National 12 75th Anniversary regatta – Gill Series 2011 round 3.
Northampton Sailing Club, 28th – 30th May 2011.
Months in the planning and organisation, the regatta to mark the
75th Anniversary of the formation of the National 12 class promised
something for everyone – and delivered in spades. On the sailing
front, the programme included conventional fleet racing for the third
instalment of this year’s Gill series, a Crews’ Race, the Midland Area
Junior Trophy, a family treasure hunt race and the grand finale on
Monday, the Grand Pursuit race. With an equally ambitious social
programme and a gathering of past and present Twelve sailors from
throughout the generations and the history of the class, both the social
and the sporting stamina of the participants was to be fully tested over
three days at Pitsford.
Fine and breezy was the weather order of the day for Saturday – sailable
but definitely challenging for the more modern boats, though perhaps a
knot or two too much for some of the more fragile clinker and vintage
boats with their wooden masts who chose to sit out the early rounds and
save their powder for later battles. The wind was only to increase
after launching until a large squall during the first race caused
general carnage. Steve and Joanne Sallis, revelling in the
conditions, made the early running and were one of only a small handful
of boats to navigate the gybe mark cleanly before it became a
well-populated graveyard. As the leaders screamed down the next
reach, by now battling on the edge of control, Sallis was gradually
overhauled by Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart who held the lead to
the finish. Tom Stewart and Nicky Bass took second after a long
tussle, with Stevie and Joanne taking third.
A lull in the wind between racing tempted out a few more players into
some pleasant looking sunny conditions, but the respite was short lived
as the wind returned with a vengeance. The same three boats again
dominated, as many in the fleet chose to take time out to practice their
capsize recovery techniques. Tom and Nicky led from start to
finish with Sallis and Ibbotson constantly swapping positions throughout
the race, until the latter finally prevailed.
Fatigue and the strong breeze unfortunately took their toll on the
Midland Area Junior Trophy entrants, and the event played out as an
entertaining (at least for the spectators) and eventful 3 round
match-race series between Nick Copsey / Naomi Bilton and Tom White /
Chris Troth, with Tom and Chris taking the trophy.
Sunday dawned with even more breeze, which rather put the kibosh on the
Crews’ Race. In the Gill Series racing, Tom and Nicky took the
early lead from Jon and Charlotte and these two had a close and exciting
race all the way around until, having secured the upper hand, a
foolhardy attempt at a gybe in some of the windiest conditions of the
weekend saw Jon and Charlotte swim. Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne
took second place, with Graham finally having recovered his National 12
sea legs after a recent flirtation with nice stable keelboats caused
much swimming on Saturday. Jon and Char dripped in third place.
Over lunch the wind continued to build until the reservoir was mainly
hidden by white spray. With a 50 knot gust recorded, nobody
complained when Ian Castle, the PRO, decided the fleet should stay
ashore for the rest of the afternoon – except the juniors who had been
planning their treasure hunt race tactics for weeks. However the
organisers had planned for all eventualities. To replace the
curtailed sailing programme there was a dinghy park scavenger hunt for
the juniors, a photo shoot of the many assembled Burton Cup winners
(spanning from Michael Goffe, winner at Weymouth in 1949 through to the
current holders, Graham and Zoe, who also won at Weymouth 61 years
later) and a spectacular Concours d’Elegance for the vintage and clinker
boats.
So the overall Gill Series provided some very interesting results.
Whilst the modern winged-rudder boats took the first four places, three
of the next four boats were much older designs, including two from the
late 1970s and one from the mid 1980s. In some very challenging
conditions where one might have expected that the extra power and the
self-draining qualities of the modern boats would have given them an
overwhelming advantage, the scoreboard showed that even apparently
out-of-date boats remain very competitive for many years and that
technology can’t provide a substitute for a helm and crew’s strong
racing pedigree and a dose of good seamanship. Each of the boats and
most of the crew had previously held podium positions, if not the actual
trophies, in both the Burton Cup and the Silver National (National
Championship) and some had been multiple winners.
Monday morning came a little too early for some of those who had enjoyed
the hospitality at the 75th Anniversary Gala dinner. However, the
rather more benign wind conditions tempted many more of the fleet onto
the water for the Grand Pursuit. The splendidly restored 75 year
old N1 “Gypsy” led the fleet off on a 2 hour long tour of the far
corners of Pitsford Reservoir, followed over the next 21 minutes by a
superb cross section of different designs covering the history of the
class - clinker boats, four plankers, the groundbreaking smooth-skinned
“Punkarella”, modern double bottomed boats and finally the latest
winged-rudder Paradigms and Dead Cat Bounces. With a bit more
breeze than the handicappers had expected it looked like the weather
might favour the more modern designs until a front came through,
bringing with it big changes of wind strength and direction. This
gave the fleet a classic test in the variable conditions which many
Twelve sailors enjoy. Nigel Waller, who had started an
ambitious total renovation/rebuild/refit job on the 74 year old
N326 “Rose Marie” only a week before, crewed by Sophie Mackley, proved
themselves to be masters of the conditions and, with an hour to go, had
built up a commanding lead which they held to the finish. The
first four boats were pretty close, with the clinker built N2266 “Triarda”
of Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne holding off the challenge of the
closing 4 plankers of Tom White and Millie Dixie in N2765 “Le Shed” and
John and Mark Sears in N2957 “Punkawallah”.
Results
Gill Series Overall
1. N3526 Tom Stewart and Nicky Bass
2. N3528 Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart
3. N3531 Steve and Joanne Sallis
4. N3532 Gavin Willis and Rosie White
5. N3251 Paul Pelling and Ian Simkins
6. N3530 Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne
7. N3012 Graham and Julia Bailey
8. N2957 John and Mark Sears
Gill Family 1. N3531 Steve and Joanne Sallis
Gill Admirals Cup
1. N3251 Paul Pelling and Ian Simkins
Gill Junior 1. N3411 Nick Copsey and
Naomi Bilton
Midland Area Junior Champion:
Tom White and Chris Troth
Grand Pursuit
1. N326 Nigel Waller and Sophie Mackley
2. N2266 Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne
3. N2765 Tom White and Milly Dixie
4. N2957 John and Mark Sears
5. N3012 Graham and Julia Bailey
6. N3513 Christian Day and Sophie Richards
7. N3526 Tom Stewart and Nicola Bass
8. N3107 Ian and Nicole Norman
Hamble Warming Pan
