National 12 Scottish Championships at Annandale Sailing Club
by Zoë Ballantyne 8 May 2008 06:54 BST
3-4 May 2008
For 2008 the Scottish Championships moved inland, and were hosted by Annandale SC over the weekend of 3 and 4 May. Annandale has been a very popular venue on the Lairwell circuit and we knew that they would pull out all the stops to make it a weekend to remember, but the event surpassed all expectations and the Italian Night on Saturday will be a hard act for any club to beat.
Six races were scheduled, with 5 to count, and Bernard Clark/Andrew Mitchell made their intentions clear by taking line honours in the first race. Mark and Emma Simpson took race 2 and the competition for the front of the fleet was clearly set between these 2 boats. Clark/Mitchell took the 3rd race to lead the field at the end of day one. Howard Elcock/S Joseph showed sparkling form to take 3rd in races 1 and 2, with Brian Herring/Ros Stevenson showing good to take 3rd in the final race on Saturday.
Sunday saw Clark and Mitchell once again leading the pack and claiming race 4. Race 5 saw the Simpson’s showing a clean pair of heels, with every chance of them being able to still win the event. Sadly the Simpsons lost their lead by sailing to the wrong mark, leaving Clark/Mitchell to claim the race and the event and giving Herring/Stevenson the chance to show how competitive well sailed AC and Vintage boats can be in the right conditions. Tim Gatti sailed the newly restored ‘Gnasher’ to 3rd place and this will clearly be a boat to watch on the Vintage circuit this year.
Just to make sure they made their position clear, Clark and Mitchell took race 6 too but 2nd and 3rd places for this race were decided in the final minutes of the race with Brian Herring/Ros Stevenson having a real battle with Angus and Rohan Beyts, eventually finishing in that order. Brian and Ros won the Mariner Mug for 1st AC (single bottomed) boat and were also first Vintage boat.
Overall Results:
1st Bernard Clark and Andrew Mitchell (Ripon SC/Helensburgh SC) N3447
2nd Mark and Emma Simpson (Scaling Dam SC) N3472
3rd Brian Herring and Ros Stevenson (Winsford Flash SC) N2345
1st AC, Herring and Stevenson