Setley Cup 2024
by Jamie McEwen 27 Dec 2024 12:41 PST
26 December 2024
The Setley Cup is an annual competition for children sailing model boats (mostly home-made), held on Boxing Day at Setley Pond near Lymington.
The 2024 edition was another great success, despite the near-absent wind, masterminded once again by Luke and Emma McEwen (Luke was one of the founding competitors in the first Setley Cup back in the 1980s). 45 entrants did battle for the coveted trophies - 26 monohulls and 19 multihulls - and as ever the craft displayed a wide range of design ideas from impressively sleek-looking machines through to ingenious reuses of Christmas drinks containers. Special mention goes to the model lifeboat that covered about a metre of the first race before sinking!
Each fleet (mono- and multihulls) was divided into two flights, who raced two heats each followed by a final. Some boats showed great speed, others an ability to sail towards the finish line, and some even managed both - to be rewarded with a place in the final.
In the monohull fleet there were several strong contenders. William and Sylvia McEwen, each of whose boats had benefited from their uncle Luke's design influence, were (literally) hard to separate in flight B, closely followed by Jonny Rogers sailing the ever-dangerous "Bear". Meanwhile Lara McCarthy and Miley Hayman showed ominous form to qualify top of flight A. The final itself was a nail-biting affair: William started strongly but had an unfortunate encounter with a smaller competitor and could only finish 4th, behind Lara/Miley, Jonny and a rapidly improving Billy Bubb, who took line honours. That meant Lara and Miley won the Setley Cup, with William second, Jonny third, Billy fourth and Sylvia 5th.
The multihulls, competing for the Seahorse Trophy, also saw some very close racing and a similarly tense final. The wind got particularly tricky towards the end as boats got agonisingly close to the finish line. In the end it was Sebastian Styles sailing "Bonnie Shaker" who won both the final race and the heats to take home the trophy. Second was Fred Parker sailing "Kingfisher", a newcomer to the event and a committed convert! The podium was completed by Harriet Brown with "Penguin", an impressively speedy pair of 2-litre bottles.
Huge thanks go to Luke and Emma for their fantastic organisation, as well as a substantial army of other volunteers, particularly the busy rescue crew of Tom Wharmby and Abby Hire. Sincere thanks also to Sanders Sails for providing sail cloth for many of the competitors, and to Royal Lymington Yacht Club for their logistical support (particularly with Forestry England).
Monohull Results:
| Boat name | Sailor | Heats position | Final position | Total points | Place overall |
|---|
| Samantha | Lara McCarthy & Miley Hayman | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Sea Biscuit | Will McEwen | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| Bear | Jonny Rogers | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| Hit n Hope | Billy Bubb | 6 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| Silver Bullet | Sylvia McEwen | 2 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Green Dragon | Finley Roche-Gordon | 4 | 5 | 9 | 6 |
| Rainbow | Arianna Stock | 2 | 12 | 14 | 7 |
| Dave | Mo Knapp | 3 | 12 | 15 | 8 |
| Emma II | Emma Cherry | 4 | 12 | 16 | 9 |
| Fruit Salad | Rory Stock-Carniel | 4 | 12 | 16 | 10 |
| Swift like the Badger | Gilliatt van Harris | 5 | 12 | 17 | 11 |
| Tottie | Ottilie | 6 | 12 | 18 | 12 |
Multihull Results:
| Boat name | Sailor | Heats position | Final position | Total points | Place overall |
|---|
| Bonnie Shaker | Sebastien Styles | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Kingfisher | Fred Parker | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Penguin | Harriet Brown | 4 | 3 | 7 | 3 |
| Unicorn Wind Blower | Alice Cherry | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| Danger Cat | Dirk Rogers | 2 | 5 | 7 | 5 |
| Daisy | Oliver Thomas | 1 | 7 | 8 | 6 |
| Bert Ami | Bertie Thomas | 4 | 6 | 10 | 7 |
| Tiger Shark | Alfie Ellis | 4 | 8 | 12 | 8 |
| Banana | Florence Mason | 4 | 10 | 14 | 9 |
| Joe 90 | Joe Clifford | 3 | 12 | 15 | 10 |
| Ineos Britannia | Archie Bayliss | 6 | 9 | 15 | 10 |
| Chutney 2 | Caitlin McKenzie | 6 | 12 | 18 | 12 |