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Latest Chapter
Welcome to The Latest Chapter! What a season of sailing! In this edition we look back over the GUL Series and look forward to next season. You may be thinking of mince pies and mulled wine but if you really want to earn it there is plenty of sailing going on over the winter too! 
 
In this issue:
The best paint job at Burton Week?
 

GUL Series Update

12s at Burghfield back in March

The 2014 Gul Series took in venues from as far South and West as Salcombe and as far North as Annandale in Dumfries and Galloway. Eight events were held with four to count towards the series.

Those that competed were well rewarded with Gul's very generous sponsorship, vouchers were awarded at each event.

The Family division is possibly the most important in the class. The National 12 is a superb boat to sail with youngsters and plenty of parent child teams competed. John and Ollie Meadowcroft N3543 were both consistent and well-travelled, they were only beaten in the family division twice in six outings. The sibling pair of Nick and Tanya Copsey N3528 finished second three points adrift. Nine of the crews who competed in the family cup were still pre-teen, the future is bright!

The Admirals cup was a showdown between Burghfield rivals and mates. Alan Beeton and Helen Barry N3388 were pipped to the post by Neal and Freya Lilywhite, in the beautifully restored N3271, who held the advantage in the light winds at the final event at Northampton. Both boats showed dedication to the task competing at Salcombe and Shoreham along the way, as well as waters closer to home.

The Vintage boats, as usual put in a good performance with nine competing. The rock solid Brian Kitching N1657 took victory from the Angus Beyts N1833 who took the time to travel from Scotland to impress us all with his kilt wearing at the Northampton prize giving. In one of the races at Northampton Angus crewed by Gerald Copsey beat one of the ultra-modern DCB's defying an age gap of more than half a century!

This year, recognising the advantage of winged rudders, the non-foiling boats were rewarded with their own sub series. Nigel and Chris White swapped their Numinous design for a Final Chapter N3445 and enjoyed success, they were pushed hard through the series by Jeremy Carey and George Rowland N3444. Jeremy and George had the chance to seize victory at the final event, but in light winds Antony and James Gifford N3348 stole their hopes with a fine performance.

In the overall series the DCBs dominated yet again. Tom Stewart and Andrea Downham N3544, shot off to a good lead taking advantage of Zoe Ballantine not being available to crew Graham Camm at Burghfield which is usually a banker for the Camm's. However as the season panned out it looked like, as last year, the Camm team would succeed with a late tilt at the title. Graham and Zoe won back to back events at King George and Ripon to draw level with Tom and Andrea for the final event.

However on this occasion things went the other way. With Andrea expected to be out of action Tom's fist reserve Robert Stewart was called into action and with the weight advantage in their favour Tom and Robert Stewart drifted to victory at the final event at their home club.

Results Round-up

Racing on the Thames at Twickenham

A fleet of 20 12s visited Northampton for the GUL Series finale with the series prize giving and dinner and disco with the Larks. You can find the write up here and see where you came in the overall series here.

The Northern Area was wrapped up by Philip David with a win at Tynemouth (on the river at Newburn). The final series results are up on the website.

The Thames Area concluded with a win for David and Abigail Croft at Twickenham. Find out more and see the trophy dating from 1935 here.

Proving you can't have too much sailing on the picturesque Salcombe estuary, we headed down to the South West for the October open. John Meadowcroft with Ollie and Katy crewing (not all at the same time) won the weekend. 

Finally, north of the border, there were victories for two champions of Scottish 12 sailing. Angus Beyts saw off all competion at Castle Semple to win the last open meeting of the year. Ed Willett's second place was enough to win him the Lairwell Trophy for the overall series. Check out the full event write up here.

2015 Calendar

The National 12 fleet have much to look forward to in 2015 with a huge range of events planned across the country.

The highlight of the year will be the 2015 4-day Burton Week at Herne Bay, running from 22nd-25th August. If last year’s national championships is anything to go by there will be close racing and lots of fun off the water!

The National Championships also form part of the GUL Series. GUL offer a range of amazing sailing prizes to winners across the different fleets at 8 top events across the country. This year we visit old favourites such as Salcombe, Royal Harwich and Ripon, as well as introducing some new events like our Sprint Champs at Burghfield and a sea event at Brightlingsea. The Scottish Champs takes place this year at picturesque Solway with the GUL Series finale and Inland Championships hosted by Northampton.

We will also be visiting Northampton in June for our summer event, which will include coaching from Olympic coach Mark Rushall. Whether you’ve been sailing your 12 for years or are new to the boat the coaching sessions will have something for you. In addition the summer event will include racing where you can put the coaching into action as well as the Junior Race and Crews’ Race.

Don’t forget there are also a whole host of regional events which can be found on the website as well as superb vintage series. The highly successful four plank series returns as well in 2015, with sponsorship from HD Sails.

The premier vintage event will certainly be the Vintage Championship at Burton Sailing Club on 27th and 28th July where you can expect to see vintage 12 sailing still racing competitively – this year some of boats are celebrating their 79th birthdays!

You can find a full list the National 12 series and events on our website.

 

Upcoming Events

The hardy sailors of the Thames Area kick off 2015 with the Ranelagh SC Winter Open Meeting and Thames Area lunch on 1st February.

If you can't wait until then, there is plenty of handicap sailing over the winter which is always popular with 12 sailors. The GJW Direct SailJuice Winter Series 2014/15 is already underway. The next event is the Datchet Flyer next weekend and most of the big winter events like the Bloody Mary, Grafham Grand Prix, Tiger Trophy and Steve Nicholson are included. These events are always popular and some have limited entries so sign-up online on the series website.
 

Dates for your diary

  • Burghfield SC 28th March -  GUL Series #1 & Sprint Champs
  • Salcombe YC 2nd-4th May - GUL Series #2
  • Brightlingsea SC 6-7th June - GUL Series #3
  • Royal Harwich YC 4-5th July - GUL Series #4
  • Herne Bay SC 22nd-25th August - Burton Week 2015 including Burton Cup and National Championships and GUL Series #5
  • Solway YC 12-13th September - Scottish Championships and GUL Series #6
  • Ripon SC 3rd October - GUL Series #7
  • Northampton SC 7-8th November - GUL Series Finale and Winter Championships (joint with the Larks)
  • N12 Coaching & Summer Event at Northampton SC 20th-21st June
  • Vintage Championships at Burton SC 27-28th June
A full list of fixtures for 2015 can be found on the N12 website.

Welcome to New Members

Finally, we'd like to give a warm welcome to all the recent new members of the NTOA. We hope you enjoy your 12 sailing as much as we do.

John Heath of Great Horkesley, near Colchester, with N1737
Graeme Kerr of High Wycombe, with N2973
George Wavell of Netley Abbey, near Southampton, with N3000
Richard Powell of Southsea, with N3500


I hope you enjoyed The Latest Chapter and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 

Chris Day
N3526