National 12 'Witchcraft Bailer' Vintage Series overall

by Tim Gatti on 22 Oct 2013 Presented to the Association in 1993 by Robin Stevenson, the Witchcraft Bailer trophy is an original self-bailer from his boat ‘Witchcraft’, N1153 – the first glued plywood constructed National 12, built in 1953. Suitably mounted on a wooden plinth, it is awarded to the victor of the Vintage Series of Open meetings for those boats qualifying as vintage National 12s.

In 2013, the series comprised of eleven events spread across the country, the best three results to count. They included Open meetings at Annandale, Burwain, Yorkshire Ouse, Leigh & Lowton, Redesmere, Trent Valley, Ripon and Yeadon Sailing Clubs as well as the main National Championships at Brixham YC, the Vintage Dinghy Regatta at the Norfolk Broads Yacht Club, Wroxham and, new for this season, the inaugural N12 Inland Vintage Championships hosted by Burton SC.

The winner this year is, once again, Howard Chadwick sailing his newly restored China Doll ‘Hoodoo’ N2683, and his Starfish ‘Triada’ N2266. Second place went to Brian Kitching sailing ‘Just Lucky’ N1657 – a Chimp design. Well done to them both.

Generally, numbers across the board have been slightly lower this season, with some events seeing only one or two Vintage boats in attendance. However, with the exception of the Wroxham and Burton SC events, the vintage fleet sailed in the company of other 12’s at Open meetings so the low numbers were not critical to the viability of the events themselves. In particular, Annandale and Burwain at the beginning of the season saw three and two vintage boats respectively, whilst the National Championships only attracted two vintage entries, certainly lower than in previous years where numbers had initially been on the increase.

At the Leigh and Lowton meeting, which formed part of their Summer Regatta, the Vintage Fleet was represented by only one boat – Tim Gatti’s newly built Uffa King ‘Gruffalo’ N3541, although there were over 100 other boats on the water at one time so there was plenty of company and great sailing in the sunshine. The events at Redesmere and Wroxham were uncharacteristically low on numbers too, with only three boats in attendance at each.

This reduction in numbers can probably be attributed to a range of factors – the rising cost of fuel and accommodation has certainly had an impact of people’s willingness and ability to travel long distances to two-day Open meetings. Low turnout at the National Championships this year is no doubt the result of the poor weather and conditions the Vintage Fleet had experienced during the previous two such events in 2011 and 2012 which reduced the number of ‘safe sailing’ opportunities for the older, more fragile boats. As a result, a new Inland Vintage Championships event was held in 2013 to compensate for this and attendance was excellent – see later in this article.

An ironical side-note on the National Championship issue is that the one Vintage boat that was seriously damaged at Hayling Island in 2012 (Brian Kitching’s Chimp N1657 ‘Just Lucky’) was one of the two Vintage entries at Brixham this year, the other being Paul Turner’s China Doll - ‘Dolly Daydream’ N2487. So well done to them for flying the Vintage flag, but what a shame the wind-strength on the day of the actual Burton Cup Race prevented them both from sailing.

The other main factor in the reduction in numbers this season is that some of those who have regularly sailed at these events in the past have not been able to do so this season due to other commitments. In particular, Ian and Margaret Purkis, Bernard and Ellie Clark, Vince Phillips and family, Philip David, Ed Willett, Jonathan Reubin and Paul Turner have all been sorely missed, but their presence has been warmly welcomed at the events they have been able to attend and we hope to see them back again on a more regular basis next season.

The inaugural N12 Inland Vintage Championships, hosted by Burton Sailing Club on 28th/29th June this year was a spectacularly successful event – the wind, weather and setting and the large turnout of vintage boats made it particularly memorable. The sight of sixteen varnished, clinker hulls shining in the sunshine and spray as they raced down the reaches on the Sunday was a joy to behold – as captured in Kevan Bloor’s beautiful photographs. Do find the relevant page on N12 Discussion Forum for the link to the gallery if you haven’t already viewed them.

Special thanks must surely go to Paul Turner who was the prime mover in getting the event off the ground, to Kevan and Janet who did so much behind the scenes at the event, to Ken Goddard for his work on the Derwent Handicaps and to Burton Sailing Club for providing such a fantastic venue and facilities.

I am very pleased to be able to say that a two-day, Vintage Inland Championship event will feature again in the 2014 season as part of the Witchcraft Bailer Series – so if you don’t have a vintage dinghy of your own, start asking now if you can borrow one for this ‘not to be missed event’ in next year’s calendar – Paul Turner, Tim Gatti and Howard Chadwick all have boats they would be happy to lend out again, providing you can sort transport, and I’m sure there will be other potential lenders who will become known as the publicity for the event gets underway early next season. Well-known N12 helms from the top of the fleet - Graham Camm and Steve Sallis have already signed up to participate again next year and rumour has it that Tom Stewart will be there too, possibly in a ‘ribby’, providing he is free from sailing commitments with other Classes over that weekend.

Finally, I look forward to welcoming more Vintage 12’s on the water next season and would like to thank all of you who participated in the 2013 Series. National 12 website