Northern National 12's dodge the gales to duel it out at Ripon and Yeadon Open Meetings

Despite a horrendous weather forecast the Ripon and Yeadon Open Meetings were well supported and provided some very exciting racing coupled with an excellent social event and meal hosted by Ripon Sailing Club.

The Ripon Open Meeting enjoyed a turnout of 18 boats with Jon and James Whitehead dominating the event sailing a Feeling Foolish, although throughout the day Steve Sallis and Sue Wright were never far away from them. Other designs were also having some close racing a little way behind with Philip and Helen David getting closest in their Baggy Trousers.

By the end of race two the Whiteheads had two firsts, Steve Sallis two seconds and Philip and Helen David two third places. For race three the Whiteheads tried out Brian Herring's Design Eight moving it up from towards the back of the fleet into third place before retiring for an early shower. The much threatened gales never materialised although the winds varied from occasional gusts up to force3-4 to drifting conditions at times with even the most experienced of sailors occasionally enjoying a quick dip! The vintage prize was taken by Ian Purkis and R Scriven sailing N1620

The final placings were-

The Yeadon Open suffered from a slight reduction in numbers and three local boats decided the extraordinarily fluky conditions were not for them, however 11 boats did compete with some exciting racing including a lot of place changing going on throughout all the races. In race one Philip and Helen David broke clear of the fleet with Howard Chadwick and Helen Nicholson in pursuit and David and Jennie Davies third.

Race two saw Neil McInnes make an excellent start and lead for the early laps closely followed by David Davies with Philip and Howard chasing hard. As the wind became ever more fluky Philip and Howard crept through and Neil got the wrong end of several shifts dropping back to 5th as John Cheetham and Katie McInnes sneaked through as well.

By race 3 the gales were clearly finally getting closer as the strength was going from 0 to 4 with frequent shifts of 90 degrees. Several if not most of the boats managed fill ups or capsizes with John Cheetham and Katie holding the lead for much of the race until the Davids once again took the lead from them to finish first. Neil and Yvonne McInness finished 3^rd with Howard and Helen in 4^th place. As the boats were put away the rain and gales finally swept in as forecast but thankfully perfectly timed as far as the competitors were concerned. The vintage prize was again taken by Ian Purkis sailing N1620 this time crewed by Margaret Overend.

Ian also clinched the frst place overall in the National 12 Vintage series with Brian Herring and Ros Stevenson in second place and Ken Goddard in third place.

The final Yeadon results were:-