Trent Valley Open Meeting
Trent Valley N12 Open meeting, Sunday 19th May 2024(Open & Witchcraft Bailer series)
Off the start line
Heading into the doldrums
What a prefect day we had at Trent Lock for the Trent Valley open meeting; hardly a cloud in the sky, gentle current and a decent breeze from a good direction, plus Race Officer Guy Browne set an excellent course for the three races. In ancient times it would have been called "loop course B" with half the "Goddard Chicane/Canal Mark" but everyone seemed to understand 51214. So as not to disrupt Club racing, as an experiment, the three races were started 5 minutes after the Club starts (Lasers/ICLAs and Merlins) and the entry fee was £1; no prizes given but trophies were awarded.
It was great to see so many visiting sailors plus the Bloors and the Camm clan spectating from the bank; Kevan was taking lots of photos which we hope to see soon.
We nearly had a full half dozen boats, but I was again grounded. New member Martin's first open meeting did not start well as he had to miss the first race because of technical problems, but he did get see all the full TVSC course for the first time in race 2. Despite the best efforts of a couple of cruisers there were no incidents, no protests and everyone seemed to have a great time. None of the 12s were line shy, a lesson in starting to the home fleet!
Thanks go to Race Officer Guy Browne, and rescue crew John Ollerton and Rachel Davis. Also, thanks to Steward John who, having left his wife to do afternoon tea, arrived back to the Club just after tea in his "Mr Whippy" van and proceeded to give everyone a free ice cream!
The Results:
1st Grahm Camm* (Burghfield) crewed by Blue Camm in N2403, (the) China Doll #.
2nd John Sears* (Notts County), crewed by Andrea Murphy* (Attenborough) in N1903 Slick Chick (Proctor Mark 9)
3rd Alan Mason (Redesmere), crewed by Sharon Halford in N2066 Sundowner (Sparklet)
4th Zoe Ballantyne (Burghfield) crewed by Helen Geary (Trent Valley) in (the) Cheshire Cat) N2750 #.
5th Martin (Jim) Nunn crewed by Scott Nunn (Trent Valley) sailing in N3301 (Crusader)
Graham collected the Silver National trophy and Blue, the Laughter Tankard, plus Zoe was awarded the John Mee Salver for being the first AC boat.
(* former TVSC members/ # Turner collection boats)
Paul, TVSC N12 rep