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Sailing boats were very popular with the Cygnets members in the
1980's but died out almost completely in the 1990's. However in the
early years of the 2000's, a couple of members started sailing and
soon others were adding yachts to their fleet. With this
resurgence of interest a separate sail section within the Club was
formed - this section continues to grow and approximately 20% of the
memberships have yachts, some have also
Thames
sailing barges. The attraction for sailing is that for a
comparatively low outlay, say £120.00, one can have a very
attractive and simple to construct model which performs well on
the water.
In 2004 it was decided to run a
internal Club sailing competition based on a handicap system and run
over a ten month (February to November) series of races. The
competition was originally for the Cygnets Sail Trophy which was
presented at the Annual General Meeting. Late in 2004 one of the
stalwarts of the Sail section, Ronnie Richardson, died and it was
agreed that the trophy would be renamed in his honour. This trophy
is competed for annually and presented to the best skipper.
Various handicap systems have been tried but the most popular
is what we call as the "chasing handicap". It works very
simply the boats/skippers filling the first five positions in a
previous race are handicapped In the next race and have to chase
down the pack in front of them. The handicaps range from 5 minutes
for the previous race winner to 1 minute to the one who finished in
fifth place. This handicap system works for our Club and is very
popular with the participants.
The competition has become very popular with a variety of yachts
being entered. However, this caused a few headaches for the scorers
as there were now boats of varying sizes competing for one trophy.
In 2008 the committee decided to split the sailing into three
separate classes, each with their own cup and the Ronnie Richardson
Trophy being presented to the most accomplished skipper.
In the past we have convened a
Sailing Regatta but this year, 2008, the decision was made to
incorporate it in our primary fun day Boats on the Mote which is to
be held in mid July.
In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the Cygnets Model Boat Club hosted the
Championship Finals for the Association of Model Barge Owners (A.M.B.O.).
Again for 2008, we have been asked to host the Championship Finals
on the lake in
Mote
Park
,
Maidstone
, on Sunday the 23rd September. In fact, to whet your
appetite, we will be hosting a Championship Round for AMBO on the 25th
of May. You are very welcome to come along and enjoy the
proceedings of the day.
The Sail section of the Club
operates almost exclusively on Sunday mornings throughout the year when
many yachts take to the water - come along and see for your self. If
you have a model yacht of your own - bring it along and have a sail
- you will be made very welcome.
Sailing a model yacht is a very
relaxing pastime in that you concentrate on the skills of getting
your boat to perform and you can forget your worries (if you have
any!!!)
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