Messages

N3415 is up for sale, Wild Front Ear design, first DB - see for sale section for details.  Boat will be up at Hykeham this weekend - on loan to me!  Had first sail in her yesterday - solo racing in a handicap fleet - seemed to set up and go OK!!  Sail # being used is 3490 as Nigel swapped a suit of sails between his boats.  Its red with wood decks - feel free to view or arrange a spin whilst its there.
 

Gerry - need around 24" to fit on one side - I may also replace a couple of 6" runs at the back corners too - so if you can just let me have the longest length you have Ican cut to fit as needed.
Thanks,
Kean

caveat emptor - worth consulting John Murrell on this boat as he his very familiar with the boat and its history.

Sounds good - team Gunton will be there with tent and a DB to play in.

Gerry - thanks!!!  I'll sort out the measurements and let you know, then  see you at Hykeham.
Kean

Thanks for suggestions - hoping someone has a spare piece that I can have for a reasonable price.  P&I is a good idea - used them before - Julian if she has something suitbale let me know - I know she works on trust and have sent her cheques after taking stuff from shop - not many chandlers or shops that would do that these days
 

After having finally fully stripped out the boat I need to do a repair to the gunwhales - need a 2 foot or so piece of sycammore to replace whats been 'eaten away' - anyone have any or any ideas on where I can purchase such wood?
Its a Ledger built Crusader 88 if that helps.
Thanks,
Kean N3339

Been thinking about comments here for a few days.  Personally I don't think that its the venues themselves that would prevent me attending.  Last year we managed 6 Gill events, 3 'other opens', planned to 2 do other Opens but didn't happen and attended one coaching event.  So far done NO sailing........
I have events on the calendar planning to do this year - the Gill events are important to support.
Personally its not the 'type' of water that would attract / distract me from sailing there - our sailing time is limited.  So choices have to be made - I pretty much did all our Clubs mid week series and maybe one or to of the Club 'trophy' days but thats about it.  No 12s to sail against at our club, handicap class turnouts at w/es tend to be small so I'd rather sail against other 12s and have fun that way!  Most likely to be the same this year too.  It is VERY hard to get a fleet of 12s going - there are very few around - it may help if we know where everyone is sailing - this may help us to have Opens that do I think help to foster some sort of 'local' support.  However some of our regions are WAY TOO big.  Maybe we need a bit of a cull or at least try to have smaller regional series and try to capture as many local sailors as possible.
I still feel that need to support the new owners that typically come through the AC root and often will be sailing with families and may not be able to do early season events.  Even the BW realistically there are 2 trophies for vintage / AC boats....I know this is not the only reason people do / do not attend BW.
It could still be possible to have a BW with over 100 boats, both the fireflies and the ents did this a couple of years ago - and the folks sailing those boats are likely to be quite similar (I would have thought)......fireflies was in their anniversary year, ents I think was pre-worlds - but even so - not everyone is a contender that attends these.
Single handed events - if getting a crew is limiting attendance why not let those that want to sail on their own do that.  BW or the Gill events could use one of the trophies for that - there are no youths around currently......
For open events - can clubs be more creative - hold joint with other classes, starts with club racing (Burghfiled does this OK), use part of day when no organised racing / training and then join in with club starts in pm.  I guess we can't be expected to have sole access to water if not enough attend - but if you drop the events then maybe those places will no longer support / attract 12s back again - a dilema that only the 'customer' (those of us that sail 12s) can answer. 
I believe the 12 is now a a bit of a niche boat and tends to attract those that have sailed before and want to get into something 'interesting'.  The lure of plastic fantastics though is difficult to ignore!  The mid week sailing is a good opportunity to sail the 12s, tend to beat the faster asymetrics on water but they still think they are going faster / having more fun with that extra rag up front!!!!
Looking forward to bar discussions at Hykeham  

Noticed a couple of you are after masts - this boat on eBay has a spare - either bid on it or maybe contcat owner and see if the 'new' owner wants to sell one off.
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Not sure why the link is not pasting correctly - got to be quick as auction ends today.

Is camping allowed at the club? Or can you recommend any local sites?

Its John Meadowcrofts new boat, based on Gavin Willis' 'Paradigm' design - its modified from that - maybe just a Paradigm 2, unless they call it a new name.
Nice colour!

I was one of the nonp-attendees for Frampton despite it being close - my boat was not and still is not finished.  Tried a couple of other boats to borrow but also not ready (bit early in season maybe for some AC boats).  I know 2 other people who were going to Frampton but were ill (they attended last year).  Appreciate all the efforts Brian went to - but perhaps in this case it may be better to hold one combined event and take results out seperatly (as we plan to do for South Cerney).  Yes I feel very guilty about non attending plus there were other issues to sort out at home too - trying to balance all these out esp. for a non sailing partners can be difficult.
One of the issues for the 12s is the way the boats seem to be spread out so thinly geographically with one or two hot spots within each area.  SW is pretty big and so limiting the events still means lots of travel and can we all afford the time / cost of doing that these days??  Maybe we need a few carefully chosen events / dates as you suggest but fitting that into Clubs calendars is not always possible.
I'm not sure what the answer is - do we poll the class ahead of each calendar year and ask them which will they attend?  Then events change...some out of our control (weather) and some not (family commitments / work etc) that still affect ability to attend.
Maybe there are too many events and if some of the 'local' events are too close to the main Gill how does this impact the attendance?  Some of us may only prefer to commit to the big events and try to attend local, whilst others may feel less inclined to mix it up at the Gill events and prefer to stay local.
We all have our own views and personal circumstances / commitments which clearly alters how we wish to spend our leisure time and cash.
The numbers though so make interesting reading and ulitmately the Class needs to deceide what they want and then actually attend the events.  Why 0 as the lowest - surley that would have been cancelled!!
Yes I'm one of the tardy ones who has not made it onto the water yet in 2008 but hope to make amends later in the year - MAY even get to BW (or part of it...).
Interesting debate to commence......
P.S forgot Frampton one other planned attendee broke the front off his boat in the gales...
 

BOING - this weekend

Frampton On Severn SC - www.fossc.org.uk is holding two N12 events on the weekend 26th and 27th.
Vintage only on the 26th
SW open for all boats - vintages welcome - (beat some of the modern boats last year!)
Each event will be 3 races, briefing 10.30am first race 11am.
Cost is £12 INCLUDING food for helm & crew.
See website for directions or contact Brian Kitching.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150233543604&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching