National 12s at North West Norfolk Week
Norfolk Week 2002 saw 17 National 12s entered for the week with increased turnouts
at the weekends. Norfolk Week consists of 9 races at 6 different venues ranging
from river to creek to open sea around the North West Norfolk coast. There are also additional races not counting
for the week, a general handicap race at Kings Lynn and a special race just for
National 12s at Burnham Overy Staithe, for the Jenny Lee trophy. Generally
there were good breezes through the week although the weather wasn't the best
for the traditional mid week BBQ.
Winners of the first race at Hunstanton were Geoff Camm and Amelia Hall, who
were just down for the weekend and led from start to finish. Second were Mike
Cooke and Lindsey Iles, who finished just ahead of Ian and Alex Gore recovering
fast from missing the start. Sunday’s race was eventually cancelled due to
difficult launching and recovery conditions, as proven by the Meadowcrofts!
Monday - it must be Kings Lynn. After
24 years of avoiding this race, Gerry Ledger and Liz Ross won the Queen’s
Plate, a low tide, high mud handicap race to the Wash and back. In third place was another 12, Peter Miatt
and James. The race proper saw the Gores
lead from the start, although hard pushed at times by Gerry and Liz. In third place was Patrick Elcombe and Carol
Shore. The most memorable part of the
race was avoiding the large ship that nearly wiped out the leading two 12s.
Tuesday's race was at Wells and saw the usual reaching conditions. Patrick made a superb port tack start to
clearly lead at the first mark, followed by Vince and Fiona Phillips and Tim
Tomlinson and Jessica Pullen. However, reaching speed proved to be the key,
with the Gores just beating Mike and Lindsey. Patrick and Carol took another third.
The next day’s racing in the harbour at Brancaster again saw
Patrick make the best first beat and round with a clear lead. Steve and Carol Sallis and Mike moved through
to challenge, with Mike eventually taking the lead to win. Steve finished second and Patrick third again
Thursday morning saw a sea course at Brancaster. The Gores led from start to finish, with second place changing
between Paul and Hester Pelling and the Sallis', eventually finishing in that
order.
Thursday evening was the Jenny Lee Trophy at Burnham Overy Staithe. Although not counting for the week, there
was a good turnout. Once again the Gores led from start to finish, although
strongly challenged all the way round by Phil and Helen David. Third place was
taken by Gerry Ledger and Liz Ross.
Friday morning’s race was held in beautiful conditions (wind and sun) at Blakeney.
The Sallis' led from Mike, with the Gores third. The Gores managed to overtake
Mike and then covered him from then onwards (in order to ensure victory in the
subsidiary Three Harbours Trophy), enabling the Sallis' to take a clear win.
Two races were scheduled for the final day at Snettisham, with three boats still
in with a chance of overall victory. The Gores made good use of the shifts on the first beat to lead
around the first mark with the Sallis' second. On the second beat, Mike moved
up into second place. The Gores won, which was good enough for the week with
Mike second. As the sun came out, the wind died away and the second race was
eventually cancelled. This was unfortunate for the Sallis' as it meant they had
to count a DNS which pushed them down to 5th overall.
Overall Results:
1st Ian and Alex Gore "Tabitha" Up
River YC
2nd Mike Cooke and Lindsey
Iles "Aardvark Issues" Notts County SC
3rd Patrick Elcombe and
Carol Shore "Physalia" Middle
Nene SC
4th Steve LeGrys and
Jonathan Thompson "Crazy
Jayne" Half Way YC