2016
December
2016 - Thanks for the Memories
We take a look back over 2016 and the achievements of skippers using our Sails and Designs around the world and offer some general insight into class happenings and our own thoughts for the year ahead . For the both of us here at BG, this was a year busier than most with a total of 3 World Sailing/IRSA International Championships set within a full calendar of National, Ranking, Open and Club racing within the 4 classes we presently compete in.
IOM – International One Metre Class
BritPOP rolls on!
Vitoria in Spain was the venue for this year’s European Championship that drew a full 76 skipper entry from not only across the continent but also included skippers from China, Singapore, Australia and the United States in this, the most competitive of International radio sailing classes. It was again that our BritPOP!/POP design filled the top places with the title retained by BG narrowly from GBR's Robert Walsh with the result only decided in the last heat where up to four skippers had a realistic chance of taking the Championship. French skippers Alex Carre in 3rd and Olivier Cohen in 4th place rounded out a BritPOP!/POP top four to stamp yet another strong performance for the design at the highest level of competition.
Around the world our design continued to shine at well supported national events taking wins in 8 National Championships including FRA, AUS, GBR, JPN, NOR, TUR, ESP, CHI and a collection of podium places in many more countries.
Here in the UK, it was again a clean sweep of wins in all National Ranking events with wins for BG, Robert Walsh and Colin Goodman. The National Championship this year returned to the venue of the 2011 World Championship on West Kirby’s Marine Lake. It was here again that the BritPOP!/POP showed another dominant display taking the top 5 places with a notable performance from new owner Colin Goodman taking a string of A fleet wins on day 3 for a well earned runner up place behind BG. In 3rd place it was 2011 World Champion Peter Stollery, closely followed by Josh King who showed his class on day 2 to be right in amongst the running and earn a solid 4th overall, just ahead of local, Graham Elliott. A performance of note also was that of long time IOM skipper Nick Martin with a solid top ten finish that included his first ever A fleet heat win at National level with his new BP. Well done Nick!
The IOM class continues to grow within the UK with a solid local based entry for the Nationals testament to this, combined with strong numbers of new boat registrations. On the back of this growth there is now a solid foundation of enthusiastic skippers working towards forming an overdue National Class Association led by experienced skippers Gavin Watson, Graham Elliott and Colin Goodman. Well done all!
M – International Marblehead Class
Grunge defends crown!
September saw the largest entry in twenty years for the International Marblehead Class at 76, contest the 17th World Championship in Limone sul Garda in Italy.
Interest in this year’s event was high with a number of new designs (including 3 pre production versions of our Grunge design), interspersed with older known designs with recent upgrades and modification. Also of significant importance were competitors joining the class from countries such as Russia, New Zealand, United States and Denmark after a number of years absent that added a truly international flavour to the event.
A good week of racing in open water conditions not often experienced by many in attendance, fully tested the all-round abilities of boat design with the original BG Grunge once again defending the title won 2 years previous in Gouda this time from Italian Matteo Longhi and Graham Bantock GBR in 3rd. French skipper Marc Pomarede, builder of the Noutram sailed by both himself and Longhi deserved his solid 4th place finish with another GBR skipper, Darin Ballington taking the first of the new Grunges to 5th place after a week of consistent results, including two heat wins that saw him better many of his more fancied GBR rivals. BG Sails were used on 4 of the top 5 boats.
The Worlds also provided us with an opportunity to see first editions of our Indie lines plan design in action at the highest level. Of special note here with his beautifully own built version to our design using BG Sails was Carl Smith from New Zealand who after a nervous start to his first Inetrnational event, grew into the regatta at a pace that saw him climb through the fleets to post a final heat A fleet result of 12th place to end the regatta. A great result Carl and testament to the ability of a well designed and built home build mixing it at the highest level.
An interesting footnote since returning home Carl has become the man to beat in NZ through experienced gained by travelling to the worlds with new boats under way in an again growing fleet. Well done NZ skippers!
Our BG Sails have featured with National Championship wins in Italy, Switzerland, France and again in the UK for a 5th year in a row here. Indeed the first three places carried BG Sails with BG taking the event at Datchet Water in lumpy overpowered conditions from Matteo Longhi ITA and Marc Pomarede FRA in 3rd.
Locally our Grunge design rounded out the strongest of years winning all events it attended, culminating in clean podium sweeps of the last 3 UK open events held with results shared by 5 skippers showing its capabilities in different hands.
Pleasingly the Marblehead class both abroad and in the UK continues to grow steadily with a number of new designs and builds under construction. Matteo Longhi , assisted by Nigel Winkley and Henning Faas of Germany, is doing great work as Chairman of a working party to form a workable International Marblehead Class Association (Please get in contact with these guys if you would like to get in and help them). It is hoped by many here in the UK that a National Class Association administered by active boat owners is not far behind. The nonsense of rule ‘discussions’ driven by self interest locally in late 15 and throughout this year should not be allowed to be repeated. A class under the collective control of active class owners and skippers within an association is the logical solution, not individuals.
Production Grunge
Darin Ballington GBR 98 |
10R – International Ten Rater Class
Trance arrives!
This year saw the faster, more technically open design of radio sailing classes hold its first World Championship in 17 years on the back of steady growth seen similar to the Marblehead class. Through smart thinking on the part of organisers and IRSA, it was deemed wise to host the 8th Ten Rater Worlds on the back of the M Worlds in Italy for a 3 day event with a reduced maximum entry for 3 fleets with 47 skippers.
After conditions stretching from the lightest A rigs to postponing gale force winds on safety grounds, our Trance took a strong win over the class benchmark and immaculately prepared Diamond of defending champion Graham Bantock in second with top French skipper Chris Boisnault in 3rd.
What we believe to be the significance of the Trance win was that it was the culmination of over 2 years work and commitment to produce a design capable of beating the very best across a full range of conditions, with this being our first attempt in the class. Like any new design there will be tweaks and trims needed here or there, some big, some small, some not even warranted and a fresh start-over required but it is knowing when changes are needed instead of masking problems through denial or for want of a better term arrogance, that a project moves forward.
In this it was despite a solid win in the 2015 UK Nationals at West Kirby over the Diamond and Graham that it was noticeable to us that the design lacked pitching stability through waterline length by being shorter in overall length than the longer designs present. When heeled the bow would not press and the boat held a bow up trim. Downwind in both waves and flat water the performance was noticeable better than the opposition and this was the key to winning that event over long courses where the gains downwind far outweighed the upwind losses that whilst not dire, could be improved on.
With little opportunity to test further in the UK over the winter it was decided to lengthen the original Trance in Australia of which builder Scott Condie used to go on and win the National Championship there in early February of this year. Here in the UK it was decided to make dedicated lower C & D rigs, replacing borrowed Grunge M rigs and to test these before any hull modifications. On the same weekend in February, Trance raced in bitterly cold B & C rig conditions on open water where wins over a 2 day ranking race were shared a day apiece with the Diamond. In spite of some poor sailing and a heavy cold, it was still obvious that the upwind performance needed a boost to match the steady Diamond through waves. What to do………
Complete new boat? For 5 days total racing not a great investment of my time…
Leave it as it is and hope for the best? The idea of taking a knife to a gunfight often ends in failure…
Modify the existing boat? Could it be done and remain light enough? Lets give it a go….
What transpired in the 6 months between late February and the UK Nationals in September was a complete redesign of the existing boat from the fin case aft. Of most importance was to minimise any downside to the existing excellent downwind performance whilst making sure to retain the sail area we were happy with. A tricky exercise and very testing to not end up with something that when heeled would better match the buoyancy of the bow section and help press it a little to extend the waterline not only aft but forward as well.
Once the design was settled on a good week was taken to mull over whether to risk destroying what was still an extremely competitive and winning design or bite the bullet and trust that we could do better. First after aligning the hull in a jig, foam shadows were epoxy tacked onto the bottom of the hull. Then came the task of fitting foam between these shadows to be cleaned down to the final altered hull shape. Transom then extended and fitted, foam shaped and glassed, faired with epoxy filler after carefully marking and taping where any potential new join would be made. A final fairing of the deck and sides and paint was added. Next up was a test sail in C rig conditions at West Kirby where despite a weight increase the boat felt a lot more solid upwind with less pitching in waves. The decision was made to press on with a mould then taken from the rear section of the hull and a new lightweight carbon Kevlar section moulded and carefully aligned and mated into the existing hull. The exiting internals of the hull were used where possible and after a small amount of fairing over the join area paint was added and finished ready to go again. Off to the tank where some very slight anticipated adjustments were made to the ballast position that in the end left us with a less than 3mm longer waterline but a boat 160mm longer overall and a generous amount of extra chine width for the hull to rest on when heeled but a minimum amount of added wetted area so as not to changed light air performance.
Trance arrives!
This year saw the faster, more technically open design of radio sailing classes hold its first World Championship in 17 years on the back of steady growth seen similar to the Marblehead class. Through smart thinking on the part of organisers and IRSA, it was deemed wise to host the 8th Ten Rater Worlds on the back of the M Worlds in Italy for a 3 day event with a reduced maximum entry for 3 fleets with 47 skippers.
After conditions stretching from the lightest A rigs to postponing gale force winds on safety grounds, our Trance took a strong win over the class benchmark and immaculately prepared Diamond of defending champion Graham Bantock in second with top French skipper Chris Boisnault in 3rd.
What we believe to be the significance of the Trance win was that it was the culmination of over 2 years work and commitment to produce a design capable of beating the very best across a full range of conditions, with this being our first attempt in the class. Like any new design there will be tweaks and trims needed here or there, some big, some small, some not even warranted and a fresh start-over required but it is knowing when changes are needed instead of masking problems through denial or for want of a better term arrogance, that a project moves forward.
In this it was despite a solid win in the 2015 UK Nationals at West Kirby over the Diamond and Graham that it was noticeable to us that the design lacked pitching stability through waterline length by being shorter in overall length than the longer designs present. When heeled the bow would not press and the boat held a bow up trim. Downwind in both waves and flat water the performance was noticeable better than the opposition and this was the key to winning that event over long courses where the gains downwind far outweighed the upwind losses that whilst not dire, could be improved on.
With little opportunity to test further in the UK over the winter it was decided to lengthen the original Trance in Australia of which builder Scott Condie used to go on and win the National Championship there in early February of this year. Here in the UK it was decided to make dedicated lower C & D rigs, replacing borrowed Grunge M rigs and to test these before any hull modifications. On the same weekend in February, Trance raced in bitterly cold B & C rig conditions on open water where wins over a 2 day ranking race were shared a day apiece with the Diamond. In spite of some poor sailing and a heavy cold, it was still obvious that the upwind performance needed a boost to match the steady Diamond through waves. What to do………
Complete new boat? For 5 days total racing not a great investment of my time…
Leave it as it is and hope for the best? The idea of taking a knife to a gunfight often ends in failure…
Modify the existing boat? Could it be done and remain light enough? Lets give it a go….
What transpired in the 6 months between late February and the UK Nationals in September was a complete redesign of the existing boat from the fin case aft. Of most importance was to minimise any downside to the existing excellent downwind performance whilst making sure to retain the sail area we were happy with. A tricky exercise and very testing to not end up with something that when heeled would better match the buoyancy of the bow section and help press it a little to extend the waterline not only aft but forward as well.
Once the design was settled on a good week was taken to mull over whether to risk destroying what was still an extremely competitive and winning design or bite the bullet and trust that we could do better. First after aligning the hull in a jig, foam shadows were epoxy tacked onto the bottom of the hull. Then came the task of fitting foam between these shadows to be cleaned down to the final altered hull shape. Transom then extended and fitted, foam shaped and glassed, faired with epoxy filler after carefully marking and taping where any potential new join would be made. A final fairing of the deck and sides and paint was added. Next up was a test sail in C rig conditions at West Kirby where despite a weight increase the boat felt a lot more solid upwind with less pitching in waves. The decision was made to press on with a mould then taken from the rear section of the hull and a new lightweight carbon Kevlar section moulded and carefully aligned and mated into the existing hull. The exiting internals of the hull were used where possible and after a small amount of fairing over the join area paint was added and finished ready to go again. Off to the tank where some very slight anticipated adjustments were made to the ballast position that in the end left us with a less than 3mm longer waterline but a boat 160mm longer overall and a generous amount of extra chine width for the hull to rest on when heeled but a minimum amount of added wetted area so as not to changed light air performance.
Trance modification from template fit through to completed hull ready to paint
With only one weekend to test the boat before the Nationals a trip to West Kirby saw the boat in overpowered C rig conditions again where due to a king tide water had gone over the sea wall creating the kind of open water waves that would be expected in Datchet and Garda. Boat felt fantastic and wanted to be driven hard. A feature of our other designs had finally shown itself in that when footing off upwind for speed instead of height the boat accelerated significantly. Its an old adage that all boats feel fast by themselves but in this case it all just felt right.
The Nationals at Datchet proved to be nothing like Garda with light offshore winds and flat water giving us at times reaching courses that were less than ideal. Still, it was nice to finally race the boat in the conditions and come out on top to defend the Championship. The boat only ever felt sticky when the jib would not stay goose winged in the lightest of wind.
With days left before Garda, a new lightweight jib and boom to match was built in case of light races in sloppy wave conditions as expected, along with a reduction in jib sizes on the smaller rigs after reducing the A rig jib to meet the new waterline measurement. It was also felt that the fat topped mainsails were creating a little too much drag and unwanted ‘false’ rig height against the expected competition with lower sail profiles so these were trimmed to a less extreme profile.
On the back of the Marblehead event the final test was Garda and the performance of the boat after so much effort could not have been more pleasing. It wanted more power to be thrown at it upwind and was as fast as ever downwind with the hull changes allowing the boat to be driven harder than before without fear of losing the bow before anyone else. Trance managed to win races in the lightest of A rig as well as in comfortable D rig in large waves and we feel proved every bit the equal or better than anything on the water. Given the level of experience and design knowledge of our opposition in this class the result is one that we are most proud of.
Now with the original Trance of Scott's in Germany, we have decided that our boat will be best served racing regularly back in Australia against the strong local fleets there, rather than sitting idle here in the UK, sadly due to a lack of scheduled class racing for 2017. It is from this point after final testing that any possible step towards production can be finalised, along with offering a lines plan design should there be interest in such.
A very big thank you again to ScottCondie in Sydney, Australia for the time, effort and encouragement you put into this project as without you it would never have become a reality.
The Nationals at Datchet proved to be nothing like Garda with light offshore winds and flat water giving us at times reaching courses that were less than ideal. Still, it was nice to finally race the boat in the conditions and come out on top to defend the Championship. The boat only ever felt sticky when the jib would not stay goose winged in the lightest of wind.
With days left before Garda, a new lightweight jib and boom to match was built in case of light races in sloppy wave conditions as expected, along with a reduction in jib sizes on the smaller rigs after reducing the A rig jib to meet the new waterline measurement. It was also felt that the fat topped mainsails were creating a little too much drag and unwanted ‘false’ rig height against the expected competition with lower sail profiles so these were trimmed to a less extreme profile.
On the back of the Marblehead event the final test was Garda and the performance of the boat after so much effort could not have been more pleasing. It wanted more power to be thrown at it upwind and was as fast as ever downwind with the hull changes allowing the boat to be driven harder than before without fear of losing the bow before anyone else. Trance managed to win races in the lightest of A rig as well as in comfortable D rig in large waves and we feel proved every bit the equal or better than anything on the water. Given the level of experience and design knowledge of our opposition in this class the result is one that we are most proud of.
Now with the original Trance of Scott's in Germany, we have decided that our boat will be best served racing regularly back in Australia against the strong local fleets there, rather than sitting idle here in the UK, sadly due to a lack of scheduled class racing for 2017. It is from this point after final testing that any possible step towards production can be finalised, along with offering a lines plan design should there be interest in such.
A very big thank you again to ScottCondie in Sydney, Australia for the time, effort and encouragement you put into this project as without you it would never have become a reality.
Trance at UK Nationals 2016
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Trance 1 and 2 at Lake Garda, Italy
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RG65 Class
Electronica shines!
Time restrictions due to other projects unfortunately limited our opportunity to race Electronica in 2016 to only two open events held locally. Both were won convincingly by BG following further tweaking of both the rig plan and fin depths. It is our belief as with the Marblehead and 10R class, that there should be no need with a well designed and balanced RG for differing fin lengths and bulb weights to win at the highest level. We feel we are close to the optimum on this but are looking to do more testing in 2017 matched against a few minimal hull modifications before the design is released for production.
Thank you 2016
2016 has been a busy year of performances and goals reached that we are both incredibly proud of. To presently hold three of the four International Radio Sailing Association World Championship trophies, along with the European IOM Championship is an amazing honour for us. To reach these goals against the best in the world has taken an enormous amount of dedication and commitment within the sport we have both enjoyed since our youth but it is only in reflection that we realise that with such a heavy focus, many sacrifices have been made that compromise other areas of life.
It is with this in mind we will be looking to take more time to explore other new and exciting challenges in 2017, both inside and outside of radio sailing to ensure we remain fresh and still attracted to all aspects of the sport we enjoy for many years to come.
That pretty much wraps things up for 2016 and it only remains to thank our licensed manufacturers, our customers new and old and our supporters from places near and far for your continued support, loyalty and friendship.
Wherever you are and whatever you race we hope 2017 is a good one for you!
We look forward to catching up with you soon on the water or in the clubhouse for a pint.
2016 Results of skippers using BG Sails
IOM (Britpop/BG Sails unless stated)
1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th & 10th IOM European Championship - BG (Pop), Rob Walsh, Olivier Cohen, Tony Edwards, Juan Marcos Egea (Sails only)
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR IOM Nationals - BG (Pop), Colin Goodman, Peter Stollery
1st & 2nd AUS IOM Nationals - Scott Mitchell, Scott Condie
1st TUR IOM Nationals - Kaya Dinar
1st & 2nd NOR IOM Nationals - Per Robert Jentsch, Torvald Klem
1st JPN Nationals - Minao Hirao
2nd & 3rd ITA IOM Nationals - Pierluigi Puthod, Gianluigi Rudoni
1st CHI IOM Nationals - Andres Bozzo
1st ESP Nationals - Miguel Salvador Iriate
1st FRA Pierrelatte Open - Pierluigi Puthod
Marblehead
1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th World Championship - BG, Matteo Longhi, Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only), Darin Ballington
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Nationals - BG, Matteo Longhi, Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only)
1st FRA Nationals - Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only)
1st ITA Nationals - Matteo Longhi
1st SUI Marblehead Open - Lenzerheide - Matteo Longhi
1st GBR Ranking - Norwich - Peter Stollery
1st GBR Ranking - Keighley - BG (day 1 & 2)
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Ranking - Manor Park - BG, Tony Edwards, James Edwards (day 1 & 2) All Grunges
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Ranking - Guildford - Darin Ballington, Colin Goodman, Tony Edwards (day 1 & 2) All Grunges
10 Rater
1st World Championship – BG
1st GBR Nationals - BG - Trance
1st AUS Nationals - Scott Condie - Trance
Electronica shines!
Time restrictions due to other projects unfortunately limited our opportunity to race Electronica in 2016 to only two open events held locally. Both were won convincingly by BG following further tweaking of both the rig plan and fin depths. It is our belief as with the Marblehead and 10R class, that there should be no need with a well designed and balanced RG for differing fin lengths and bulb weights to win at the highest level. We feel we are close to the optimum on this but are looking to do more testing in 2017 matched against a few minimal hull modifications before the design is released for production.
Thank you 2016
2016 has been a busy year of performances and goals reached that we are both incredibly proud of. To presently hold three of the four International Radio Sailing Association World Championship trophies, along with the European IOM Championship is an amazing honour for us. To reach these goals against the best in the world has taken an enormous amount of dedication and commitment within the sport we have both enjoyed since our youth but it is only in reflection that we realise that with such a heavy focus, many sacrifices have been made that compromise other areas of life.
It is with this in mind we will be looking to take more time to explore other new and exciting challenges in 2017, both inside and outside of radio sailing to ensure we remain fresh and still attracted to all aspects of the sport we enjoy for many years to come.
That pretty much wraps things up for 2016 and it only remains to thank our licensed manufacturers, our customers new and old and our supporters from places near and far for your continued support, loyalty and friendship.
Wherever you are and whatever you race we hope 2017 is a good one for you!
We look forward to catching up with you soon on the water or in the clubhouse for a pint.
2016 Results of skippers using BG Sails
IOM (Britpop/BG Sails unless stated)
1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th & 10th IOM European Championship - BG (Pop), Rob Walsh, Olivier Cohen, Tony Edwards, Juan Marcos Egea (Sails only)
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR IOM Nationals - BG (Pop), Colin Goodman, Peter Stollery
1st & 2nd AUS IOM Nationals - Scott Mitchell, Scott Condie
1st TUR IOM Nationals - Kaya Dinar
1st & 2nd NOR IOM Nationals - Per Robert Jentsch, Torvald Klem
1st JPN Nationals - Minao Hirao
2nd & 3rd ITA IOM Nationals - Pierluigi Puthod, Gianluigi Rudoni
1st CHI IOM Nationals - Andres Bozzo
1st ESP Nationals - Miguel Salvador Iriate
1st FRA Pierrelatte Open - Pierluigi Puthod
Marblehead
1st, 2nd, 4th & 5th World Championship - BG, Matteo Longhi, Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only), Darin Ballington
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Nationals - BG, Matteo Longhi, Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only)
1st FRA Nationals - Marc Pomarede (A & A2 BG Sails only)
1st ITA Nationals - Matteo Longhi
1st SUI Marblehead Open - Lenzerheide - Matteo Longhi
1st GBR Ranking - Norwich - Peter Stollery
1st GBR Ranking - Keighley - BG (day 1 & 2)
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Ranking - Manor Park - BG, Tony Edwards, James Edwards (day 1 & 2) All Grunges
1st, 2nd & 3rd GBR Ranking - Guildford - Darin Ballington, Colin Goodman, Tony Edwards (day 1 & 2) All Grunges
10 Rater
1st World Championship – BG
1st GBR Nationals - BG - Trance
1st AUS Nationals - Scott Condie - Trance
International 10 Rater and Marblehead
World Champions 2016 |
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