Canadian Radio Yachting Association

The dueck GM IOM Pre-Worlds Regatta was hosted by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in late September. 32 competitors from across North America registered for the event which served as a training regatta for the dueck GM IOM World Championship. 

The site development for the World Championship at RVYC was well underway and competitors were more than satisfied with the arrangement of the venue. Racing took place from the top of the club’s 15 foot high, 700 foot long timber breakwater. The breakwater faces north so there is no problem from sun glare. Launching was from an 80 foot long concrete float which was accessed by a ramp leading down from the breakwater walk.

Winds for the 3 days of racing varied from 3 to 18 and included both shifty and steady conditions. Many competitors had not sailed in the strong tidal currents and big waves found at RVYC. Some found these issues to be an exciting challenge while other were not so pleased. In the heavier wind races waves height was more than half a metre and current speed occasionally reached more than a knot. These conditions made for exciting racing and laylines called for special skill when the current was up. There was very little weed or debris on the racecourse due in part to a 300 foot long oil spill boom which the organizers had placed on a angle up current of the course to divert any debris.

39 heats were held over the 3 days of racing using the HMS heat system. This system, originally developed by Peter Stollery of Great Britain, is now almost universally used throughout the world for major R/C events. Most courses were simple, twice around windward leewards and each employed a windward offset mark and a leeward gate. Heats lasted about 14 minutes each with a gap of 6 minutes between heats. The scoring system used was developed by two Texans – Ralph Kelly and Herman VanBeek. Their Excel based system worked flawlessly during the entire series with heat-by-heat scores being posted within a few minutes of the completion of each heat. Another development at the regatta was the introduction of a formalized system of umpiring. The system for umpiring was clearly set out in the Sailing Instructions so that both the competitors and the umpires knew exactly what to expect. This system is bound to become the model for future umpired R/C regattas.

Competitors were almost universally satisfied with the umpiring throughout the regatta and not one paper protest was filed. The umpires did deal with 6 cases of redress arising from collisions and raft-ups. In all but one of these cases the injured party was granted redress.

Some competitors felt that 4 umpires were not enough to fully cover the entire racing fleet.

Next year for the IOM Worlds the RVYC organizers plan to use a team of 8 umpires. Perhaps the only shortfall in the RVYC management came in the area of mark setting. In some cases the mark set crews seemed to have trouble setting their marks in the 35 foot deep tidal waters. This situation resulted in a few delays between starts.

There was a great diversity of design throughout the fleet with 16 different designs