We would like to thank all involved and the Racers who made the weekend a great Regatta, the contributions allowed us to donate £1000 to Cancer Research.

Many thanks
Michael
Elmbridge Marine Section Secretary

We enjoyed good weather yet again, cloudy chilly start but it did warm up a bit later. Due to no entries in the 3.5 hydro class we had a forshortened race card,.This was cut again when someone managed to right off 2 boats on the same buoy, thus eliminating the 15 hydro class, there only being 2 boats entered.
The 7.5 offshore class enjoyed some good close racing and was one of the highlight races of the day. The open offshore class continues to be the dominant class with 9 entries. With so many boats & with the speed of these, driving needs to be improved. When racing it is imperative that lines are held. I would suggest that all take time to review the race rules both MPBA & IMBRA, as one refers to the other.
Let’s all hope that next year we all enjoy better reliability have our boats sorted properly & have fuller heats.
Again, it is thanks to the Elbridge guys for manning the catering side of things. Brilliant job yet again
The unadopted minutes from the AGM held on Sunday have been sent out in a separate email. Please have a read & if you have any queries or additions let me know.
That’s all for now, hope you all enjoyed the racing this year & looking forward to next year.
Regards to all.
Grahame

A final word

I wasn’t able to attend the second day, so thanks again to Grahame for the write up.

With 3 World Champions and a Silver Medalist in 3.5cc Hydro, this class provided the best racing of the day. Work pressures again means the following report is again courtesy Grahame Morgan

Podiums

The meeting was pretty well attended, which was great to see. Most classes managed to have at least 3 entries, which at least meant a chance of having a meaningful race. The one downside was the sport 60, just a single entrant. Another issue is people not turning up when booked in. This means more work to rearrange heats and can lead to people missing out on racing due to low numbers. We will always try to give everyone a chance to run, this is especially important as they may have traveled a long way.
If you book in for an event and subsequently find you cannot make it, please let us know. This can be done via the MPBA website or by email to Keith or myself.
Anyway we got the meeting off very early, which was great as weather was hot and sunny and helped those travelling get away at a reasonable time for journey home.
Weh ope you all enjoyed the day and had safe trips home. Thanks for your support. Thanks also to the Elmbridge guys who slaved away in the heat cooking a endless supply of food for both breakfast and lunch. Well done chaps much appreciated.
There is no event in August, this is planned so you can all enjoy a month off for the IMBRA World Championships, holidays or to get your boats properly sorted for reliability, which some suffer from more than others.
So the next meeting will be the charity event on September 17/18. This was run for the first time last year and proved very successful, raising more than £1,000 for Cancer Research charity. The format will be the same with multi racing on Saturday 17th and circuit on Sunday 18th. Camping onsite is available if needed and food will available both days. Please bring your own mugs for tea/coffee at reduced rate.
If you have any bits and pieces you would like to donate for sale or sell (with a donation to charity funds) please bring along.
Finally all boats must meet the MPBA noise limit requirements. This applies to multi boats as well. It would be good if someone in the multi section could highlight this to those racers.
One final point – There are updated circuit section rules. these will shortly be added to the MPBA website but here’s a heads up on them. Changes are paras 1.7 & 5.1.
Enjoy the good weather, stay safe and look forward to seeing you all in September.
Regards
Grahame

A final word

Elmbridge is under an hour’s travelling for me and it’s just nice day out by a lake. It’s the exception rather than the rule for more than 2 boats to finish any race these days. That’s really not what you expect for a National Competition.

As usual, the organisers would appreciate it if people booked in as soon as they know they are coming. I could not stay for the whole day on Sunday, so the following report is from Grahame Morgan.

Podiums

Having just held our annual Circuit Section Nationals I thought I would write a short report of the event.

Having had the Multi section Masters event on the Saturday 11th, the Circuit event was on the Sunday 12th. With good weather we were set for a good day of racing. Numbers were very much down this year. This resulted in there not being a 3.5 hydro race. The 15 hydro, 7.5 & 15 offshore classes only had 3 competitors each. Luckily the 35 offshore had a good entry of 10 racers. This is turning into a very popular class.

Racing got under way at at around 10.30am, which is early for us but bode well for an early finish. However, throughout the day we had delays, this was mainly down to low numbers, having to wait while boat issues were sorted to enable the maximum number to race. It’s always disappointing to see so few boats start a race but worse still that none finish. Then as the day went on attrition took it’s toll & numbers dropped again. Luckily the 35 offshore class put on a reasonable show. With some new competitors entering, this class is looking up. During the heats there were some fallers, I think more from water conditions than anything mechanical, as with 10 boats the water did get a bit choppy.

By the time of the prize giving it was quite late on & some who had long journeys home had departed, we still have your trophies.

I hope you all had a good day & got home safely, Thanks to all who turned up & to those who helped out during the day to enable racing to go ahead.

Thanks also to the members of the host club, Elmbridge for supporting the event & catering for the masses, much appreciated.

One last thing, the section on your behalf spent £495 on trophies (everything has gone up in price) for this event. Entry fees did not come anywhere near covering the cost even before we had paid Elmbridge for use of lake. A vote was taken at the prize giving where it was agreed that this sort of money, given the low turnout was too much. So for next time there will be some prizes that will be of the consumable type, drinkable & edible.

Well that’s it, hope you can all make the next meeting which is on the 10th July.
Grahame

A final word

As Graham said, a little less attrition would improve the racing.

Statics

Static shots of most of the competitors boats

Podiums

Podium Pics

3.5 Hydro

Dave Marles takes the win with a maximum in round 1 and 2 starts. Not a good day for Keith and Martin with no finishes. Dave leads the 2022 Drivers Championship on 450

7.5 Hydro

Long time absentee Steve Clements has kept his form, finishes every round and just pips Martin Fields’ 2 maximums and a start. Del Owen takes 3rd with a consistent 3 finishes. No so good for Tony Jarvis today with just one start in the final round. Derek still leads the Championship by 475 points as Steve missed round 1

15 Hydro

Derek Owen took a comfortable win with 2 maximums. Tony Jarvis managed just one start and Dave Marles didn’t get off the bank due to engine troubles. Del leads the 15h Championship

3.5 Offshore

It was great to see MPBA Chairmain Mick Fields out and about again. Mick drives his offshore like a multi – buoy to buoy so there’s no chance of overtaking him on the inside. Mick took a comfortable win with a total of 69 laps. Another long-time-no-see competitor, Thomas took 2nd place with 44. Dean had suffered all day with water ingress and could only manage 3 laps in the final round. Mick jumps to the top of the O3.5 Championship.

7.5 Offshore

Les and Mick enjoyed a good battle in the 7.5O class. Les emerges victorious by 9 laps. Les sits atop the O7.5 Championship with maximum points from 2 races.

15 Offshore

Mick B beats Mark Rice by just 4 laps but Mark still leads the O15 Championship by a slim 3 point margin from Les

35 Offshore

Dave Marles won this class after battling through some demolition derby style heats. Here’s a couple of crash sequences from the many. Jonathan Wilkins showed everyone how to drive with his electric powered boat and giant cells. James Taylor still leads the O35 Championship by 9 points despite todays engine troubles.

Sport 60

Adrian Marshall just pipped Les Wall for the win scoring 1,100 to Les’ 1,000. The Sport 60 Championship will likely be contested by these 2 with nothing really separating them in terms of speed.

A final word

A great day out, lovely weather, some spectacular crashes captured, some new faces and the return of some old ones. Looking forward to the 2 day Masters / Nationals on the 11/12 June.

Commentary

The rust had really set in over the winter and the day was littered with a series of crashes, with one unfortunately causing a huge amount of damage:

All the competitors

A final word

It’s always good to be at Elmbridge as it’s not far from home for me and the great weather meant a nice Sunday by the lake. On the other hand, this is national competition and the standard of driving at certain times was truly shocking. Some blame must also lie with the mechanics for failing to warn of dead boats.

As a committee, we have made the decision that it would be prudent not to hold a circuit section AGM again this year given the current Covid situation. In lieu this post should keep everyone up to date with the going on’s of the section this year and proposals for 2022.

Events

We were able to hold three meetings this year, the first was in August. The weather was kind to us and there was quite a good turn out under the circumstances. It was great to see everyone again after such a long time, getting out again, meeting up and enjoying their hobby.
The second event held in September was a combined Multi / Circuit regatta, normally held in June. It was a full weekend event with racing on Saturday and Sunday, and is always a popular event. Again, the weather was good to us and there was some great racing. The Elmbridge Club put on a brilliant show with the food once again, lovely breakfast rolls & superb burgers for lunch.

An extra event was also held, this was a charity event in memory of those boaters who sadly passed away this year. The format differed slightly having multi racing on Saturday and Circuit racing on Sunday. Again, food was provided by the Elmbridge Club throughout the weekend. Two great days of racing where had by all and best of all we managed to raise £1010.00 from entries, food, camping and voluntary donations. A big thanks to all that helped and supported to make this such a great event. The raised funds have been sent to the Cancer Research charity. Acknowledgement Letter

A big thanks to Kath Clements for preparing our accounts again. Section accounts.
To all those who are currently holding annual trophies, we know who you are, these were last awarded at the AGM in 2019. I would like to remind you to get them engraved, polished and return at the first meeting next year, without fail!

Proposed races for 2022:

• 10th April
• 8th May
• 12th June
• 10th July
• 18th September

Rules

With the increasing size and speed of the boats competing in the Open Offshore Class we are introducing further safety requirements to race next year. These are being introduced to minimise the risk of an accident, injury or worse should they leave the water! We, as a section, have a great safety record and it is better to proactive rather than reactive. The first requirement is easy, and is built into most modern radio equipment, it is the use of a failsafe unit to kill the engine. Secondary to this, a system is also required to cut the ignition if the receiver loses a signal from the transmitter or there is a power failure to the receiver. There are several proprietary systems on the market such as the unit from Prestwich Models or Killer RC from as little as £10.00

If anyone has any matters arising from this mail or suggestions on the section, please mail me to discuss.

Lastly if anyone is interested in taking on any committee positions, again please mail me indicating your interest, please!!!

Regards
Grahame.

Multi
Detailed Results | Drivers Championship
3.5cc
I was looking forward to the first clash between Phill Fields with his new Ikarus 3 and Zack Humphries (Current European and World 3.5cc champion). This produced some excellent close racing. Phill took the overall win with Zack uncharacteristically stopping in both rounds with suspected water ingress to the engine bay. A shock 2 defeats in a row in 3.5cc for Zack after the Masters. And a 100% 2 out of 2 for Phill with his Ikarus 3
3.5cc fastest laps Round 1 | Round 2

All the 3.5cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Phill Fields, 2nd Zack Humphries, 3rd Dave Hole

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7.5cc
The 7.5 was fairly uneventful. Martin Fields 1st round score of 62 laps was unchallenged. being 5 clear of 2nd placed Nigel Smith
7.5cc fastest laps Round 1 | Round 2

All the 7.5cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Martin Fields, 2nd Nigel Smith, 3rd Robert Daniel

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15cc
Zacks 1st round score of 73 was the highest laps of the day and sealed a comfortable win
15cc fastest laps: Round 1 | Round 2

All the 15cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Zack Humphries, 2nd Phill Fields, 3rd Mike Holliday

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27cc
James Taylor back on form with an easy win beating all the Tiger King reeds.
27cc fastest laps: Round 1 | Round 2

All the 27cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st James Taylor, 2nd Mick Pain, 3rd Stuart Wise

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Circuit
Detailed Results | Drivers Championship
3.5cc Hydro
Just Keith and Martin again in this class

All the 3.5cc Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Keith Burgess, 2nd Martin Fields, 3rd Dave Marles

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7.5cc Hydro
Excellent racing including the sequence below

All the 7.5cc Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Martin Fields, 2nd Derek Owen, 3rd= Andrew Aykroyd and Keith Burgess

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Open Hydro
Major mishap for Dave Marles, splitting his gas rigger in two. Martin and Dean managing to recover half of the tub from the bottom of the lake was a minor miracle.

All the Open Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Derek Owen, 2nd Dave Marles

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3.5cc Mono
Good to see a new competitor in Dean, but still lacking in numbers

All the 3.5cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Luke, 2nd Mick Fields

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7.5cc Mono
Can’t remember anything about this class

All the 7.5cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Julian Waumsley, 2nd Les Wall, 3rd Mick Bonny

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15cc Mono
Can’t remember anything about this class

All the 15cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Robert Daniel, 2nd Les Wall, 3rd Mick Bonny

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35cc Mono
The one worth waiting for? Not really. The poor standard in the UK continues with repeated attrition leaving just a couple of boats on the water. This is not real competition and the racers need to take a long hard look at themselves. The big money spent in this class seems a bit of a waste when you can’t even get two laps into the race without breaking down. Very disappointing.

All the 35cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st James Taylor, 2nd Steve Whenham, 3rd Paul Day

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Sport 60
Nothing remarkable here as usual

1st Adrian Marshall, 2nd Les Wall

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A final word
Another great joint event. And a sizeable sum raised for charity

We began with a minutes silence to remember Chas Tedder and John Whitaker, both taken far too soon and huge contributors to their clubs and the hobby in general. RIP Chas and John.

34 Multi entries was remarkably only 3 down on the 2019 entry, 2 due to unforeseen illness and one who booked in and just didn’t show up or tell anyone they weren’t coming. It is especially frustrating when that happens as it takes people to run these events and allocated jobs are not filled. You know who you are, but don’t lose sleep over it as we had a great event despite your no-show.
Once again, our thanks go to the guys at Elmbridge for hosting this event, and all the volunteers who worked tirelessly facilitating the running of the meeting and those who provided a constant supply of food and drinks throughout the weekend.

Multi
Detailed Results | Drivers Championship
3.5cc
To run a single 12 boat heat, you need 29 people available – The competitors and their mechanics, 3 judges and 2 doing the lapcounting. We were desperately trying to run as one race, but this didn’t seem possible without knowing exactly who would be available on Day 1. So, we split the 1st round into 2 heats. Predictably, with the usual attrition, this produced unremarkable racing. At the end of Day 1, Julian led from Dave Hole and Grahame Morgan.
Having endured this on Day 1, and with good spectator attendance, we decided there were enough bodies to run a single heat on Day 2. This was a great decision, resulting in one of the best races I’ve seen for ages. There were some individual stoppages, but for the most part we had 9 boats on the water throughout the race.
Current World and European 3.5 Champion Zack Humphries suffered a disastrous start, stopping at the first buoy and losing several laps whilst his boat was recovered by the rescue team. This proved decisive in the final result which saw the top 3 all within one lap. Jackson Aykroyd was putting on another astonishing display in his 1st season and was desperately unlucky to stop a few times after being swamped by wash. Make him an engine cover dad!
3.5cc fastest laps Round 1 | Round 2

All the 3.5cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Julian Waumsley, 2nd Dave Hole, 3rd Zack Humphries

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7.5cc
Having set a decent score in round 1 where nobody else did a full race, Andrew Aykroyd was in pole position for day 2. However, a very strong drive by Geoff Parmenter saw him clock up an outstanding 66 laps – Only 2 less than Zacks 15cc score. Geoff takes the win from Andrew with MPBA Chairman Mick Fields 3rd.
7.5cc fastest laps Round 1 | Round 2

All the 7.5cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Geoff Parmenter, 2nd Andrew Aykroyd, 3rd Mick Fields

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15cc
The 15cc class saw the lowest number of entrants. The economics of 15cc are clearly being felt with a very noticeable shift towards the 27cc class.
A few incidents where pit men may have been guilty of watching the race and not what was in front of their driver, made life more exciting than necessary for the rescue crew.
A fairly comfortable win for Zack Humphries peppered with a few scares courtesy of Vlads malfunctioning rudder servo!
15cc fastest laps: Round 1 | Round 2

All the 15cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Zack Humphries, 2nd Terry Holmes, 3rd Mike Holliday

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27cc
With nobody doing a full race in round 1, the winner was almost certainly coming from round 2 – Only Mike Broad and Terry Holmes managed to keep going for the whole race in the end. Mike takes the win by 2 laps from Terry.
27cc fastest laps: Round 1 | Round 2

All the 27cc boats [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Mike Broad, 2nd Terry Holmes, 3rd James Taylor

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Top Junior – Jackson

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Chas Tedder

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John Whitaker

Circuit
Detailed Results | Drivers Championship
3.5cc Hydro
Good to finally see a 3.5 Hydro run as there were not enough entrants to run this class at the last Circuit race. Hopefully we’ll see some more competitors in the future as racers will want to get in some practice before iMBRA 2022.

All the 3.5cc Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Keith Burgess, 2nd Martin Fields, 3rd Dave Marles

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7.5cc Hydro
A new competitor entered the fray in the shape of Andrew Aykroyd having bought Gary Wraights old 7.5 (Winning) hydro off Derek Owen. Not a bad debut with only one mishap where it was difficult to see Martins stopped boat. Luckily the only damage was to sever the water pickup tube.

All the 7.5cc Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Martin Fields, 2nd Derek Owen, 3rd= Andrew Aykroyd and Keith Burgess

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Open Hydro
Just 2 runners – Derek with a 15cc and Dave Marles with a 27cc. Could have done with Tony, Phill and Armen to liven things up.

All the Open Hydros [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Derek Owen, 2nd Dave Marles

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3.5cc Mono
With the Folksons now in Slovenia and no Lewis, Thomas or Dave Clay, this was a straight fight between Luke and Mick Fields. There was only ever going to be one winner of that! (Sorry Mick)

All the 3.5cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Luke, 2nd Mick Fields

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7.5cc Mono
Julian had fixed the problems he was having at last month’s event and took a fairly comfortable win with 3 strong rounds out of 4.

All the 7.5cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Julian Waumsley, 2nd Les Wall, 3rd Mick Bonny

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15cc Mono
Robert Daniel made the long drive worthwhile with the 15cc win.

All the 15cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st Robert Daniel, 2nd Les Wall, 3rd Mick Bonny

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35cc Mono
We were hoping for a bit more drama in this class. A few absentees from the usual suspects. No Werner, Roger or Dave Pillman. Fun fact – The 7.5, 15 and 35 Offshore winners all finished with 89 laps!

All the 35cc Monos [Click to enlarge, then scroll to see all]

1st James Taylor, 2nd Steve Whenham, 3rd Paul Day

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Sport 60
Just Adrian and Les in this class.

1st Adrian Marshall, 2nd Les Wall

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Top Junior – Luke

A final word
Another great joint event. Numbers not yet back to pre-Covid levels but nonetheless a decent turnout and some great racing.
It’s a lot of extra organisational work changing the course around halfway through the day, but it’s worth doing. The joint event means competitors / spectators from both disciplines are in attendance and this can only be a good thing for the social scene and the club economics. One problem that was mentioned to me is that apart from Hydro where points are awarded, the size of the course can have a significant impact, especially in 20 or 30 minute endurance races. If the course is a different size on each day, then a smaller course would (obviously) allow racers to clock up more laps. Something to think about…