Controversial Topic of the Week

Seems that with out the N12 things would be a little different.....

OBITUARY

Beecher Moore, 1908-1996
LONDON--Beecher Moore, the last surviving crewmember of Sir Thomas
Sopwith's 1934 America's Cup challenger Endeavour, died last Sunday. He
was 88.

As business partner of Jack Holt, Moore was as much a part of the sailing
industry as the sport, and changed the commercial face of sailing in
Britain, where he lived, and died, in the heart of London's legal world, the
Middle Temple.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Moore was taken to England when 11 months
old, and his sailing began on the Thames River in the years between
World War I and II.

He was always competitive. His first boat was an National 12 , a
reward from his father for passing an entrance exam to an English school.
"I would sail this boat from early morning to late at night," Moore said.

When he returned to England after attending Harvard University, he
bought the 26-foot Thames 'A' Rater Vagabond. Moore added nine feet to
its mast and supported the extra power developed from the rig by having
his crew hang from a device he called "The Bellrope" which was attached
to the mast so the crew could stand on the gunwale. In doing so, he
invented the trapeze that is nearly standard on every sailing dinghy.

Two years later, Sir Peter Scott (a past president of the IYRU) stood in as
one of Moore's crew at Bourne End Week and was so impressed with The
Bellrope that he introduced it to the International 14 class. Scott won the
championship race for the Prince of Wales Cup, and the class immediately
banned the trapeze and stifled its development elsewhere.

Moore raced dinghies with considerable success, four times winning the
Merlin-Rocket National Championship and the Hornet World
Championship. He continued competing into his 60s, then devoted
himself to the administration of the sport. Moore always rated the work
he did on the Women's Committee -- ensuring separate racing for women
in the Olympics -- to be one of his most important projects.

National 12National 12

Edited by Jack Sparrow

Ummm... looking at my record book in 1966. 30 years after they began
N12's numbers were at around number 2400. So I'm not sure thats quite
right. There was a little thing called a WORLD WAR in the middle of those
30 years as well.

Originally posted by Chris 249 "And don't forget without them you are likely not to have the mass dinghy market we have now." Great boats,  but Beecher Moore (who played a major role in the creation of a hell of a lot of the mass dinghy market we have now) once called the 3 classic British development classes (MR, 14, N12) something like "the greatest waste of time and energy in sailing history" because in their first 30 years, they got a total of about 2,000 boats between them. Certainly history seems to say that the sport did not take off as a mass market exercise until boats like GP14s, Ents, Cadets etc came out, and they are probably not the sort of boat the N12 class would like. Of course, Holt himself started designing N12s (I think......can't be bothered to look it up so may be wrong) and I'm not sure Moore was right in his criticism. But it was an interesting angle, just the same.

Originally posted by Chew my RS Not really, just playing devils advocate.

Mission acomplished

I do like the look of n12s', but they're not for me, I'm 12.5 stone, so where would I find a decent 5.5 stone crew?

I agree with Jacksparrow that they will be around for a lot longer than the rs200.

Edited by allanorton

its not all about speed a slow boat can be exiting as well and a N12 is when its windy iv only sailed one once and i loved every min of it