Hornet wins Concours dElegance at RYA Dinghy Show
by Mark Jardine 2 Mar 2013 16:15 UTC
2 March 2013
The Hornet class have won the YachtsandYachting.com Concours d'Elegance at the RYA Dinghy Show 2013 today. Originally built by Tim Coombe for Andy Dealtry 22 years ago, Hornet 2151 'Red Streamliner' was lovingly restored by the original builder in 2011 for John Shelton, who found her in a garage in Brightlingsea. Tim still had off-cuts of the original deck, which he used to fill two holes in the foredeck for an old spinnaker pole system!
Judges Sarah Treseder, CEO of the RYA, and Mark Jardine, Editor of YachtsandYachting.com, were simply blown away when they saw the boat and were way off when initially asking how old she was.
Sarah Treseder commented, "We found a number of impressive candidates, but the absolute stand-out boat of the show was this stunning Hornet. After being asked to guess her age I found myself almost 20 years out! A truly beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and very actively sailed. Overall, a most deserving winner."
Mark Jardine commented, "Tim Coombe's attention to detail on the restoration of the boat he originally built is quite astounding – 'Red Streamliner' is truly a beautiful dinghy to behold."
The standard of dinghies on display at the RYA Dinghy Show 2013 is stunning. It is clear that everyone has put a huge amount of effort to promote their class in the best light that they possibly can. Other outstanding boats were the Bluemotion 550, a new design built a few months ago with high-aspect rig and beautiful sweeping side decks, the Merlin Rocket 3737 which exhibited beautiful attention to detail, and GP14023 on the Harken stand, which is the sister ship to the World Championship winning boat.
Some of the new boats also showed stunning workmanship, but were ineligible for the trophy since they hadn't been out on the water yet. Amongst these was the brand new Hartley Osprey which was showing off a stunning new deck with patterned fibreglass showing through the epoxy.
Special mention of course must be made to 'Collective Spirit', the keelboat made up of wood donations built for the Cultural Olympiad.
The Hornet class have won three months worth of skyscraper banner advertising worth £600 courtesy of title sponsor YachtsandYachting.com and the Concours d'Elegance Trophy for the year.