National 12 Gill Series 2011
by Tom Stewart 18 Jan 2012 05:12 GMT
The National 12, national travellers series sponsored by Gill was yet again a fantastic event. 99 Teams took part in the series which was held at eight different venues with the furthest South being Salcombe in the South West and the furthest North Annandale in Scotland. The series also took in the National 12 75th Anniversary at Northampton SC, the Nationals, Burton Week at Brightlinsea SC as well as Trent Valley SC’s 125th Birthday.
The Gill series encourages newcomers, families, Vintage and Admirals Cup boats as well as the latest Twelves.
Nick Copsey and Naomi Bilton stormed to victory in the Juniors, winning with enough to spare that they were able to lend their new winged Feeling Foolish design to Nick’s dad Gerald for the last event. The Uber talented Tom Ballantine crewed by Nicky Bass came second; travelling from Salcombe meant that they did not compete in enough events to push Nick and Naomi harder.
Before Nick and Naomi launched their new boat they sailed 3411 in enough events to win the Admirals division ahead of the out-going class chairman Howard Chadwick and crews Helen Nicholson/Katie McInnis in his design 8.
Steve and Joanne Sallis rule the roost in the Family division, they won the Annadale event and were a whisker away from winning the Nationals at Brightlingsea. Mike and Alex story sailing “The Electric Prune” were the leading family team at Hamble but had to play second fiddle the rest of the year.
The Overall prize, the beautiful wooden half model of a Numinous design donated by Nick Gill of Gill International was won by Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne. It went down to the last event but Graham and Zoe are without doubt the light wind experts revelled in the conditions at Leigh and Lowton and won finishing the series with a perfect four first places to count. Tom Stewart and Rachel Williamson finished second scraping past Jon Ibbotson and Charlotte Stewart on count back.
The National 12 class thank Gill for their continued support, the good news is that the 2012 series will also be supported by Gill.