Vintage Champs and Trent Valley Open Meeting  

Vintage Champs 18th & 19th May, Open meeting 19th May

Saturday 18th May was the Derwent Handicap for vintage N12’s and Sunday 19th May was the Vintage Championships and Midland Area N12 Open Meeting combined; all events were kindly hosted by Trent Valley Sailing Club. TVSC was a new venue for the Vintage Championships and the change was undoubtedly a success. There was great support from around the country from Burghfield in the deep south to darkest Scotland. Next year we will get the date in the calendar early, so that the regulars will have more notice for their diaries. There were nine entries for the Derwent Handicap on Saturday afternoon. The wind was light and shifty so a short course up to the Scout Hut was set by the race officer Roger Britton.

There was some panic at the start of the first race as Mr Jones drifted towards the weir; the centreboard had jammed so sadly Gerald & Tanya missed the first race but then Starfish was prepared. The first race was won by Graham Camm followed by David Peacock and John Sears. It’s never good to win the first race by too much as the handicaps for the next two races are based on this. Kevan Bloor worked out the pursuit handicaps over lunch; a black art fuelled by tea and cake. In the second race the wind died at the start favouring the later starting boats. Graham won again with John second. In the third race the breeze got up. David Copse roared away to win but John came third, which gave him the victory overall as Graham only got to seventh. This was the second year running that John had won the Derwent Handicap and now third time overall.

On Saturday night there was a club meal followed by skittles run by Guy Browne and compared by Paul Turner; TVSC versus the Visitors. This was great fun and the home team won.

There were eight vintage N12’s for the Sunday event who were joined by David Copse in his Foolish and Chris Troth in Bouncer. Race Officer Rob Sloane was faced with a flat calm but expected the sea breeze to come in at 11.00am. Sensibly he decided there would be too little wind to be able to sample the newly cleared areas up stream so the Scout Hut course was repeated.

In the first race Angus with new crew Karen were drifting towards the weir and had to be shunted back before the starting sequence. There were some near incidents at start with river traffic but David Peacock got away first and held this position to the finish. John Sears was second and David Copse was third.

In the second race Graham Camm won the start. David Peacock went back for being over the line only to be told he wasn’t. In the end Graham went on to win and David managed to battle through to second. Patrick Hamilton in China Doll was third.

In the final race Graham and Zoe won the start closely followed by David Peacock and Ann Britton. There was a close battle and David had just got in front by the second mark. Unfortunately David didn't hear the recall when he was over the line at the start and had to retire as he passed the club house. Graham went on to a well-deserved win, which gave him the Championships and the Open Meeting overall. David Peacock was second in both events overall and David Copse was third in the Open Meeting with John Sears third in the Vintage Champs.

The Concourse d’Elegance was won by David Peacock’s Fair Lady by a single varnish run from John Sears’s recently refurbished Slick Chick.

Thanks to TVSC and the new Stewards Wendy & Dave and to Vice Commodore Ann Briton for all her behind the scenes organisational work. A huge thanks Paul Turner who was unable to sail himself but lent out six of the vintage N12’s from his collection.

Kevan took lots of pictures of the event and they are on Flickr Saturday Photos and Sunday Photos

The top mark

The fleet had some very close racing, particular around the windward mark.

The prize winners

 Photos courtesy: Kevan Bloor