Four Plank National 12s – the forgotten era?
by Paul Turner 2 Apr 2014 11:37 BST
2 April 2014
Back in the 1970 I recall selling my clinker China Doll N2524 and proudly taking to the water in a David Mathews designed and built "Aftermath 2" N2808 "Wild Oats" – it had no transom flaps ("I'm never going to capsize it's so stable" – famous last words!) and as it was brightly coloured, it rapidly become known as the "Yellow Submarine"! It's nose down idiosyncrasies and disintegrating plywood meant an early sale. The next four planker was a Cheshire Cat N2810 "Cat's Whisker" which was soon re-named "Pampered Pussy". I hated that boat. Whenever I sailed against Nick Gill he always got past us in his Cat (usually with a smug grin across his little face). It was sold to buy a boiler at our new house, and that was the end of N12 sailing for me for many years.
Returning to sailing in the Naughties, I was amazed at how the N12s had moved on; but where were the Four Plankers? Whilst collecting clinker boats, I briefly had Warwick Groves' 4 plank China Doll N2989 to play with before finding her a new home - and then in the Midland Area, the likes of John Sears in "Punkawallah" and Tom White in the Ken Goddard built "Le Shed" (China Doll) made me wonder if there wasn't still more fun to be had from this forgotten bunch of boats, especially as they are now very cheap to buy (and repair).
Following enthusiastic email correspondence from a certain Mr J Whitehead last year about having some four plank meetings, and me giving in to the temptation of buying the original Cheshire Cat N2750, I thought we might just have a bash at reviving these yots.
With the help of Chris Troth (he now having kindly taken over running the Midland Area so I can spend more time on the Vintage Champs) and Jonathon Garfitt, we now have the following events as a mini-series sponsored by HD Sails:
- Ely SC 5th July
- Trent Valley 20th July
- Olton Mere 16th August
There's a poster for the series with more details on the N12 website here.