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It is with regret I have to announce that Brian Miatt died on 13th December. Brian was an active 12 sailor from the 1950s up until the early 2000s when time and his replacement hips made it difficult to sail.
Brian's sons still sail, with Stewart and Peter owning 12s, but Graham has defected to sailing land yachts,
Brian was Class Chairman in the late 1970s and saw the change to the double curvature rule that paved the way for the shape of the boats we sail today.
Brian's funeral will be held on 13th January at 1.00pm at St Alkmund's Church in Duffield, with a family burial afterwards. There will be a wake held at the Darley Abbey Wine Bar, and anyone wishing to attend please pass your details to Peter at peter.miatt@lubrizol.com.

Have recently been checking the web cam at Wells to see some interesting developments just south of the lifeboat station....a brand new marina and small sea wall. Coupled with some dredging that has gone on in the channel could mean none of us will know where the shallows are. Back to walking the course the day before.

Free to a good home, N2553, four plank whisper originally owned by Robin Steavenson. Boat comes with trailer and trolley (not combi), mast, boom and steering stick and old suit of sails. Would make an ideal river or small pond boat. Boat requires a bit of tlc. Has been garage stored.

In response to John's request about the goings on at Norfolk I can only give an answer to the first three days sailing at Hunstanton and Overy Staithe. After that I had to do my fatherly bit and go catching crabs and building sandacastles with the kids.
All the usual suspects turned up, you know the Gores, Patrick, Stevie, the Pie Boys and least we forget Pearl and Dean. The Twelves provided the largest fleet with a good range of boats and designs. Hunstanton provided us with a lee shore on the Sunday and Monday which added to the fun as we all raced for the shore desperate for either a beer or the toilet. Monday was especially fun landing on what seemed like only a boat lengths worth of beach with plenaty of surf running. Gerald Copsey will be able to recount tales of woe as he wrecked the transom of his boat as his rudder was down as he got lifted and then deposited quickly onto the beach.
The sailing was true to form, except in one of the races at the weekend when newcomer to the 12s, (but not to Norfolk ) Andy Bayliss had not read the script which clearly states: you go to Norfolk and Ian Gore wins. If he does not then Steve Sallis does. After the three days of sailing at Hunstanton the circus moved on to Overy Staithe on Monday evening. Here prior to the sailing Patrick found out that it probably costs less to bend out a dent in a mudguard stay than out of a Mercedes as someone ran into his trailer.
After Mondays sailing, others will have to tell the story as I was not around for the sailing sadly. Needless to say the sun shone as it does always in Norfolk.