National Series at Trent Valley Sailing Club

Sunday 17th May 2026
Blood Red #2 & Witchcraft Bailer Vintage/4 Plank series.

Celebrating TVSC’s 140th year (as the oldest island sailing club and reputedly the first club to host a National 12 open meeting), and 90th anniversary of the N12s, we were delighted to host the second in the Blood Red series, in addition to our usual annual open meeting and Witchcraft Bailer vintage series event.

It was great to catch up with friends old and new. Former TVSC members Graham Camm, John Sears and the Grays, vintage sailors Alan Mason and Philip David (although he brought his “fast” boat), Rod Golsbra (who last sailed at TVSC in 1974!), David Harris from Whitefriars, bringing the Blood Red goodies and stickers, visiting us for the second time (crewed by his brother Mark), and Steve Burgoine and son Austin as Trent Lock newbies. Ian Bullock had hoped to join us with N153 but a family issue caused a last minute cancellation. Kevan & Janet Bloor joined us as too did the senior Camms.  John and Philip were without a crew, so club Laser sailor James Dalby and novice Merlin crew Nikki Elliott volunteered (more later!) And a fine selection of assorted N12s.

 

The view from the back of the fleet.

The weather proved to be “friskier” than forecast with launching difficult with the wind from the west, but all got onto the water for the first race without incident. However Philip managed to capsize before the start, a bit of a christening for Nikki who had only been in stately Merlins before. “Things do happen rather quickly in N12s”. We had a good start, just behind John Sears on the Club side of the river, and there was plenty of place changing through the Doldrums, indeed up to Billy Stones. We traded places with Alan and Steve in the fluky winds and slammers upstream but were becalmed in a dead spot and were last round the top mark. A fast but uneventful trip down the river saw us complete one lap. However the breeze was proving to be beyond the design limitations of my replacement shoulder, so we parked up awaiting race two.

Optimistically Kay and I set off in the second race and made a rubbish start. The gathering black clouds proved warning of more gusts and seeing John Sears taking down his mainsail convinced us to withdraw to Clubhouse and put the boat away. (It hardly rained but three miles north, our farm was hit by a deluge). What we didn’t know was that John had had a serious gear failure which put him out of racing for the rest of the day.

I missed the start of the third race but again Grahm turned on the turbos and disappeared into the distance to win all three races. Alan put in another steady performance (without visiting the far shore to investigate the mud and waterlilies again) to be the first vintage boat.

Paul Turner, TVSC N12 rep.

 

The view from the Race Officer’s Box

What a lovely day for the Trent Valley sailing season the National 12s 90th birthday. And it was slick exciting sailing in very fickle winds. First race saw John Sears first over the line, the rest of the pack a little line shy. We set two laps but shortened on the second downward leg. The second race back-to-back with the first again saw John streak over the line taking the near side but with Graham Camm pass on the far bank. To make things interesting we set a long loop in the front of the club with a gybe mark at buoy 4. One of the contestants decided to take it to starboard meeting the following boat head on. A dance followed with more transgressions but fortunately retirements negating any protests. After lunch the last race was set at two laps with the top mark at the notorious Billystones. All in all, a great TVSC day. Thanks to all who attended.

Roger Britton, Race Officer.

 

 

Results                                                             

1st	Graham Camm Zoe Ballantyne	Burghfield Burghfield	3530 Dead Cat Bounce	Very Hungry Caterpillar
2nd	Philip David Nikki Elliott	Yorkshire Ouse Trent Valley	3499 Feeling Foolish	Out Of The Blue
3rd	Tim Gray Wendy Gray	Staunton Harold Staunton Harold	3203 Crusader	Skylark
4th	David Harris Mark Harris	Whitefriars Staunton Harold	3290 Final Chapter	Doctor De Soto
5th	Alan Mason Rod Goldsbra	Redesmere Redesmere	1607 Proctor Mk 4a	Dilly Dally
6th	John Sears James Dalby	Notts County Trent Valley	1903 Proctor Mk 9	Slick Chick
7th	Steve Burgoine Austin Burgoine	Banbury Banbury	3489 Big Issue	Radical Edward
8th	Paul Turner               Kay Ash	Trent Valley Trent Valley	2359 Shotgun	Shotgun

Classifications:

1st Overall/ Silver National Trophy – Graham Camm
1st Crew/ The laughter Cup – Zoe Ballantyne
1st Vintage/The John Mee Salver - Alan Mason

And finally, many thanks to the “race crew”: Roger Britton (Race Officer), Ann Britton (assisting & meet ‘n greet), John Ollerton and Wil Kent (rescue boats), and to Nikki Elliott and James Dalby for volunteering to crew for visitors (and to Kay for crewing for me!)

Paul Turner, TVSC N12 rep.