History
During the cold months of early 2011 Peter Landsdale and Robin Hamilton thought it would be nice to start a model yacht racing section at CYC. They thought it best to promote racing a single one design boat and chose the RC Laser class. Robin then started drumming up support for the new group. By May 2011 there were 10 RC Lasers sailing at CYC, by December 2011 there were 15 boats in the fleet and now there are 17 of us.
The RC Laser’s hull is just over a meter long and is a scaled down standard Laser hull but fitted with a keel and, for a Laser, a large rudder. The RC Laser has a choice of 4 rigs, ranging from the drifter A rig to the storm D rig, that supports sailing in wide range of wind strengths. Details of the RC Laser class can be found on the association’s website.
The CYC RC Laser sailors sail on Chichester Harbour, and therefore are restricted to sailing around high water, and sail from CYC between the club jetties and the marina’s waiting pontoon. We also either race dinghies, mainly Solos, at CYC or own yachts moored somewhere in Chichester Harbour and disappear to far flung places in the summer.
At first the few RC Laser sailors cruised around but racing soon broke out and moving into the summer the racing become more serious. During the autumn of 2011 we started to obey some of the rules, we started doing ‘turns’ – just a tack and a gybe for model yachts actually – for hitting marks and port & starboard incidents, and by the winter of 2011 we were starting to obey the mark rounding rules, although obeying rules at the start was some way off! For 2013 we have a proper set of sailing instructions and are really trying to obey all the rules.
In the summer of 2011 Adrian Rowe took on the leadership of the group with the help of Roger Millett and Andy Skynner. Adrian is our fleet captain, Roger is our Race Officer and Andy is our Bosun.
Peter Landsdale gave the model yachters a rescue and mark laying dinghy, thanks Peter, it is kept in the dinghy park towards the marina near the fence, with its rowlocks and oars in it. And also thanks to Robin for lending us his yacht’s tender over the first few months as a rescue boat. Adrian and Ras have developed some racing marks which are now in use, thanks Adrain and Ras, and a proper model yacht race start timer has been donated by Tony Reader for the model yachters, thanks Tony.
In 2011 we completed our first race series, which Adrian won by a country mile, where on each day about 7 boats raced, but we peaked at 11 boats and even had 9 boats out on the last frozen day.
If you would like to try sailing an RC Laser contact the club, Adrian Rowe contact us using the form below.
The CYC Model Yachters are:
Andrew Martin – RC Laser 912
Peter Bovey – RC Laser 914
Andy Skynner – RC Laser 923
Adrian Rowe – RC Laser 924
Roger Millett – RC Laser 927
Brian Turtil – RC Laser 929
Allan Porter – RC Laser 930
Tony Reader – RC Laser 931
Peter Landsdale – RC Laser 936
Hugh Whitehead – RC Laser 940
Ras Turner – RC Laser 947
Nick Colbourne – RC Laser 949
Richard Saker – RC Laser 951
Stuart Robertson – RC Laser 955
Peter Hughes – RC Laser 961
Dan Ayton – RC Laser 995
Mark Harper – RC Laser 1018
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