11th-12th June 2011
An enthusiastic if small fleet of National Twelves gathered at Annandale
Sailing Club for the Scottish Championships this weekend and as racing
got under way so did the rain interspersed with the occasional hail
storm and winds which frequently shifted direction by 180 degrees and
ranged from nothing to a brisk force 3 and back again to O!
The club race team led by Duncan Greenhalgh were severely challenged but
still managed to fit in 3 good races despite the conditions. Steve
and Joanne Sallis in N3531 managed to achieve wins in all three races
although pushed at times by Philip David and Elaine Ross in N3499, Mark
and Emma Simpson in N3462 and Bernard and Ellie Clark sailing the first
single bottomed twelve N3334 almost as fast as the double bottomed ones.
Running just behind the Twelves was a well attended GP14 open meeting
however the changing wind conditions caused starting delays which
resulted in some of the GP starts coinciding with the Twelves finishing
the first lap, all of which made for some interesting crossovers!
It was a credit to both fleets on the restricted waters that there were
no incidents of note and not too much shouting.
The Saturday sailing was followed by a fantastic barbeque and the
Annandale once again amazed us with an incredible spread and an
excellent social organised that even the weather couldn’t spoil.
Sunday dawned with sunshine and a much steadier breeze which increased
steadily throughout the day and remained fairly constant in direction
but with a poor forecast for later it was decided to run the remaining
three races back to back. Another excellent decision as it turned
out. Race 1 saw two vintage boats in contention at the first mark,
Steve Sallis with his winged rudder’ed Dead Cat Bounce led followed by
Philip David in his Feeling Foolish hotly pursued by Ed Willett and
local crew Drew Mitchell in N1833 a 1960 built Proctor Mark Nine
recently restored by Brian Herring and the Howard Chadwick and local
crew Finn Mitchell sailing N2266 a 1965 Starfish. Unfortunately
the older boats could not quite maintain the pace and the more modern
boats broke through once again. Steve and Joanne maintained a
straight run of 1st places despite being pushed hard at times.
Our thanks are due to Annandale Sailing Club for providing excellent
racing, food and hospitality yet again to the Twelve fleet and also to
our series sponsors Gill.
Overall results
1st N3531 Steve and Joanne Sallis Hykeham S. C.
2nd N3499 Philip David and Elaine Ross York Ouse/Solway Y. C.
3rd N3462 Mark and Emma Simpson Scaling Dam S. C.
4th N3334 Bernard and Ellie Clark Ripon S. C.
5th N2266 Howard Chadwick and Finn Mitchell Yeadon/Annandale S. C.
6th N3406 Angus and Rohan Beyts Forfar S. C.
The Scottish equivalent of the Burton Brick won last year by Angus Beyts
for sailing at the Solway event for 5 years without finishing a race was
won this year by Mark and Emma Simpson for innovation in using an old
Mirror main as a jib and still finishing 3rd overall!
Photos
169a
The leeward mark.
058a
Steve and Joanne Sallis lead the fleet.
Howard Chadwick 13-06-2011
