National 12 70th Anniversary at Northampton Sailing Club
by Zoe Ballantyne 1 Jun 2006 08:55 UTC
27-29 May 2006
The National 12s celebrated their 70th birthday with a full three days of sailing. Nearly 80 boats from all eras took part in the programme which included vintage racing, Gill series races and junior racing. The weekend culminated in a Grand pursuit race with the oldest boats setting off first.
Gill series
Four races for the GILL series were held over the Saturday and Sunday of the regatta weekend. With such a large fleet, a good start proved to be critical. To get the fleet away cleanly,the race officer set a port biased line. Tom Stewart & Liz Ross dominated the weekend with two perfectly timed pin end starts which gave them two easy wins. In race three, Steve Adshead crewed by son Robbie sailed through the fleet to pull out a clear lead. In race four, Tom & Liz had a harder ride and had to fight to pull through to first place and take the open meeting. John & Katy Meadowcroft sailed a consistent series to take second place. The first Admirals Cup boat was former Burton Cup winners Steve Norbury & Andy Hill, sailing their old boat N3373 "Sixth Element".
Gill series results
1st 3501 Tom Stewart & Liz Ross
2nd 3473 John Meadowcroft & Katy Meadowcroft
3rd 3449 Steve Adshead & Robbie Adshead
4th 3484 Antony Gifford & Jo Gifford
5th 3450 Richard Williams & Stella Brown
6th 3483 Jon Brown & George Hand
Vintage Racing
16 Vintage 12s took part in the vintage series. In the first race, Howard & Sarah Chadwick in Triarda recovered from an indifferent start to win the Vintage fleet. Brian & George Kitching in "Just Lucky" demonstrated their potential by taking second place. Vince & Fiona Phillips in "Invasion 2" arrived just before the second race and proceeded to sweep to a clear lead and win. In second place catching up fast were the Kitchings. On the Sunday the vintage fleet started five minutes after the main fleet and conducted two handicap races based on the PY numbers in the class handbook. In a fresh wind of force 3-4 with exciting planning reaches, Vince & Fiona Phillips established a substantial lead which they held to the end, also winning on handicap. Second on handicap were Howard & Philip Steavenson, son & grand son of the late legendary Robin Steavenson, sailing Robin's famous prototype glued ply 1953 Witchcraft. In the final race, the Phillips and the Steavensons were again 1st and 2nd on handicap maintaining those positions in the final results.
Vintage results
Vintage Saturday
1st 2266 Howard Chadwick & Sarah Chadwick
2nd 1657 Brian Kitching & George Kitching
Vintage Sunday
1st 2531 Vince Phillips & Fiona Phillips
2nd 1153 Howard Steavenson & Phillip Steavenson
Junior championships
The Junior championships were held on the Sunday afternoon of the regatta. Three short races were run back-to-back in a sunny, if a little shifty, force 3. The gusty conditions resulted in a few capsizes, especially on the gybes. Nathan Harding crewed by Lucy Horsley and George Hand crewed by Tom Barford had a close battle during all the races, with Nathan eventually winning overall.
Junior redults
1st 3493 Nathan Harding & Lucy Horsley
2nd 3483 George Hand & Tom Barford
3rd 3276 Harry Turner & Tom Woodhouse
The Grand Pursuit Race
After some careful handicap calculation, the Grand Pursuit race started on the Bank Holiday Monday in a good force 4, using the whole length of Pitsford reservoir for the course. There was a total of 21 minutes between the first starter (N153, first winner of the Burton Cup) and the last starter (N3501, Tom Stewart, multiple winner of the Burton). The sight of nearly 70 National 12s on the water was spectacular, ranging from lovingly varnished clinker vintage boats to the latest gleaming carbon fibre racing machines.
N153 "Witch", the oldest boat in the fleet, helmed by the oldest helm in the fleet, 70-something Brian Miatt, kept the lead for the first 55 minutes of the 2 hour race. After some squally weather, which caused some spectacular capsizing down the reaches by some of the chasing boats, she was gradually overhauled by another vintage boat, N1657, sailed by father-son team Brian & George Kitching. Brian & George kept the lead for a further 20 minutes before being overtaken by Nigel Waller in N3012 "Punkarella", who went on to retain the lead to the end. Nigel designed and built Punkarella in 1977 and sailed her to victory in the Burton Cup in 1978. Prior to the weekend, Nigel had been desperately looking for Punkarella in order to sail her at the anniversary regatta and eventually located her in a chicken shed in Wales. He retrieved her and spent Sunday tuning her to perfection.
In second place was Admirals Cupper "Rebel", sailed by father-daughter team John & Alison Cheetham. Ultra-modern double-bottomed "Monkey Business", sailed by Jon Ibbotson & Charlotte Stewart, managed to overcome their 18 minute handicap to take third place, with Brian & George Kitching managing to hang on to fourth place. With two Admirals' Cup, one vintage and one double bottomed boat in the top 4 spots, the handicapping proved to be just about right for the conditions and a great time was had by all.
Pursuit race results
1st 3012 Nigel Waller & Tom Barford * 1st non double bottom
2nd 3209 John Cheetham & Alison Cheetham
3rd 3494 Jon Ibbotson & Charlotte Stewart * 1st Double Bottom
4th 1657 Brian Kitchin & George Kitchin * 1st Vintage
5th 3491 Kevin Iles & Lindsay Iles
6th 3362 Chris Edwards & Alison Edwards
The National 12 class would like to thank Gill, European Events, Alverbanks and P&B who sponsored the regatta.
70 years of development, 12 feet of perfection.