irvinemodelclub

About Ayr Bay Model Yacht Club

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The catalyst for the club was when Julie Hull bought Keith a RC laser for his 50th birthday in May 2005. What a great present and great fun to sail, but he soon got bored sailing on his own, so got a few of his friends interested and soon there were 3 with Ken Hathaway and Simon Lawson joining the fray. At this early stage we sailed and raced for fun at the mouth of the River Doon where we had plenty of spectators with the pedestrian bridge above. The winds were very fluky and the river current made it difficult at times to make way upstream. Not really the best conditions for good fair racing.

In the autumn we found the Magnum pond which proved to be an ideal sailing venue and started a frostbite series with the “Julie Hull” cup awarded to the overall winner. The club was then formed in late 2005 and called Ayr Bay Radio Lasers (ABRL)

 

The RC Laser is an excellent boat for racing as they are all identical with strict one design rules to ensure the racing is decided by the skill of the helm in rigging the boat and controlling it with the transmitter. Four different sail sizes allow sailing to continue across a very wide band of wind strengths, although above 30 knots becomes very difficult to retain control!

 

We soon were joined by Alistair, Dougie, Michael, Alan, Robin and many others over the next few seasons including the three Gordons, and Jim. We regularly have 6-7 laser boats racing on Sunday mornings, 10-12.30pm, out of a total of 12 members with registered boats.

 

This is our 5th year of frostbite racing at Irvine, and the overall results for the cup are:

 

2006        Keith

2007        Alistair

2008        Keith

2009        Alistair

2010        To be decided!

 

The club continues to grow with a good few members taking a keen interest in racing the older style Marbleheads, which were very good, international winning boats, in their time, but which can now be picked up for a very  reasonable sum.

 

The International One Metre design, the most popular radio controlled yacht racing class, is now proving of great interest to our members. We will be actively developing this class.

 

We generally sail these boats on Tuesday afternoons, 2-4pm.

 

The Club operates a handicap system which is designed to allow the less experienced helms to enjoy the pleasures of being competitive with the hot shots. The “Laser Rigged Handicap” system was used for several years, but has been replaced this year with the “Gordon Neil Rigged Handicap” system which has been well received by all the sailors.

 

Some club members have sailed further afield in larger fleets including Poole, Lochwinnoch, Rhu Marina and Tarbert with many good results, including the 2007 Scottish Open Laser Championship, at Lochwinnoch, going to Keith.

 

The club name was changed to Ayr Bay Model Yacht Club (ABMYC) this year, to reflect our growing interest in all types of radio controlled model yachts.

 

It is the club intention to continue to be a local focus point for promotion of the sport in general, and to participate, in a more formal fashion, in competitive racing with other recognised clubs.

 

Ayr Bay Model Yacht club would warmly welcome any new, or prospective like minded members.

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