Sedgemoor Model Boat Club
Scale Challenge 2007
Report & scores by Bob Bryant,
Predicted Log & Straight Run - 11th April - round 1
The 2007 season started with Straight Running and Predicted Log events. Some boats wouldn't run straight on the course despite being "perfect" on their trial runs. In the Predicted Log event, Malcolm Franks set an impressive target of 0.01 second but Mike Lewis followed with two identical times. This gave Mike the overall lead for the evening with Mark Sutton only two points behind.
Straight Predicted Total
Mike Lewis 18 21 39
Mark Sutton 21 16 37
Malcolm Franks15 18 33
Bob Bryant 18 13 31
Rob Arlett 14 14 28
Sandy Fisher 13 15 28
John Light 13 13 26
Scale Steering - 2nd May - round 2
Round 2 of the Scale Challenge was Scale Steering. Ian Gibson, with his small boat, finnished first with Sandy Fisher and Bob Bryant in joint second place. It was getting dark when the last boats finnished the course. Malcolm's Puffer looked impressive with it's lights. It was rumoured that it had a cargo of rum on board - but fortunately it wasn't spotted by Mark's Customs Launch!
Rd1 Rd2 Total
Ian Gibson 18 21 39
Sandy Fisher 21 13 34
Bob Bryant 18 16 34
Chris Locke 18 14 32
Rob Arlett 13 18 31
Malcolm Franks 14 16 30
Mark Sutton 12 12 24
Mike Lewis 11 11 22
Dave Stone 10 11 21
Blind Steering - 23rd May - round 3
Round 3 of the Scale Challenge was Blind Steering. It was good to see a number of WW2 rescue launches which seemed to have the advantage over the tugs on the timed course. Malcolm imagined he was driving his F4 and took the lead for the round and the challenge event. (Has he got a brushless motor?) Ian and Dave took second and third places.
Rd 1 Rd 2 Total
Malcolm Franks21 18 39
Ian Gibson 14 21 35
Dave Stone 16 16 32
Chris Locke 18 13 31
Mike Lewis 15 14 29
Rob Arlett 13 15 28
Bob Bryant 12 12 24
Sandy Fisher 11 11 22
Enduro race - 13th June - round 4
The weather was kind to us for the 1 hour endurance test. The earlier rain cleared and it was a pleasant evening.
Chris, with his “crocodile” swamp boat quickly opened up a half lap lead over my “free plan” pilot boat and came close to passing me. After about 20 minutes the “crocodile” started to tire and “free plan” caught up and managed to pass it just before the halfway stage. After the pit stop the crocodile soon passed me but its second set of batteries only had a duration of about 25 minutes which handed victory to my slightly slower pilot boat. The battle for third place was even closer. Rob’s Air Sea Rescue Launch set the pace but only had a duration of about 20 minutes on each battery so had to make an early pit stop and completed 42 laps in 40 minutes. Dave’s tug, although slower, kept going until the end and managed 42.5 laps in the hour. Rob’s first half lead gave him equal points. Unfortunately the others had technical problems (water in the electrics) and were forced into early retirements.
1/2 Hour 1 Hour Total Total
Place Pts Place Pts Pts Laps
Bob Bryant 1 21 1 21 42 82
Chris Locke 2 18 218 36 73
Dave Stone 4 15 316 31 42.5
Rob Arlett 3 16 415 31 42
Mark Sutton 6 13 514 27 19
Russ Chilcott 5 14 613 27 16
George Bowkett 712 712 24 12
Predicted Log/Straight Running - 4th July - round 5
We decided to drop the Predicted Log and have two rounds of Straight Running to reduce the equipment needed because the weather was not looking good.
There was a strong cross wind, which in scale terms was Gale Force. In round 1 Dave had the top score with a high speed dash and Chris was second with his heavy tug. Most of the other boats were blown off course, mine missing it completely. The scores were reversed in Round 2, which produced a close end result with only 5 points separating the top and bottom positions.
Straight Running
Round 1 Round 2 Total
Dave Stone 21 14 35
Sandy Fisher 16 18 34
Bob Bryant 13 21 34
Chris Locke 18 13 31
Rob Arlett 14 16 30
Ian Gibson 15 15 30
Scale Steering - 25th July - round 6
Round 6 of the Scale Challenge was Scale Steering. The course was too easy for some, as there were a total of four clear rounds. Malcolm and Ian tied for first place, with only two penalty points each. Chris took the overall lead, by one point, after taking the discard into consideration.
Scale Steering
Round 1 Round 2 Total
Malcolm Franks21 21 42
Ian Gibson 21 21 42
Chris Locke 16 21 37
Mike Lewis 14 21 35
Rob Arlett 15 14 29
Sandy Fisher 13 12 25
Bob Bryant 12 13 25
Terry Williams10 11 21
John Light 12 DNS 12
Blind Steering - 15th August - round 7 (final round)
Blind Steering was the theme for the final round of the Scale Challenge 2007. Chris Locke was leading Bob Bryant by one point after Round 6 so the highest placed would be the overall winner, because Bob had a higher discard score. Ian Gibson was first in both rounds which was enough to take him past Rob Arlett for third place. Bob’s overall second on the night enabled him to take the lead from Chris. Ian also took the honours in the Small Scale Class with Sandy Fisher and Rob Arlett equal second.
Blind Steering
Rd 1 Rd 2 Total
Ian Gibson 21 21 42
Bob Bryant 16 18 34
Rob Arlett 18 14 32
Mike Lewis 15 16 31
Chris Locke 14 15 29
I would like to thank everyone for their help, especially Chris and Malcolm for doing most of the rowing.
Bob
Final overall score table (after 7 rounds)
