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Model yacht racing in China – from Ian Holt.

In England I have a 6 Metre, an old A Class and an IOM.  I moved to Shanghai from Kazakhstan in August 2008, bringing with me a Peter Wiles 10R that I used for competing in the 2003 UK Nationals.  For the past 9 months we were just a small group of expats sailing 0ne-metre sized boats, but suddenly here in Shanghai we have discovered a strong local following for the E and S (70cm long) classes!  It helps if you can “google” in Chinese here!   I must admit I had never heard of these classes previously, but they are classes organised by Naviga, of which China is a member.   Having carried my aging 10Rater around the world with me, I discovered here that there was a builder making a Chinese IOM kit, which was so cheap (250GBP ready to sail, excluding radio control) that I bought 2 of them!  I have asked, but have not got any answer as to what the design it is.  Maybe the builder does not know himself.  He built 6 of them, but has now stopped and will not make any more until he gets a large order from someone.  Note that I said “ready to sail”.  I did not say “ready to race!” The hulls are fine, the keel and bulb are OK (but we have just discovered that it is under the minimum weight for IOM), the rudder is OK.  The fittings are dreadful and should all be thrown away, which is more or less what I did, having ordering suits of sails and fittings form the UK. So for a total outlay of 400GBP I got myself a perfectly acceptable club racer.  Just need to get the bulb sorted out!

But now we have discovered the E Class, and this has got us thinking again.  From what I understand China promotes model yachting at school/college level and students are encouraged to build their own boats.  This may be why they have opted to remain with the E Class rather than move on to the now more expensive IOM.  Asking Chinese people simple questions is often anything but simple (!) but from what I can work out someone in China turns out runs of keels, bulbs, kicking strap assembles etc and sells them once a year to the schools to make up the kits for the boats.  It also looks like there are 3 basic moulds for the locals, with a fourth design coming out from Janusz Walicki.   The Walicki link is important here – I think it originates from USSR days and when The Eastern Bloc had a strong tie with China - and the Chinese have clearly latched on to his ideas.  

 This summer there has been a week-long training camp session for the students at the Olympic rowing base outside Shanghai.  We went there on 18th July to have a look, and when they saw me rigging my 10Rater, they opened the rear doors of a van and brought out 2 brand new 10 Raters – which we were not allowed to photograph!  Later at lunchtime we were taken to one of the campus bedrooms(!) which had in it a brand new Walicki Marblehead, a brand new Walicki E, and a brand new TS2 IOM.  These were all for the Chinese campaign on the NAVIGA championships in Hungary in  August, for the 10R , M and E classes.   The average age at this regatta must have been about 16, and I have never seen so many girls competing in a model yacht race before!   At the age of 51, I feel positively antique amongst these helms!

So, having thought that there were just 6 expats playing with model yachts in the region, we have now discovered more than 40 E Class boats in Shanghai alone! The Chinese did well at the Naviga Championships this summer, winning the “E” Class with 3 in the top 5,  and had 4 in the top 7 in the 10R  series.  

Now I have sold my Chinese-built IOMS and purchased a Squiggle IOM from Bill Curtis in Falmouth, which I have converted it to the E Class.  In practice this just means a 2cm longer fin and carbon spars are permitted.  Everything else is the same as an IOM except there are no weight restrictions of any kind which gives food for thought, and the options to have more than one lead bulb in the back of your car! 

Our next regatta is on 22nd November.  More news then (click here for pdf file with pics)

 Ian Holt.

 

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