Felixstowe Ferry open meeting

A high quality fleet of National Twelves turned up at Felixstowe Ferry for a weekend of sun, sand, partying and challenging sea sailing over the weekend of 19th & 20th May. The Club came up trumps on all counts, although the high pressure area combined with the healthy tidal flows gave the biggest challenges to the race officer, which he admirably acquitted. The wind was shifting through 90 degrees on Saturday and the tide dominated Sunday's racing, yet the PRO efficiently ran 4 interesting races for three very different classes on the same race course (the Twelves sharing the event with OKs and Shearwaters) without so much as a general recall.

In the first race, the tide was sweeping along the start line towards the favoured committee boat end. The inevitable pile up that ensued allowed Jon and Charlotte Ibbotson in N3445 to make an early break. With the pack generally tacking right to get clean air, the Ibbotsons held on to the lifting left hand side to consolidate their lead which they held to the finish. N3431, Frances Gifford and Jane Jones led the chasing pack around the first windward mark and fought off the challengers to take second, despite dropping to the lower places at one stage, with John and James Whitehead in N3458 third.

Bruce and Henry Johnson in N3423 demontrated their boatspeed to the fleet off the start line in the second race and lead around the windward mark. The Ibbotsons and Tom Stewart and Liz Ross in N3465 worked their way up to consolidate second and third respectively during the reaches. Up the second beat the Ibbotsons momentarily took the lead although some bad judgement in close quarters with the back of the Shearwater fleet allowed the Johnsons back through. On the run, the Johnsons pulled away whilst Stewart and Ross overhauled the Ibbotsons, these three holding these positions to the finish.

In the evening, the fleet proceeded to test rigorously the recent theory that beer is as good at rehydrating the body as water, so when Sunday morning came around there was a general sluggishness which was soon put right by the club's big breakfast. Competitors new to FFSC watched with awe the breaking waves in the estuary caused by the sluicing 5 knot flood tide, not believing sailing would be possible in the light winds. However, after a short postponement the fleet departed into a sunny force 2.