Victoria and AlbertThe occasional Newsletter of the Christchurch Model Yacht Club Inc

April 2010

The Editors blurb

Hello all, sorry about the delay in getting thispublication to press but The muse has tobe upon me to allow my creative side tocome to the fore, sounds good eh? it reallymeans that I just didn’t feel like writing.Lots to talk about in this column though, inDecember in response to a request fromthe regional council to run a match racingevent for the staff of the river managementgroup, Ralph Biggs took charge of organis-ing the event and all participants had a great time, whats more they alsogave us a super lunch. There is a picture of one of the races on the nextpage. I wonder how many of our keen, match racing participants will retaintheir jobs after our elected council was undemocratically sacked by bullyboys Rodney Hide and Nick Smith. I worked under the new Commissioner,Margaret Bazley for a while when I was with the Children and Young Per-son’s Service. I hope the staff at Ecan have asbestos suits!We have had the good fortune to be allowed by the Christchurch City Coun-cil to sail in the stormwater equalizing lake at Ferrymead Historic Park, asuper venue, fresh water around 5 m deep and not a tree in sight. Unfortu-nately for some of the J skippers I don’t think their first experience of thevenue was a good one, the strong Easterly wind did not suit them at all.Thetechnique that most suscribe to on Victoria is to always use the A rig, strug-gle through the gusts and go for it in the lulls did not work at all simplybecause there were no lulls. I heard a few disgruntled remarks such as “I’mnot coming back to that bloody place again”, a short sighted view I thinkbecause one can only grow from sailing at other venues with different condi-tions. Victoria produces the same old, same old, conditions week by week,I recommend that you get yourself a B rig and give Ferrymead a go. I mustadmit that Commodore Hugh and I had a whale of a time, we sailed our onemetres with B rigs and blitzed everything in sight, much to the chagrin of theskipper of the “Jolly Green Giant”. I had forgotten how thrilling the one me-tres can be in those conditions. High speed planing downwind is great forthe soul.Next Saturday CMYC is having an “away day” at Pegasus Town. a new hous-ing development situated about 20 kms from Christchurch. I went out a fewweeks ago to have a preview and was very impressed (not with the housingdevelopment) but most certainly with the lake. Crystal clear water, unob-structed wind and steep banks that give a good view are ideal. I dont think itwill be so good when all the houses are built, but for the moment let’s justenjoy. .

E Can Match racing day at the CMYC

Our cover this issue is (upper) the ECan Match racing day. The pic wassupplied to us by one of the contestants and (lower) “Indulgence” J 75sailed by Graham Mander winner of both the Match and Fleet Racing Cham-pionships held by the Canterbury J Owners Association. Runner up in theseevents was Leon Blewitt sailing “Aye Dunno”Ellerslie Flower show has come and gone and the pace at the park hasreturned to its usual slow and pleasant tempo. I am amazed by the recoveryrate of the grass. There seemed a more than the usual number of eventsheld there leading up to Ellerslie, Sparks in the Park, Christmas in the Parkand several more whose names I can’t remember. The turf looked abso-lutely bare after all these functions but a little autumn rain and a few daysllater green shoots were appearing. must be an amazingly hardy grass type.I know we have had our differences over the last few years but the BotanicalGardens management but their exhibit in the Ellerslie show that won them agold medal was a great effort. The International judge commented that itwould have been a winner even at Chelsea, a tremendous effort by JeremyHawker and his team. Just in passing though Jeremy, we could do with a bitmore water in the lake.A good representation from CMYC at the vintage craft day held at LakeHood recently. Contact has been made with a new club that has started inDunedin, we may me able to arrange some South Island events we can allparticipate in.Good sailing, Ian

Picture Environment Canty

The annual Vintage Craft day held at St Arnaud, the township at Lake Rotoitione of the Nelson Lakes, was attended by member Russell France. Theshot of the sailplane looks great.It appeared over the mountain tops as justa dot in the sky then dived on the lake at around 160mph, released it’s waterballast (on the crowd) to alllow it to climb back over the mountains. Russellsays the performance was very spectular.

Vintage boats sailpast there are several of the popular Frostbite design,and an R class

Here comes the sailplane just before water bombs away

FROM THE COMMODORE

As I battle to find a place in the RSA Carpark ona Wednesday, I can’t but help to think back tothe days when the club numbered two score orso and I would meet up with Euan Sarginson onmy way home from school on a Wednesday fora little sail on the lake. This combined with DaveHenley, the owner of J 1 was the beginning ofWednesday Windling on Victoria Lake. Gradually others joined in and Davecame in the mornings to sail (“to keep clear of that race mad crowd…”) and itjust took off with the retired and self employed ! (Well dentists have their golfday !)

It is just wonderful to involve so many people today and the initiative to createseveral fleets has made the danger of massive pile ups at the bottom marksomewhat less. The Arm Chair Sailors also have their place, the runningcommentary that goes with their sailing is priceless. All good stuff!

We are still represented on the International scene with one of our memberscompeting in the Marblehead Class at the Australian Nationals in Adelaide.Paddy’s success was tempered with electronic problems and his account iselsewhere in this issue. Rod Liddy will fly the flag at the up coming EC12nationals and we wish him well in Wellington - the J Class has kept him on hismettle so he will do well !

We have good reports of new sailing venues at Pegasus Lake near Woodendand we will schedule an away event there in April. The ponds at Ferrymeadhave also been sailed successfully though you need to get wet feet to launch.Places like this and Rakaia Lagoon are wide open to all winds and give anew dimension to sailing RC models. I would also like a plug for theCanterbury Classic and Traditional Boats Regatta at Lake Hood on 21 March.The Club had a good showing last year and the Ashburton Committeeorganising have contacted local modellers to attend and have a dedicatedarea for sailing

Long may the sun shine and the breezes blow !

Hugh Hobden

Malcolm contin-ues his memo-

ries of his earlydays in the

ChristchurchModel Yacht

Club

During these early years I saileda Bert George yacht named Defiance and laterAnother “Yacht named “Invader”. This was very interesting as It was veryheavy and widest part of the hull was well back, like a laminar flow effect. .Pretty useless in a light wind but really preformed well in a gale. The otheryacht was the “Mako” which was built by Mr. Bowker. I wanted to buy it but hewould not sell, however he said that I could sail it. It was and is a scaled down“A” class. I actually won several races with it and one season I was theleading money winner in the club .By now you will have gathered that we sailed for money. Entry fees were oneshilling for any ordinary race and 2 shillings for special races like achampionship.During the season I sailed “Mako” to club record for the mile which wasreckoned to be 6 lengths of Victoria Lake in 21 minutes in a strong north norwester. After the season ended I went to see Mr. Bowker again to offer tobuy “Mako” and since I had done better with it than he ever did, he sold it tome for one pound ten shillings and this was to be donated to the Club. Mr.Bowker was a generous man who donated the fountain that bears his namein Victoria SquareYears later Euan Sarginson showed a great deal of interest in buying “Mako”off me But I did not want to sell, but eventually he made an offer that I couldnot refuseHe was very keen on it because it was built and launched in thesame year that He was born.

Going back again after working in the butcher’s shop I got a job with the SelfHelp grocery chain and worked in three different shops. The best one was inColombo Street. We had to supply the flour and sugar to a tearooms whichwas situated on one of the corners of the Square. We used to time it so thatwe arrived at morning tea time which meant of course that we had a greatmorning tea. The staff were really very good to us and I missed it when Iwas transferred to another shop. This was in Papanui and was next door to abutcher’s shop where the butcher would sing dirty ditties at the top of hisvoice. They were quite entertaining really. However time moved on and Idecided to join the Air Force, after all there was still a war on.I reported to the air force base where they discovered that I had a herniawhich needed surgery so that was put on the waiting list which was not verylong at that time, not like now when one is liable to wait for ages. This was tobe the first of many visits to the hospital for surgery. After I had recoveredfrom that I was “man powered” on to a job. When this happened one wasexpected to accept whatever it was. Well, it turned out to be working in agrain store and when I arrived the boss looked at my papers and said “Well,there is the job and I looked over towards the building and there were threeguys sweeping the deck of a truck. There was dust everywhere, great cloudsof it. I knew instinctively that it would be bad for me, so I said, “well you cankeep it”. and walked off. The manpower people got in touch with me againand I finished up working on a lathe producing metal screws and parts. I didnot mind this but I was amazed when I got bonuses. I thought that I was a bitslow at it. The down side was that it was a night shift and I would start whenothers were going home, however I did not mind biking home at 4am. It didcurtail my dancing a bit though. Eventually the Air force got in touch with me and I was recruited into it.Shortly after that we had to sit an exam paper. There were 20 questions andthe people that interviewed me afterwards seemed amazed that only oneanswer was wrong and I was annoyed with myself that I had got that onewrong. Anyway they said with marks like you can choose anything, so I said Iwould like to be a pilot. And they said “sorry we have enough pilots “ So Isaid how about a radio operator? Well we have plenty of those too but wewill put you on the waiting list.

.

We did our basic training at Harewood under the usual military regime andduring that time someone had soiled the showers and he would not own upto it. Well, I guess one wouldn’t would they.Anyway the result of all this was that we all had to do marches around theairfield until the culprit owned up to it. Well he did not and by this time theNCOs were getting pretty fed up with it.One night the NCO took us to a pub and everybody had a drink of beerexcept me. I had lemonade. Then we had to get back to the base and wetook a short cut across the airfield. The NCO started to worry a bit becausenight flying was being done so ended up practically running and made it ok.After that they cancelled the route marches. I actually quite enjoyed it when Iwas posted to Wigram where my job was to guide the Harvards across theflying field and line them up. Every now and then the pilot would leave themotor running and we would get to sit in the plane till he came back. In the next newsletter. I get posted overseas and more interesting thingshappened then. In the Next issue I have 2, 21stsSee You. Malcolm.

This pic was found in Malcolms secretarial stuff. he can’t remember whereit came from but carries the title in pencil on the back says: Model YachtingOraki Basin Auckland.

This picture was sent to me by my friend Dave who skippers the pick upboat at the Stewarts Gully Sailing Club, I started sailing there in 1950 whenthe club began. It shows the recent tidal disturbance racing up the sailingcourse . Dave tells me this happened several times like a surge rising andthen receding. Every time the water lowered, Seagulls swarmed to gobblethe small fish that were left by the receding tide, many were so engrossed intheir prey they got caught when the wave came in again. It didn’t hurt any-thing except their pride (thats if seagulls have pride)

News of the Canterbury J’s in the USA

Hans Berger who has the franchise for the Canterbury J’s in the USA tellsus that the design has been accepted as a National Class by the AmericanModel Yachting Association. Hans is based at the Paderewski Model YachtClub in Connecticut, have a look at their website at http:// pmysail.com/ . Aninteresting site for J and EC12 skippers and indeed for anyone interestedin radio controlled model yachts overseas.

Picture Dave McMillan

Letter to the Editor.

Dear SirI was having a cup of coffee after the match racing when several points ofinterest were discussed that I was not aware of, and I believe many newmembers of the J Owners Association are not familiar with.to begin with if I am correct, the j Class Championship consists of threetrophies. The first being for the overall winner of the match racing, the sec-ond for the overall winner of the fleet racing and the third for the combinedtotal of points for both these events and therefor the J Class Champion forthe year. So to become a J Class Champion, you have to compete in bothevents and of course have exceptional sailing skills as well as being able totune these boats to the level required. Minor adjustments can make a hugedifference in handling and performance. Unlike being on the waterwhere you can see and feel the difference when making alterations. Any-one finishing in the top echelon should be well pleased with themselves.O)ther points of interest were that boats competing must have a currentregistration and measurement certificate and owners/skippers must be fi-nancial members.Registration for the match racing closes 9.30 am (no ex-ceptions) on the day of the event and may be done online. Fleet racingcloses 12.30pm (no exceptions) and again may be done online.The first four boats in both events shall be weighed as they come out of thewater before any derigging is carried out.I’m sure that there are many more rules and conditions that I’m not aware ofthat will surface in due course. I believe that the conditions of entry shouldbe given to every entrant.Yours etcObserver.Well Observer I think you should really re-direct this letter to the Canter-bury J Association Owners Association. You see the Christchurch ModelYacht Club has no control of this group, they are an autonomous bodythat only answers to their members. Admittedly most of the AssociationsCommittee wear two hats and also hold office in the CMYC neverthelessone group cannot make decisions for the other. There is another J Cham-pionship that is held every year and this is the CMYC J Champs. Thesedo not include match racing.So we have 4 championships really. Fleet, Match and Overall Associa-tion Champions, and CMYC club champion. The difference being I thinkthat any J can sail in the CMYC event, production of a measuring certifi-cate is not a necessary condition of entry.Ed.

“ALMA” A New Zealand deck Scow

On our recent trip to the Bay of Islands Barb and I spent most of a day at theAuckland Maritime Museum. What an amazingly interesting place!As well as covering commercial maritime history there is a complete collec-tion of yachts, I was able to see and touch all those familiar bygone centre-board classes that I sailed in when I was a mad keen young yachtie. A Pclass, wow, look a Takapuna and then an Idle-Along’ heres an R and look,one of the old Exies, you had to be tough to sail one of them well.Surprisingly Barb really enjoyed the day too but the highlight was taking acruise on the replica scow that the museum had built. Faithful in every way tothe originals, the scow “Ted Ashby” takes people for a sailing experiencethat literally draws one back in time and if you ask nicely you may even begiven a go at the wheel.These scows were the trucks of the Hauraki Gulf, they carted shingle, logs.livestock and all manner of cargo to and from the little river ports around thegulf and even worked as far south as Nelson and the West coast. Crewedusually by two men and a boy they operated on a “hot bunking” system, twoon deck and one resting except when loading when it was all hands on deck.Pictured is my version after her launching in the historic stormwater drainand lake just down the road from where I liveThere is a classic book that is the definitive history of NZ Scow. Called“Scows and Scowmen”it should be available at your local library.

Pic Barb Scott

2009 2010J Owners Association

Canterbury Championships

The first day was light Eastlerly for the 91 match races. As the day pro-gressed the wind lightenede up to all most none.

The match race winners

1st 75 Graham Mander2nd 134 Leon Blewett3rd 140 Peter Croft.

The second day was also a very light wind from the South turning to theEast. Seven fleet races were raced in the afternoon.

The fleet race winners

1st 75 Graham Mander2nd 134 Leon Blewett3rd 16 Keith May

All the competitors had a great time with very close and exciting racing.

I would like to thank our O.D.Irene Hawke and all the assistants on bothdays.

Overall winners

1st 75 Graham Mander

2nd 134 Leon Blewett

3rd 16 Keith May

In response to a request from Brian Coulter for the publishing of thenames of the Life Members of the Christchurch Model Yacht Club

Here you are Brian, there are only two of them

MALCOLM SCOTT

We all know the wonderful work that Malcolm has put into the club over thelast forty odd years. Without his steady hand at the helm I dont believe ourclub would have continued and prospered to the state we now enjoy. Weare virtually surrounded in Malcolms influences.

GAVIN BRITT.Gavin is not as widely known among this generation of model yachties buthis contribution has also been a keystone in building the CMYC and it’sfacilities. Gavin did much to foster the vane steered Marbleheads during theseventies and was also an excellent promoter of model yachting. Gavin didmuch to bring the sport to the notice and acceptanceof the Canterbury Yacht-ing Association, Leading to the creation of the NZMYA.

Both Malcolm and Gavin were prime movers in the 1970’s in the creation ofthe New Zealand Model Yachting Association, indeed, in the early years ofthe Association, Canterbury was it’s home. Subsequently the Associationmoved to Auckland where it still resides.

Foils on Lyttelton Harbour. member Keith May sent this pic of an R Class upon foils going like a train. I think that maybe this is the first craft to use theseon the harbour. The International Moths have used foils for some years now,have a look on youtube, there are some amazing sights of acrobatic gybesand extremely fast sailing.

FOR SALE

I still have a couple of 1mm ply decks for “J”’s. Ring me on (03) 365 7285if you would like one. They are Ash three ply and are very stropng and light

Ian Scott

CMYC Away Day at Pegasus town

Our away day held on Saturday the 10th April at the superb lake that thedevelopers of Pegasus Town have created for the new town’s residentswas a huge success.The number of boats on the water was around the usual number for ourSaturday sailing, but because of the water quality (absolutely no weed) itwas also decided to run the CMYC 1m champs concurrently. Surprisinglythe event attracted seven starters who had dug their im’s out from the debrisat the back of their sheds and proudly fronted up to OOD Rod Liddy. Asone could expect there were quite a few hiccups largly due to the fact thatnone of the boats had been sailed for a year or more and reliability was verysuspect on some. Above is a pic of the rounding of the windward mark afterthe first beat in the first race. Results were:1 Keith May “Status Quo”2 David Paterson “if only”3 Peter Woodrow “Amy”The J fleet also had a good fun day sailing a different course. All considereda very well attended and enjoyable day, though to return to Victoria afterthese conditions is not easy.

The R Tucker Thompsonnow a sail training ship ay the Bay of Islands

Christchurch Model Yacht Club Incorporated

Commodore: Hugh Hobden 332 9016

Club Captain: Peter Vincent 329 2971

Secretary: Peter Braithwaite 942 6165

Treasurer Simon Ballantyne 322 8826

Sailing Master Mike Hefford 354 0469

Newsletter Editor Ian Scott 365 7285

Frequency Marshall Peter Woodrow 374 6122

WebPages Thysje Arthur, Allan Cook 348 9129