Vintage National 12’s at Derwent Reservoir
An excellent turnout of 10 vintage 12s were greeted
with lots of wind and fine weather for the Vintage Open Meeting on Saturday 31st
August. Boats had travelled from as far
away as Cheshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire to compete in this annual northern
meeting.
With the wind blowing a fresh force 4, approaching 5
at times, conditions were not altogether ideal for a vintage fleet including
many boats built in the early 60’s when epoxy glue had not yet been invented. Race Officers David and Barbara Darling
found the most sheltered corner of the reservoir available and set an excellent
short triangle course for the first race of the day.
The
first race saw Philip and Helen David in N2545 pulling clear of the fleet closely
followed by Vincent Philips and Louise Needham N2531 with Howard and Sarah
Chadwick N2266 in third place. A broach
on the reach saw Vincent washing out his 12 and dropping him down the fleet. Many of the fleet showed discretion at the
gybe mark and tacked round out respect for the ageing craft (or was it the
ageing crews?). After a hard first race
Philip and Helen took line honours with Howard and Sarah second followed by
Vincent and Louise who had made a valiant recovery to finish third. Vintage section Chairman Ken Goddard retired
having rolled in spectacularly on the broad reach. The fleet then left the relative shelter of the bay to beat back
the two miles or so to the club for lunch.
Over lunch the Derwent Vintage Handicapping System
was applied for use during races two and three with Philip now starting 7
minutes after the first boats and Vince and Howard 6 minutes after the first
boats etc and so on through the fleet.
Most of the fleet then ventured out for the very fast run back to our allegedly
sheltered bay.
Race 2 went well as the wind eased slightly with
Philip and Helen David finding even more speed to power through the fleet back
into first place. Peter Roe and Helen
Bird in N2429 sailed an excellent race to finish 2nd and Ken Goddard
and Alex Milburn having fully recovered from the earlier capsize sailed another
good race in N2300 to finish in 3rd place.
Race 3 began as the wind picked up again causing
some excitement with Brian Herring and Ros Stephenson in N1673 capsizing and
inverting such that they needed rescue assistance. Philip and Helen again sailed through with apparent ease to
finish first with Vincent Philips sailing an excellent race and finishing 2nd
followed by Ken Goddard in 3rd place. Howard and Sarah had seen a chance to pick up two places and
gybed on the penultimate lap where others were tacking but they paid for their
bravery (Sarah said stupidity!) with a quick dip! Ian Purkis and Margerate Overend N1620 had sailed consistently
all day and without major incident to finish a very creditable 5th
overall in the oldest boat sailing complete with metal centreplate etc.
Overall, an excellent day’s sailing with all three
races to count in near perfect, if very windy conditions with the ageing craft
and many ageing helms/crews giving a creditable performance and finishing
almost intact. Three boats
unfortunately did not manage to stay the full series due to gear failure and
consideration for the boats but all enjoyed a good day. The perfect end to a perfect day sailing was
achieved when Towan and Jennifer Hancock produced a home made tea to round off
the day before the journey home.
The Results for the 7 survivors were:-
Position Number Helm/Crew Design
|
1st |
N2545 |
Philip and Helen David |
China Doll |
|
2nd |
N2531 |
Vincent Philips and Louise Needham |
Whisper 7 |
|
3rd |
N2429 |
Peter Roe and Helen Bird |
Proctor Mark 14 |
|
4th |
N2266 |
Howard and Sarah Chadwick |
Starfish |
|
5th |
N1620 |
Ian Purkis and Margaret Overend |
Proctor Mark 6 |
|
6th |
N2300 |
Ken Goddard and Alex Milburn |
Proctor Mark 12 |
|
7th |
N1673 |
Brian Herring and Ros Steavenson |
Proctor Mark 4A |