Ribbed Boat Racing in the Sunshine.

A fleet of Ribbed National Twelves dating from 1936 to 1953 gathered at Yeadon Sailing Club on Sunday 23^rd May to be greeted by glorious sunshine, bacon butties and a gentle breeze.

Five boats assembled with crews from Yeadon, Ripon and Winsford Flash, four of these boats belong to current National Twelve Owners Association Chairman Tim Gatti who had been working hard to get his boats to the club for the event as well as coordinating entries etc.

Each competing team was allocated a boat for the first race and five short races of approximately 20 minutes each were run.  After every race crews change boats and all races count for the day’s results thus each team has equal chance of success.  The Race Officers Howard Chadwick and Ian Morgan set a short course with a 3, 2, 1, go start sequence to keep things moving and as soon as the bacon butties were devoured racing commenced.

Race 1 saw John and Cathy Cheetham in excellent form sailing N493 Laughter, a 1945 Holt 500 design, to victory hotly pursued by Neil McInnes and Rachel Dean in N341 Mat, an Uffa King, built in 1938.

Race 2 began as soon as boats were swapped and was a closely fought battle with John and Cathy in N711 Sinner, a Gnome design, built in 1949 and Tim Gatti and Vanessa Kennedy sailing Mat closely followed by Bernard and Ellie Clark sailing N2 Goldcrest, a Barnt Green design, built in 1936.  As the winds shifted Bernard went out to the opposite side of the course on the final beat pulling off a master stroke taking him from 3^rd place to a comfortable first place.

Race 3 was slightly delayed by some frantic bailing as the boats had dried out over the winter and some were getting very full indeed.  Although all boats had bailers only two had pumps which were being shared!  The jetty briefly resembled a formula one pit stop area.  Once underway Bernard and Ellie were the dominant pair in N341 Mat, however John and Cathy now sailing N1183 Tessa, a Procter Mark 2, built in 1953 were chasing hard and finished second.  Tim Gatti pulled up the minute he lost at the start through sharing a pump to finish 3^rd with Neil in 4^th and Brian Herring struggling slightly with N2 and making derogatory remarks about her being better for moving flour, like a barge,  than racing.

After a brief lunch and more bailing crews were back on the water for race 4 where Bernard and Ellie were again the pair to beat, this time sailing Laughter, Ellie’s favourite, although Tim and Vanessa in Sinner were a close second followed home by Brian and Katie in Mat.

Race 5 began after yet more frantic bailing and on a new course to match the shifting breeze.  Brian and Katie McInnes were fast off the line this time in Laughter and Brian used all his 75 years of experienced coupled with Katie’s nimble crewing to stay ahead of Bernard and Ellie, now sailing Sinner and Tim and Vanessa now in Tessa.  Brian managed to maintain and then increase his lead to claim victory in this the last race, which finished only 20 minutes before the first of the club’s afternoon races was scheduled to start.

The event was once again a great success and had created much interest amongst club sailors in addition to being thoroughly enjoyed by all the competitors.  The final team positions being as follows:-

1st	Bernard Clark	Ellie Clark	8 Points
2nd	John Cheetham	Cathy Cheetham	13 Points
3rd	Tim Gatti	Vanessa Kennedy	17 Points
4th	Brian Herring	Katie McInnes	18 Points
5th	Neil McInnes	Rachel Dean	19 Points

Thanks to Howard for the article

and Howard and Mike for the photos