I woke for the event with not a sign of any wind but glorious sunshine. Ok, so I live south of the river and local conditions can be peculiar. However, by the time our Race Officer (Commodore of Trent Valley John Richardson) got the briefing underway, we had a reasonable breeze and still glorious sunshine for the 14 competitors who had dared to take their boats along the treacherous access road. I had advised an extra 15 minutes’ travelling time for this but I think one or two hadn’t believed me (had they Brian!). This event has grown from being a Vintage & 4-plank event to a mixed MAAT, 4-plank and Vintage event, and a full representation of those elements of the class were present, such as David Peacock (Trent Valley) enthusiastically crewed by Jayden Wood in Paradigm Buster, Jonathan Twite (crewed by his dad from Nottingham SC) in 4-planker Goosehunter and Fraser Goldsmith crewed by Niamh Wright in Quill. | ![]() |
Anyway, to the sailing, a good start for a traditional |
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Second race was run back-to-back, or near enough, so we travelled the same course. A lot of fine reaching and a lot of twitching by the crews to keep boats in best optimal balance and jibs in best setting. How wonderful it must be to helm a Starfish, i.e. armchair, does Howard’s crew know how hard she worked? Of course at this point I must point out amongst the Vintage fleet was Alun Brunton, crewed by Tricia Wood, helming Smuggler (part of the Paul Turner collection) who showed us all how to sail a 12 without reference to speedskins, neoprene boots and possibly buoyancy aids. Alun is a long-time member of |
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After a very pleasant lunch break, the wind was picking up but still the sun shone – how good is that for September? So we all were briefed on a new course – ever heard of the Goddard Chicane? Well it made a reappearance to try to add a proper beat. The start of the race saw interesting things happen with the wind picking up nicely to a Force 3/4 – Paul Turner lost a shroud, well what do you expect when taking out THE China Doll for her first time in 25 years and John Sears, ably crewed by Catherine Sears, somehow filled up with water – both retired gracefully. Another of Paul’s boats – Microclipper – was out for a test-drive and crew Fenny Monteiro, helmed by Ben Arlett, was heard to say it got ‘a bit interesting’. Apart from that there were no other incidents. | ![]() |
All-round a very good day of sailing, with lovely wind conditions and a full day of sunshine.
I think all would agree with me we had a great day’s sailing. So my many thanks to our Race Officer John Richardson and team and to Guy Browne who handled our safety craft but was not needed.
1st MAAT and 4-plank Tom White and Matt Smith Midland SC
2nd MAAT Dave Peacock and Jayden Wood
3rd MAAT Phillip David and Caroline Clarke
2nd 4-plank John Sears and Catherine Sears
1st Vintage Paul Turner and Christine Preston
2nd Vintage Howard Chadwick and Cathy Lawson
Report by Christine Preston
N12 Class rep