National 12 Open Meeting Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th May 2008
With less than an hour to go before the advertised start of the first
race there was only one entry being Ann Britton in her Tigress N3192
crewed by Peter Terry. Thankfully Graham and Zoe and family arrived plus
John Sears with Punkawallah N2957 and Brian Cobb with Ros Nickols from
Rutland SC in Sears’s former yot the original Design 8 N3271
The afternoon was hot and sunny but first race at 2.30 was repeatedly
postponed as the zephyr appeared and then disappeared just as quickly.
Finally at 5.05, after tea, a short course was laid by race officer/Club
Commodore John Richardson in front of the clubhouse, but fears of
drifting over the line with the tide meant that everyone was line shy,
Graham being the first to start over 5 seconds after the gun. A battle
royale developed between John Sears and Brain Cobb for second place
which was only resolved in Sears favour late in the race; Ann & Peter
enjoyed a leisurely “trip round the bay”.
Sunday morning dawned cloudless with a 1 – 3 knot north easterly breeze.
The fleet was joined by local Merlin sailor/club Rear Commodore James
Clark crewed by Lewis Ibbotson in Paul Turner’s Microclipper N3157. The
first race saw John Sears make the best start and he was also first
through the doldrums. The fleet bunched at the top mark,
but James in second place had to do a 720 losing two places in the
process. The result was Graham first followed by John, Brian, James and
Ann (now crewed by Christine Marshall)
The second race saw the fleet (with Roger Britton taking over N3192 from
Ann) run up river together with John getting an overlap on Graham to
round the top mark first but the final result was the usual order!
Race officer/club secretary Rob Sloane started the race upstream of the
club house to create a beat start in the freshening breeze. Graham (now
crewed by sister Julia Griffiths) and John were first off the line and
the result was again as predicted!
Rob Sloane also managed to fit in the missing second race from Saturday
and this resulted in some excitement! James handed the helm of
Microclipper over to Lewis, who managed to have an incident with a river
cruiser on the line. Graham handed over Babel Fish to brother in
law Andy Griffiths. With only four boats racing there was even a
general recall on the first start. On the second start Lewis was the only
boat over the line and after some keen tacking down to the bottom mark
Andy initially broke away only to be caught by John who finished first
with Andy second, Brian Cobb beating Lewis into fourth.
A pleasant weekend was had by all and with some creative accounting from
Graham (not Paul!) there were actually eight competitors! What a change
from last year’s entry of over 20 (for what was admittedly a GILL
meeting). With the debate currently on the NTOA website about culling
open meetings, and TVSC losing club sailing on the Sunday a
serious re-think is required; at least the vintage/4 plank
meetings at Trent Valley attract 12+ boats each year on a Saturday.
Paul Turner TVSC N12 class rep (recovering from knee operation hence not
yotting!)
Results
1st Graham Camm & Zoe Ballantyne
2nd John & Mark Sears
3rd Brian Cobb & Ros Nickols
