National 12 Scottish Championships at Annandale Sailing Club

National 12 Scottish Championships at Annandale © Jennie Clark

National 12 Scottish Championships at Annandale © Jennie Clark

An enthusiastic if small fleet of National Twelves gathered at Annandale Sailing Club for the Scottish Championships this weekend and as racing got under way so did the rain interspersed with the occasional hail storm and winds which frequently shifted direction by 180 degrees and ranged from nothing to a brisk force 3 and back again to O!

The club race team led by Duncan Greenhalgh were severely challenged but still managed to fit in 3 good races despite the conditions. Steve and Joanne Sallis in N3531 managed to achieve wins in all three races although pushed at times by Philip David and Elaine Ross in N3499, Mark and Emma Simpson in N3462 and Bernard and Ellie Clark sailing the first single bottomed twelve N3334 almost as fast as the double bottomed ones. Running just behind the Twelves was a well attended GP14 open meeting however the changing wind conditions caused starting delays which resulted in some of the GP starts coinciding with the Twelves finishing the first lap, all of which made for some interesting crossovers! It was a credit to both fleets on the restricted waters that there were no incidents of note and not too much shouting.

The Saturday sailing was followed by a fantastic barbeque and the Annandale once again amazed us with an incredible spread and an excellent social organised that even the weather couldn’t spoil.

Sunday dawned with sunshine and a much steadier breeze which increased steadily throughout the day and remained fairly constant in direction but with a poor forecast for later it was decided to run the remaining three races back to back. Another excellent decision as it turned out. Race 1 saw two vintage boats in contention at the first mark, Steve Sallis with his winged rudder’ed Dead Cat Bounce led followed by Philip David in his Feeling Foolish hotly pursued by Ed Willett and local crew Drew Mitchell in N1833 a 1960 built Proctor Mark Nine recently restored by Brian Herring and the Howard Chadwick and local crew Finn Mitchell sailing N2266 a 1965 Starfish. Unfortunately the older boats could not quite maintain the pace and the more modern boats broke through once again. Steve and Joanne maintained a straight run of 1st places despite being pushed hard at times.

Our thanks are due to Annandale Sailing Club for providing excellent racing, food and hospitality yet again to the Twelve fleet and also to our series sponsors Gill.

Overall Results:

1st N3531, Steve and Joanne Sallis (Hykeham S.C.)
2nd N3499, Philip David and Elaine Ross (York Ouse/Solway Y.C.)
3rd N3462, Mark and Emma Simpson (Scaling Dam S.C.)
4th N3334, Bernard and Ellie Clark (Ripon S.C.)
5th N2266, Howard Chadwick and Finn Mitchell (Yeadon/Annandale S.C.)
6th N3406, Angus and Rohan Beyts (Forfar S.C.)

The Scottish equivalent of the Burton Brick won last year by Angus Beyts for sailing at the Solway event for 5 years without finishing a race was won this year by Mark and Emma Simpson for innovation in using an old Mirror main as a jib and still finishing 3rd overall!