N3422 Low Flight

[National 12 Webmaster]

The life of N3422 Low Flight.    Design: Final Chapter, designed by: Michael Jackson in 1987
Previous boat names: Low Flight, Platillo Volante, prior to reverting to Low Flight.

[Mr B]

Hi my name is Lee aka Mr B.
I have just bought Low Flight & after a couple of weeks in the garage re varnishing the decks, should be ready to sail. This is a return to sailing for me after some 25 yrs off & look forward to sailing with our youngest daughter  Leanne (9yrs old).
The next job is to find a club to sail at.



 
Found this next pic on y&y web

[Mr B]

Hi Chris.......mmm that old piece of rope could be from a crime scene, must admit had'nt noticed it. 

Based nr Hinckley, south  of Leicester.
Lee
 
 

[Giles (Guest)]

Lovely boat.
Graham used to sail her at Chipstead, near Sevenoaks.
 

[Mr B]

Better pic

[Mr B]

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[Graham Cranford Smith (Guest)]

Got to say I am amazed to see this boat is still around, given that it was me that built it and I had my moments getting it to hang together!
I built this boat as our children were very young and we were struggling to find the cash for a new boat. We had long struggled to be competitive in the Twelve and I suspected at the time we were a bit on the heavy side. So. Final Chapter was the obvious choice at the time. (Which was fine until proper lighter crews started to use this design as well and went even faster). My logic of course proved erroneous since even when sailing with the smallest of crews, my results did not measurably improve. Maybe a bit harsh. We had occasional moments in the sun, but never really troubled the scorers. 
Even so, building Low Flight was a lot of fun. I cribbed the deck layout off Dare Barry who kindly loaned me the frames and some of it came out of my head as I went along. I was keen to save weight so there is no stem as such. Or hog. The boat may be distinguished by being one of the last single bottom boat built as the rules had been changed while I was building it. It took a while as we moved house in the middle of the process and the shell spent a while in the roof of Andy Pickrells garage.
I am surprised to see the boat pictured on the Y and Y website. Assume pic taken by Jon Med's father in Salcombe. I was sailing with Tamar my daughter at the time in our last ever 12 Salcombe week. I think we finished overall 'okay'. It was good to compete in a home built boat. And while there is much to admire about the direction the class has be necessity taken, it is a shame that home building is less accessible than it was then.  
I am delighted Low Flight has survived this long and I wish the new owner well with it. It is called Low Flight because I have had a life long interest in aircraft and as it happened, Lotus Sevens. (the slogan of the Seven Owners, who should know better but don't, was: Low Flight.) 
I won't say how much I sold it for however, it was negligible! I needed to move on at the time and buy, oh dear, an RS200 the one design element being an appeal. Oh dear. 
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[Mr B]

Latest pics.

[steviec]

New owner reporting in,  Just brought from Mr B, buying blind so hopefully all ok.  She will be based at Dell Quay Sailing Club near Chichester, a first for the club though.  I spent years in International 14's, the children are bored of my Redfox 200 so I thought nothing better than a 12 to learn the ropes in, and importantly have fun.  She will be well suited to Dell Quay and we look forward to sailing her soon.  Steve.

[steviec]

Sailing at Dell Quay  SC, Chichester 2010