd was Graeme Turk with his conventual rig "Rok"(37pts), 3rd was Ross Anderson with his swing rig "Berlingo"(41pts), 4th was Col Cameron with his conventual rig "CamBar"(45pts), and 5th went to Michael Barfield with his swing rig "Cumulus"(45 pts), 6th went to Trevor Smith with his swing rig  "TSM2" (46pts), 7th was Gerry Cooper with his swing rig "Berloiz" (98pts), 8th was Greg Hammon with his swing rig "Kiwi logic" (102pts), 9th was Ray Nasmith with his conventual rig "Abacus2" (105pts), and 10th was Rod Pattemore with his conventual rig "Own Design" (110pts)

As can been seen there was not a lot of difference between the top six placegetters and that no particular design  or sail plan dominated. It was just good consistent sailing by Lawrie Prest that enable him to win. Congratulations Lawrie for an excellent display of sailing. Ray Nasmith took home the trophy for the Clubman class, congratulations Ray, it certainly made the long trip from Brisbane worthwhile.  On behalf of the Mackay Model Mariners, I would like to thank, all the competitors for their commitment to good sportsmanship and competitive sailing, to the Race officer and his band of volunteers that manned the rescue boat, buoy observers and the scorers, for their willingness to provide excellent service to the competing sailors needs, this championship turned out to be one of the best, and the standard has been set for the rest of the titles to be held this year.

Thank you and fair sailing,

Col Cameron.

Commodore 

MACKAY MODEL MARINERS