Vintage Champs

The 3^rd National 12 Vintage Championship held at Burton SC, Foremark Reservoir, Derbyshire on Saturday 27^th & Sunday 28^th June 2015

Best to start with what some of the competitors thought, in nearly alphabetical order!

Dare Barry

Enjoyed me first visit. Good to just see N12’s sailing and good company. Great place to sail, but distance and time are a problem. My thoughts for what they are worth would be to have 3 races on Sat pm. and them 2 races Sunday AM. As for the handicapping just use the handicaps as per the handbook. We did seem to have a rather long break on Sat. lunch time. To keep up interest over the weekend a personal handicap series could be run alongside. Being rather selfish it would make mine and other further off Yotters travel plans easier. Thanks for your and others efforts.

Bernard Clark

So nice to have an event to bring the old boat out for - and it was lovely to be sailing her again!  A bit windy at times for the old girl, some creaks and groans (from the helm too) but huge fun, and lovely to have such great competition.  Burton SC put on such a good weekend for us, thanks to everyone from the class involved in making it two super days of summer sailing.

Martin Clarke

An interesting return to vintage racing. Many thanks to Paul for lending me Starfish, which is quite original!  Setting up was interesting, like “where was the metal retainer for the burgee”?...Paul comes along and shows me the burgee halyard...not seen that for 30 years!!!  Even though the boat is so original the Derwent Handicap race was a real leveller, starting in the second wave we were able to power Starfish to a leading position only to miss out on a victory by 30 seconds. Really close sailing in third Saturday race split seconds between us and Brian and Christine. These old boats deserve to be raced. Jevan and myself never sailed together before but it was excellent 2 days even if we were carrying 27 stones!!!! Thanks to all for making it happen!

Jevan Fletcher

After only starting sailing a couple of months ago, Paul invited myself and Charlotte to crew for Martin and Dare at the vintage champs. Not knowing what we had let ourselves in for we agreed, instantly realising that Charlotte had never crewed for someone (let alone been in a National 12) and the sum total of my experience in a N12 was 30 minutes out in a boat with Paul for a gentle cruise on the river. Upon arrive at Burton SC everyone was very friendly and the club was brilliant. Before I knew what was happening the boats were launched and I was heading out to the start line on the fantastic Foremark Reservoir. Sailing in Starfish was fantastic, having never properly raced and having never sailed on anything other than the Trent the boat was just perfect (i.e. very forgiving!). The racing was exhilarating and any nerves soon disappeared. All in all, a great weekend, thoroughly enjoyed the sailing and it has only enhanced my desire to get out on the water more.

Charlotte Barnes

As for myself, I have even less experience than Jevan! Having only completed the RYA Level 1 course in the start of June, mid-exam season, and only ventured out on the River Trent a grand total of 2 times after, I had no idea what to expect for the N12 Vintage Champs. Upon arrival Jevan took great pleasure in laughing at me as I realised the “lake” I would be sailing on what actually pretty huge! After being introduced to my Helm and guide for the weekend, Dare Barry, (a rather appropriate name I thought) it wasn’t long before I was sailing into the open. The weekend was a very big step for me and although I tried my upmost to battle the changing winds and weather and stay out to race, it was a short sail. Dare has given the best experience I have had in my short time sailing, tutoring me and giving me the confidence to get up onto the side of the boat! (the prospect of going swimming due to the strong winds, egged me on to sit down and lean out). The added awesomeness of winning the Admirals Cup has only made me more driven to get out even more in a boat and ultimately maintain a bigger trophy collection than Jevan!

Brian Kitching

Very enjoyable weekend.

Christine Preston

What a fab weekend, I am out of fitness and have survived.  I can only say I picked a good helm for being so tolerating and lenient, who else would say.., 'you might want to get up or be able to move soon', when I launched myself backwards... as instructed .... For a magnificent plane... But found myself doing the dying fly on Brian's feet....  It really isn't a good look if you want to at least suggest you know your way round a National 12 when you are of an age over 50 AND THAT YOU KNOW WHEN PLANING YOU MIGHT NEED TO MOVE AGAIN......   Oops. Which emoticon covers that manoeuvre? Actually, I always like it at Foremark not least because it is so easy to access, but also because it can be so variable.  We had some really lovely sailing, especially first outing on Saturday, but also all weekend, even if the Wind Guru forecast lived up to predictions and gust were 25+. 

Ian & Margaret Purkis

Great day on Saturday and, despite my “Vintage moment” trying to sail wrong course in race 2, it was a lot of fun! Special thanks to the Burton SC team who help us out with Margie’s broken launching trolley and the pair of old tyres… got her safely home. And the Club even arranged the Vulcan flypast for us… Vintage 50s boats and plane! Look forward to next time. Very best wishes to all.

PS For those with my email address, please can you amend to use my personal rather than business one. c.ian.purkis@btinternet.com

PPS Just a further thought regarding the Concours d ‘Elegance prize. Seeing you hoisting the burgee on “Starfish” it occurred to me we should also have a prize for “Most Original” Vintage N12. Both might make good copy for Classic Boat which seems to have quite a wide circulation and could spread the word.

Ros Stevenson

Thank you for organising such a lovely Weekend.  It was a bit too windy for us, but it was lovely weather and the sun came out for us all. The Club looked after us well, and the food was really nice. Hope you have the same weekend next year, as it is lovely to see everyone. Thanks to you and all that organised the event.

 The view from the shore:

Richard (I used to sail N12s) Watson

After recovering from the ports of call on Friday evening, I decided to venture up to Foremark Reservoir to view the National 12 Vintage Championships. The weather looked perfect, sunny, warm and a reasonable breeze, ideal for the Vintage boats. On my arrival I spotted a couple of Vintage 12 sailors. Much to my disappointment I then saw the Vintage Twelve’s leaving the shore. I think they were led by Dave and Tricia and I may have spotted Brian Herring. I was wondering if it was a Vintage 12 meeting or Vintage Helm meeting! The fashion seemed to be no hair or a certain hair colour! It was a wonderful sight seeing some of the old boats back on the water and bought back memories of my days in 12’s. I did wake up on Sunday morning thinking oh not such a nice day today, windy and rainy, and thought of the Vintage Boats and helms taking a bit more of a strain, was it the same as the past after a few scoops in a Saturday evening, who knows!

And now the proper report............

Saturday

The day started with Martin Clarke collecting Starfish from the farm, and, with Jevan and Charlotte in close pursuit, we formed a convoy heading to Foremark collecting one of the Miracle competitors on the way. It was great to see lots of old, sorry, familiar faces plus the joy of seeing Mr Jones for the first time in 2 ½ years; Tim has made a fine job of restoring her/him (but it was a bit weird on the Sunday morning taking all Gruffalo’s sheets off!) Dare launched first and was back to the shore within minutes, but with the decks much closer to the water. One plank had split nearly 2/3rds the length from the transom and she was leaking like a sieve. Many thanks to Ian the Beachmaster for his duct taping skills! After the usual briefing the first race kicked off in sunshine and a lovely breeze with Tricia soon establishing a commanding lead. Tim & Gill Bilton were last by a long way in Mr Jones; he assured us that it was not tactics to get a huge start in the next two races; Mr Jones’ mast was apparently bolt upright and tuning was needed. After an extended lunch break the handicaps for races two and three were announced:

Mr Jones 2399 – scratch (the tactics only got him 3 minutes!)

Amante 1002, Little Margie 1483 and Starfish 2020 + 3 minutes

Bakewell Tart 2345, Just Lucky 1657 and  Xanthus 2149 + 5 minutes

Fair Lady (Tricia, how apt!) 2620 + 7 minutes

There was some very competitive racing as the handicaps unwound but Bernard and Ellie proved unbeatable with Tricia and Dave scoring two seconds. Absolutely no complaints about the Derwent Handicapping – close racing and finishing. Well done and thanks to Ken. And to round the day off BSC put on a splendid BBQ which was followed by an excellent quiz from Paul Bilton – all cleverly themed for “12” and “Miracles”; they were sharing the water with us for their Inland Champs.

Sunday

Fine weather but the breeze had picked up noticeably from the day before. Ian and Margaret had already gone home having only the Saturday free and Brian H and Ros decided that discretion was the order of the day. Dare and Charlotte cruised down to the committee boat, made the best start and cruised back as the wind increased. Martin and Jevan also decided that the wind was getting a little to “frisky” for Starfish (especially with micro cracks appearing between the fore and side decks) and called it a day. Brian and Christine also had had enough. With the results now clear, lunch was taken and the prizes awarded.

I hope we can get some more vintage, and particularly ribbed boats, to join us next year; maybe I’ll be fit enough to compete next time! And we are having a few deep and profound thoughts about the format noting Ian’s thoughts above and the following note from Kevan: “Like Dare, I think the Handicap side of the event needs reviewing and maybe a different system could be considered. The Handicap racing could be run alongside a 5 or 6 race event”. Any other constructive comments would be welcomed.

And finally special thanks to Janet for “meet & Greet” and the admin, Kevan for photos, and to all at Burton (particularly Bill, Craig, Ian, the race & rescue crew and the caterers) for making us so welcome again. Special mention for Dare who travelled over from the Isle of Wight to compete – that’s keen!

Paul

 

Overall results

J AND T HANCOCK TROPHY

(SATURDAY)