National 12s at Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh Yacht Club hosted a very blustery two day National 12 open meeting on the 3rd and 4th of July.  Local stars Antony and Jo Gifford in N3484 showed the way up the first beat of race one but with the beat followed by a foul tide run, the fleet closed up and as they headed for the reaching legs, the leading four boats were overlapped. Tom Stewart and Liz Ross (N3501) gybed too early at the corner and bottomed out, putting themselves out of race one.  The Giffords had the best of the reaching legs to finish ahead of the very fast Thorntons in N3443.

Tom and Liz sorted themselves out for race 2 and led off the start line and courtesy of some good downwind speed and an almighty puff on the run, pulled away to record a win. John and Mandy Thornton held it all together again and pulled away from the chasing pack to finish 2nd, leaving them to enjoy the excellent fish and chips and Adnams Ale as the overnight leaders.

On Sunday morning, the wind was whistling through the rigging. PRO Patrick Gifford set a similar course to the day before but this time the beats were against the tide and the Giffords’ local knowledge came to the fore. They headed left as the bulk of the fleet went right. Once their lead around the windward mark had been magnified by the tidal effect, they appeared to be long gone. However, with the wind increasing anything was possible.

On the second lap, the windward mark became a graveyard. The Giffords bore away and put the nose in resulting in a very long swim, soon to be followed by Tom and Liz, plus Paul and Guy Pelling. Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart (N3494) survived the bear away and blasted off down the run, wearing round whenever the bank got too close. They then led all the way to the leeward end of the course only to get caught by an almighty puff, which resulted in a nosedive and effectively ended their race. Tom and Liz followed by the Giffords blasted past the up-turned yellow boat on their way to the finish.

In the Admiral’s Cup, Jerry and Margaret Garner sailed extremely well to beat John Chalker and his son, especially in race 3 when they kept their mast above the boat when no others could.

Over lunch the wind increased again with Force eight gusts recorded on the club’s anemometer putting paid to any further racing.

Results

1st Tom Stewart & Liz Ross N3501 (Feeling Foolish)

2nd Antony & Jo Gifford N3484 (Paradox)

3rd John & Mandy Thornton N3443 (Final Chapter)