Yorkshire dales open meeting

Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club – National 12 Open Meeting and Bart’s Bash report
Sunday 21st September
 
The Northern Twelves arrived at Yorkshire Dales for their annual Open Meeting which this year was combined with Bart’s Bash. The sun was reflecting off the water and a reasonable breeze was blowing from a northerly direction. The locals felt this wasn’t the best direction for them as it meant zig-zag courses across the reservoir, especially as they expected a big turnout for Bart’s Bash straight after lunch. The plan for the day was three races, the first and last as a fleet race with the second race being Bart’s Bash where we would race with everybody else but extract the N12  results from the overall for the second counting race for the Open.
 

Photo: The Fleet at the start of Bart’s Bash – Ed and Tom up at the pin end with the rest of us spread down the line

In the first race Ed and Tom Storey led round the windward mark and disappeared off down the long broad reach to far end of the reservoir chased by the rest of the fleet. Mark and Anna Simpson had shocked everybody by turning up first at the Club were obviously too relaxed and were well down after the beat and the first part of the reach, however to the dismay of the rest of the fleet they appeared to wake up and shoot off through the fleet in pursuit of Ed and Tom. They had a close race with Philip David and Ellen Storey and John and Alison Cheetham for the next lap before trying to catch Ed and Tom but to no avail and they finished in that order.    
 
Bart’s Bash was arranged for after Lunch. The club was full for the briefing as people made sure they were fully entered their details and final numbers were determined – 63 boats were assembled   from Nacra 17 to a Topper 4.2 and the National 12’s making up one of the largest fleets !

OOD maximised the number of windward legs he could get across the reservoir to set a sufficiently long course to avoid too much lapping of the faster and the slower boats. The fleet was well behaved and we got away first time. The fine detail of the National 12s race was difficult to determine as we were well spread through the fleet, suffice to say Ed and Tom were very well up in the overall fleet and we await the formal results to see how well they have done !   All in all, it was a really enjoyable sail in well behaved, big, mixed handicap fleet. The order for the Twelves race within the Bart’s Bash fleet was the same as the first race with Ed and Tom first, Mark and Anna second and Philip and Ellen third. 

Photo: Approaching the Leeward mark
 
The wind went light for the third race and the OOD altered the course again to try and get a good windward leg.  It was close up the first beat with John and Alison rounding close behind Ed and Tom with the rest of fleet close behind. Ed and Tom repeated their good off wind speed but we hadn’t realised that they had swopped round and Tom helmed the boat through to the finish.  John and Alison preferred the lighter conditions and held their second position with Mark and Anna keeping ahead of Philip and Ellen.

Photo: Mark and Anna rounding the leeward mark
 
View from the back !
It was still competitive at the back of the fleet too – Neil McInnes and Jo Lee had a terrific battle with Will Mitchell and Lois Sponner in each race with places changing throughout the races with Neil and Jo coming out on top at the end. We could see Howard Chadwick and Helen Nicholson wanted to play too but they endeavoured to stay a respectable distance ahead of the pair of us.
 
Thanks for Yorkshire Dales for making us feel so welcome, laying on a great Open meeting and letting us celebrate Bart’s Bash with them, and then thank you to Jane Lister / Yorkshire Dales for the photos from their webstream
 

Overall results

2 3514 Ed and Tom Storey (Ripon SC), Feeling Foolish
4 3472 Mark and Anna Simpson (Scaling Dam SC), Big Issue
6 3468 John and Alison Cheetham (Yeadon SC), Numinous
6 3499 Philip David and Ellen Storey (Yorkshire Ouse SC), Feeling Foolish
10 3356 Howard Chadwick and Helen Nicholson (Yeadon SC), Design 8
12 3216 Neil McInnes and Jo Lee (Yeadon SC), Baggy Trousers
13 3479 Will Mitchell and Lois Spooner (Sunderland SC), Big Issue