Interesting debate.
I was a member of SMPBC for over 10 years until I emigrated south. There were many great days at the club on both steering and towing regattas with up to 50 boats at the water side in the 90’s & 00’s until the moaners started taking over………………….‘It’s too windy, ‘that’s too tight’, ‘I can’t see that’ etc. etc. It is indeed this moaning which has cost the club many good officers over the years and a sad inditement that the moaners were not told to put a sock in it!
Steering or towing is a competition, if you make courses so slack that you can get a 50 inch model around then of course it is going to be much easier to take a 18 inch model around, but the main point it is equal for all. If one part is tight for your 50 incher then it is going to be tight for the next and the likely hood of a touch is equal! Things can always be manipulated, I remember one chap who has since passed on had a 50 inch landing craft with a beam of about 5 inches. When slalom sections were set out due to the width of his model he could sail strait through them! An ingenious idea where many similar models then followed with cannel boats etc.
I have seen and been involved in cases over the years where certain individuals will insist on judging there closes rival and employ underhanded tactics such as just ‘mentioning’ something at the most inopportune moment to distract your attention! Yes, I did not believe it at first but yes it is indeed true as it happened far too many times to be a coincidence. This is the level that some people stoop to attempt to steal a victory, but in most cases fail, I am sure!
I hope that the cake is not being over egged. The club as there retains enough knowledge in the of people who have been there since my days such as Ray, Les, Andy, Gerry. These guys are the ones that you should be talking to as they know the winning recipe and could guide should these things be resurrected.
A competition is just that, I hope that the PC road of; ‘everyone is a winner’ is not being walked. At the end of the day some people just cannot drive model boats, they are always welcome to join in, but should not expect a special course to be laid for them! I know that I cannot juggle whilst doing the hula-hoop on a unicycle, hence if I ever entered such a competition for circus skills I would not expect to come anywhere!