NORTHAMPTON SAILING CLUB
At Northampton Open Meeting on the weekend of July14th/15th the National 12s held the Inland Championships, the National 12 Vintage Open and the National 12 Midland Area Junior Championships. With over 50 entries for the Inlands, 4 for the Vintage and 7 for the juniors racing was extremely competitive throughout the fleet. The start of the racing was very wet but this soon cleared to quickly brighten up with winds of force 2 to 4 with stronger gusts mixed in just to make it interesting. Shifting winds and a competitive line up lead to quite a few restarts, but once underway the racing was close and at the end of the first day 9 boats were battling for first prize. |
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With the remainder of the fleet only metres behind, the slightest error could mean the loss of several places and each boat having to fight to the finish. Will Henderson and son Robert (N3418) won the first race comfortably in possibly the lightest winds of the weekend. The second two races of the day were both won by previous National Champion Antony Gifford, crewed by Nicky Bass in N3447 both times winning by a short margin on the last leg from (amongst others) sister Frances Gifford, crewed by Janes Jones - who showed incredible consistency throughout the weekend by finishing in fifth position in almost every race. |
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Sailing on the Sunday was every bit as good as the Saturday with plenty of action throughout the whole fleet. Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne (N3469) were notable throughout the day -second in the first race behind Jon and Charlotte Ibbotson (3445) and winning the second race. It was unfortunate that they had not been able to attend on the Saturday as the overall results could have been very different. Geoff Camm and Amelia Hall in their new Waller Chapter also showed great speed and are certainly people to watch in the future. The battle for first place continued with most people counting at least one poor result in the shifty conditions and with the final race won by Steve Sallis and Jenny James (3436) the results were close with only 11 points separating the first 9 boats. |
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Results
1st Stuart Hudson
& Jane Stamp N3453 Spinnaker Sailing Club
2nd Jon & Charlotte Ibbotson N3445 Royal Harwich Yacht Club
3rd Frances Gifford & Jane Jones N3431 Aldeburgh Yacht Club
4th John & Katy Meadowcroft N3429 Henley Sailing Club
First single bottomed N12 goes to Mike Raine and J. Raine, N3130,
finishing 12th overall
Vintage Open Meeting
A small fleet of vintage, ie, clinker-built, National Twelves sailed 3 races as part of a 6-event series for the "Witchcraft Bailer" trophy. The competition quickly became a very close struggle for first place between "Lets Go", N.1673, (Brian Herring and Ros Stevenson) and "Lysistrata", N.2304 (David Croft and 7-year old daughter Caroline). Herring won the first race by a small margin but the second race was very tight and won by Croft by a matter of a few metres. In the third race with the wind rising to Force 4-5, Croft hung on in the beats, though over-powered, and planed ahead on the reaches and won by a small distance.
Result:
1st N.2304 (D.& C.Croft) Henley S.C.
2nd N.1673 (B.Herring & R.Stevenson) Winsford Flash S.C.
3rd N.2300 (K.Goddard & B.Gill) Trent Valley S.
The Midland Area Junior Championships followed the Inland Championships on the Saturday with 7 entries. Each competitor showed his or her determination to win and each race fought to the line. The eventual winners were James Whitehead and Guy Johnson, N3458, in 2nd place was Chris Kilsby and Jenny Gammon, N3276, and in 3rd place were Rebecca Johnson and Richard Williams.
Kevin Stanton
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