Burghfield Open Meeting

 

Scottish Champs and GUL Series #2 at Annandale

For the next round of the GUL Series we are welcomed back to Annandale on 12th / 13th April. This event is also the Scottish Championships and we will be racing for the prestigious Daily Express Trophy. No less prestigious is the award of the Ladybird Book of Sailing (the Scottish Champs equivalent of the Burton Brick). 6 races are scheduled over the weekend starting at 12.30 on Saturday and camping is available for the hardy in the dinghy park. The Notice of Race can be found here.

And here is the view of the idyllic Castle Loch from my tent last year...



 

Four Plank National 12s – the forgotten era?

 

Back in the 1970 I recall selling my clinker China Doll N2524 and proudly taking to the water in a David Mathews designed and built “Aftermath 2” N2808 “Wild Oats” – it had no transom flaps (“I’m never going to capsize it’s so stable” – famous last words!) and as it was brightly coloured, it rapidly become known as the “Yellow Submarine”! It’s nose down idiosyncrasies and disintegrating plywood meant an early sale. The next four planker was a Cheshire Cat N2810 “Cat’s Whisker” which was soon re-named “Pampered Pussy”. I hated that boat. Whenever I sailed against Nick Gill he always got past us in his Cat (usually with a smug grin across his little face). It was sold to buy a boiler at our new house, and that was the end of N12 sailing for me for many years.

 

Returning to sailing in the Naughties, I was amazed at how the N12s had moved on; but where were the Four Plankers? Whilst collecting clinker boats, I briefly had Warwick Groves’ 4 plank China Doll N2989 to play with before finding her a new home - and then in the Midland Area, the likes of John Sears in “Punkawallah” and Tom White in the Ken Goddard built “Le Shed” (China Doll) made me wonder if there wasn’t still more fun to be had from this forgotten bunch of boats, especially as they are now very cheap to buy (and repair).

 

Following enthusiastic email correspondence from a certain Mr J Whitehead last year about having some four plank meetings, and me giving in to the temptation of buying the original Cheshire Cat N2750, I thought we might just have a bash at reviving these yots.

 

With the help of Chris Troth (he now having kindly taken over running the Midland Area so I can spend more time on the Vintage Champs) and Jonathon Garfitt, we now have the following events as a mini-series sponsored by HD Sails:

1. Ely SC 5th July
2. Trent Valley 20th July
3. Olton Mere 16th August

There's a poster for the series with more details on the N12 website.
 

Upcoming Events

After Nick Copsey and Andrew Clarke won the Hamble Warming Pan, the Thames Area series heads to Spinnaker SC for their open meeting on 20th April. Details can be found on the forum.

On the same day, Northern Area sailors will be welcomed by Burwain SC. The ANEYC trophy will also be awarded for this event. For those not in the know, this is the unofficial Northern championships trophy sailed at a different venue each year.

The Midland Area kicks off at Hykeham on 27th April, with the Junior Champs running the day before on Saturday 26th April.

After the Scottish Champs at Annandale on 12th-13th April the next GUL Series event is Salcombe on 3rd-5th May. This year Salcombe will be hosting the crews race for the Fowey Pot trophy.

Over 90 boats have already entered the European Event at Carnac. You can check out who's going from the 12s and enter yourself on the event website.

 

Dates for your diary

• Annandale 12th-13th April - Scottish Championships and GUL Series #2
• Hykeham 26th April - Junior Championships
• Salcombe 3rd-5th May - GUL Series #3
• Carnac 24^th-28^th May - European Event
• Burton SC 28th-29th June - Vintage Championships
• Pevensey Bay 23rd-26th August - Burton Week 2014 including Burton Cup and National Championships
• King George SC 27th-28th September - Inland Championships

A full list of fixtures for 2014 can be found on the N12 website.

In the last edition I cheekily included a picture of Paul Turner's boat capsizing alongside his rules for fun yotting. As that picture was actually Graham and Zoe here is a pic of the man himself with Christine "not quite capsizing"!
Chris Day
N3526