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National 12s @ Spinnaker 15 May 2004

The helmsmen and crews of the 13 National 12's which were rigged and ready for an 11.00 start sat, chatted, drank cups of tea and looked at the glassy water all morning. "Don't worry" said the locals, "the sea breeze will arrive at 1.30, have some lunch". So they did. At 1.30 to the minute a force 2 breeze arrived from the sea breeze direction, the boats were launched and by the time they got to the start area a nice force 2 welcomed them.

Racing was close with quite a bit of place changing between the leading 5 boats in all three of the races.
Fran Gifford and Jenny Wilkins won the first race from Will and Arthur Henderson, with the lead changing on many occasions until New Isabelle ran gently up Zippy's transom and had to do a 720. Third was Steve Broom and James Muir sailing very impressively in their first time out in a Twelve.
The second race saw Will and Arthur lead from the start and build up a good margin for error. Chasing hard were John Thornton and Lizzy Wilkins who eventually slipped down to 4th place with David Wilkins and Kate Meadowcroft taking 2nd place from Fran & Jenny.

With everything to sail for in the final race two further laps were added. Fran & Jenny were early leaders followed closely by David & Kate, a coming together of these two boats at the 3rd mark left Fran doing turns. Meanwhile the Hendersons had got an inside overlap on David and Katy at one of the many gybe marks, followed by a nice puff of wind which took her clear, with John & Lizzy getting through to 2nd place. As the race went on Fran & Jenny worked their way back through the fleet, getting well in tune with the shifts and puffs and closing the gap on the Hendersons fast but running out of laps before being able to take them. After much swapping of position between 3rd & 4th John & Lizzy eventually got the better of David & Kate. Steve & James sailed consistently to take 5th.

 

1st beat - race 3

Photos by Katharine Cherrill

 

 

Close mark rounding - race3

Place

No

Design

Helm & Crew

Club

Points

1st

3418

Baggy Trousers

Will & Arthur Henderson

Salcombe YC

2

2nd

3431

Feeling Foolish

Fran Gifford & Jenny Wilkins

Aldeburgh YC

3

3rd

3481

Feeling Foolish

David Wilkins & Kate Meadowcroft

Spinnaker Club

6

4th

3468

Numinous

John Thornton & Lizzy Wilkins

Henley SC

7

1st Single Bottom Boat

3316

Crusader

Steve Broom & James Muir

Spinnaker Club

8