The National 12
newsletter
...is back!!!
Number 79
January 2015
Contents
Chairman’s Report .................................................................................. 1
Editor’s Musings ..................................................................................... 2
Sweet Chariot – ‘a design for home construction’ ................................ 3
The National 12 Goes International ...................................................... 6
Burton Week 2014 ................................................................................. 8
The building of ‘Gruffalo’ N3541
from the original 1936 National 12 Uffa King design ...................... 11
Club Sailing and Bargain boats.............................................................. 16
Four Plank N 12s..................................................................................... 18
Hi-Jack..................................................................................................... 21
National 12 Vintage Fleet:
Report of 2014 Witchcraft Bailer Series............................................ 23
Vintage National Twelve Inland Championships 2014.......................... 26
Home Made T-Foils ................................................................................. 27
The 2014 Gul Travellers Series.............................................................. 29
How to Design a National 12 Using Google SketchUp ......................... 31
The Restoration of Dinsdale................................................................... 33
Regional Reports .................................................................................... 34
National 12 Newsletter
Number 79, January 2015
Front cover photograph by John Murrell. Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart lead Graham
Camm and Zoe Ballantyne at Carnac.
Printed by Automedia Limited, Prince William Road, Belton Road Industrial Park,
Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 5GU United Kingdom
2015 The National Twelve Owners’ Association
1
Ed the editor tells me that it is seven years since
the last printed National 12 newsletter, in this
time the class has seen some big changes.
Winged rudders on 12s are nothing new, Jon
Ibbotson and Simon Nelson had large wings on
the tips of their rudders back in 1996 and Tom
Edom won the Burton Brick for his rather heavy
attempt in 2001. When Gavin Willis put them on
his Paradigm, it caused a stir but the Foolishes,
and derivatives of, were still the boats of choice
for most. Jo Richards changed that. Jo designed
Dead Cat Bounce with less buoyancy at the
back because the rudder does the job and
Sophie and Jo proved the design at Thorpe Bay
in 2009 with resounding success. A flurry of
DCBs were built and the interesting, bulbous
bowed v-hulled Hi-Jack followed but since those
first years building has slowed down and this is
something that we need to address.
Through this time the class has done well,
running a successful travellers series, originally
started by Amelia Hall and Geoffrey Camm in
2003, kindly sponsored first by Gill and more
recently by Gul clothing, which has rewarded the
latest boats, the non-winged boats, the non-
double bottomed boats, as well as the vintage
boats and has encouraged owners of all types
of 12 to come racing at diverse venues up and
down the land.
One of the joys of the class is the huge variety
of boats spanning more than seven decades.
The vintage wing has been super active in the
past few years as has the Admiral’s Cup
division. Paul Turner is working hard to
encourage the four plankers that bridge that gap
to get out and play. The events where we get
boats from all generations of 12 are a joy and to
further encourage this, we intend to run a pursuit
race at the Royal Harwich Yacht Club Gul Event
and a handicap race at the Northampton
summer meeting in June, so not only can the
older boats start with the newest boats they
might beat them too!
The Northampton summer weekend is not a Gul
event but is designed to be a more relaxed affair,
with race coaching from a pro coach on the
Saturday alongside coaching from our in-class
experts and on Sunday, some relaxed racing.
This should be a great opportunity for people to
try out a 12 so if you know of interested parties
this is the event to encourage them to come
along to.
One of the strengths of our class is that you can
sail and compete with relatively small crews. The
National 12 is a great way to get out on the water
with your son or daughter and sail a boat that
thrills. Seven of the fleet at the last Gul event of
the year were family teams, we hope to
encourage greater family participation in the
years to come.
So our aim is to encourage more boats on to the
water, recruit more family teams, increase class
activity and hopefully drive the class forwards.
Finally, I offer my heartfelt thanks to Ed Willett
who has driven this Newsletter from start to
finish. Ed, who many of you might not have met,
also produced the mighty 2000 Handbook.
Thank you.
Tom Stewart
Chairman Tom Stewart with Andrea Ralph at
Pevensey Bay SC. (Fotoboat)
Chairman’s Report
2
The creation of this edition of the Newsletter prompted me to reflect on the
various publications the Owners’ Association has created over the decades.
The first edition of the Newsletter was actually published way back in July
1962, some four months before I was born! Looking back at issue #1 it is
interesting to reflect on its opening sentence…”We never know what is
going on in the 12 Foot Class…” and “so we hope to send out some news
three or four times a year”! Amen to that!
The Newsletter was then published in A5 format for the next 46 years with
two issues a year until 1994, and then a single annual issue until #78 which
was published in January 2008, when it quietly ceased publication…until now!
Despite the Newsletter first appearing some 52 years ago, it is not in fact
the longest running N12 Class publication. That distinction belongs to the
Annual Yearbook which was first published in 1950 with its stated objective
being to maintain a record of trophy winners and dinghies built…
By the late 1960’s the volume of information contained in the Yearbook had
become considerable and the Committee took the decision to limit content
to recent information only and commit the permanent records to a volume
which would be published at more appropriate intervals…thus giving birth to
the Association Handbook that first appeared in 1972 with the current sixth
edition having been printed in 2010. Looking back at Robin Steavenson’s
wonderful book “The Story of the National Twelves” published in 1966 I
wonder if that set the template that created the Association Handbook.
As the Newsletter publication reduced to a single annual issue in 1994 a
new newsheet was produced alongside the Newsletter – named “Ratchet”
it aimed to provide topical and current news with a degree of humour 3 or
4 times a year. The July 1993 issue was numbered #1 in perhaps an early
attempt at humour just 2 months after the first copy of the “New Ratchet”
had been published! However in fact the first editions of “Ratchet” were
actually produced in the 1980’s with a run of four in 1986/87, followed then
in 1992 by a re-introduction (returned by un-popular demand said the title)
called “Ratchet II”. Notwithstanding when it was actually first published or
how many were actually produced “Ratchet” ran until the Summer 2007
edition (numbered 48) over the years becoming a substantive magazine in
its own right when it too went quietly out of production…a victim of simply
not enough volunteers being able to assist in production. One final edition
of Ratchet appeared in digital format in September 2007 before it was re-
incarnated as “The Latest Chapter” in December 2007 - a new monthly
electronic newsletter that was emailed to those on the N12 e-mail list,
continuing to this day as time and copy has demanded.
So, at the time of writing we have been without a paper Newsletter/
magazine for some seven years and I for one have missed the winter “fix”
of having a N12 journal to read and digest as I look forward to the new
season, so volunteered to take the helm and re-introduce the Newsletter
with the production of this, the 79th edition!
Of course none of this would be possible without the support and help of
all those on the Committee and those who have contributed articles and
photographs…my sincere thanks to you all!
Special thanks to Michael Brookman and Christian Day without whose
support and encouragement this probably wouldn’t have got off the ground!
Feedback, comments, suggestions for next time to edwillett50@gmail.com
Ed Willett
Editor’s Musings
3
Sweet Chariot is designed for home construction
using a ‘one plank per side’ approach which
importantly can be rapidly as well as easily
built.
The development of Sweet Chariot represented
unfinished business from the 1970’s and my
previous N12 design N2882 Hustler (see N12
Newsletter No. 29 January 1976)
As a 4-planker Hustler was also conceived for
home construction involving a central ‘t-beam’
utilising the centre board box as part of the web
to which a long tapering flat floor plank was
attached. Around this spine the rest of the hull
was constructed using sub-frames.
This design however coincided with a ‘step-
change’ in N12 development during the
transition to round bilge moulded hulls.
Consequently the ‘idea’ of a hull for ease of
home construction was not further pursued by
me until some 35 years later.
The reasons for further pursuing this idea were
essentially:
1. My recent work on a ‘one plank per side’
construction approach.
2. Improved cost ‘gearing’ between home build
in plywood v production moulded.
It was my teenage daughter who encouraged
me to take up my drawing pens again to help
design a simple boat that she could build at
school as part of her Design Technology ‘O-
Level’. This brought me into the world of ‘one
plank per side’ construction using darts and
stitch and tape to form the hull shape.
Initially for simplicity I investigated double-ended
craft and identified a generic configuration
involving two contra-curving ‘darts’ based on two
types of bow. In one the chine intersects the
stem and in the other the chine intersects the
gunwale (e.g. Seafly/ Mirror 16). When these
were married in the same double-ended design,
the chines thus formed did not intersect and
instead created the ‘z’ outline within each side
panel. The closing of these ‘darts’ formed a
strong frameless hull-shell.
Sweet Chariot
– ‘a design for home construction’
Sweet Chariot underside view of hull shape.
(Colin Cumming)
Sweet Chariot beating. (Colin Cumming)
Sweet Chariot centre board case fabrication and
floor structure. (Fyne Boat Kits)