The 30th Anniversary of the Marlborough model powerboat Clubs Radio Marlborough Challenge was held on Queens Birthday Weekend.
For the un-initiated there are 4 separate challenges to be completed over the 2 days with points scored for each the totaled at the end to find the winner.
Challenge 1. Complete a SAW run with your chosen boat. The fastest run for each competitor is converted to a percentage of the existing class record and multiplied by a factor of 10. so equal the record you score 1000 points. break a record you score more than 1000.
NZMPBA President Peter Collier as well as Murray Smithson came over from the North Island to compete and it was Peter who pretty well put himself in the box seat here when he surpassed the existing T2 Thunderboat record of 88.506 kmh set back in 2012 by 21.4% to a new record of 104.411 so scored 1214.9 points for this challenge.
I managed to increase the P3 hydro record from 126.363 to 127.007kmh or .05% for 1005 points.
Murray was first to ever set a record in Classis Cracker Box
so scored 1000 points for 100% obviously
Most others were in the 50 to 90% range of their class records.
Challenge 2.
4 rounds of racing on a square oval, with the same boat that is 100m straight and 30m end with no oval buoys. ( once upon a time this was run anticlockwise when our mono racing was anticlockwise and hydro racers would fit a turn fin on the left to run this event albeit not as quick as clockwise but it gave the monos an advantage) now a days clockwise but still give monos a slight advantage over the hydros and cats
Points are added to part 1
We then had 3 rounds of just mono racing. this was followed buy the Cat Scrap 2 races then a hydro only 3 races.
These events were run at the Diversion on water conditions you see in the photo.
for Challenge 3 we moved to Andrew Hammonds Lions Back vineyard pond south of Seddon on Sunday for 5 rounds of oval. This was a test event at this venue to test suitability for a National Championships at Easter 2022.
Whilst it appeared smaller than the diversion to the eye it was the same width across but only 36 meters of room on each end and 20m on the front straight and 55m on the back so very similar to the BOP course. It proved to be quite a challenge for some not having buckets of room on each end like at the diversion so you had to drive the buoys if you wanted to post good results.
These points were added to parts 1 & 2 to find the top 10 which race off on a 1 off 10lap race with 100points for first and each successive place dropping by 100 points to 100 for 10th place.
As some racers were struggling with the compact nature of the venue it was elected to split the 10lapper into 2 X 5 boat heats. Consolation for the bottom 5 placings and top 5 final
Most years it is this last race that determines the winner.
This year however Peter got a good jump on the field in part 1 and by finishing races with good placings was able to keep his nose in just front all weekend. I slip and it could have been any of the other chasers taking home the trophy.
Results for the RM Challenge
1st Peter Collier 4409.912 points
2nd Jayden Jamieson 4331.546 ”
3rd Flipper 4120.666 ”
4th Me Nitro Ned 3705.096 ”
5th Daniel Steenhart 3503.612 ”
6th Mike Mackie 3033.505 ”
7th Gav Jamieson 2815..994 ”
8th Shelz Merrilees 2654.223 ”
9th Paul Merrilees 2602.304 ”
10th Murray Smithson 2575.00 ”
11th Bevan Burney 1979.994 ”
12th Ritchie Chapman 1632.828 ”
13th Azza McKnight 1587.958 ”
14th Andrew Colquhoun 1300.00 ”
15th Trev Terry 1175 ”
16th Neil Blackford 708.805 ”
the last 3 only contested 1 event.
MONO
Jayden 1100 pts, Flipper 1000pts, Mike 619pts, Gav 466pts, Bevan 412pts, and Shelz 177pts.
CAT SCRAP
Daniel 800pts, Paul 600pts, Azza and Andrew both 275pts each.
HYDROS
Paul 1025pts, Peter 469pts, Bevan 450pts, Daniel 400pts.
Our next scheduled regatta is the Frostbite regatta July 31 / August 1s