Eleven National 12s took to the water at Spinnaker on 14 July with a perfect Force 3 and beaming sunshine.

Due to the starboard bias to the first beat, there was a tussle on each start to get the favoured starboard end – which happened also to be very close to the shore and rather shallow. Good timing (and depth judgement) was essential as taking places later in the race proved difficult.

On the first start, Alex Bale, sailing with young son Joshua got away fast and caught a puff to take him to the windward mark first. On the second start, Mike and Alex Storey lined up nicely, but ended up over the line while Graham Camm and Zoë Ballantyne held out sparring partners Jon Ibbotson and Clare Hunter.

In the third start, Ibbotson retaliated and Camm hit the ground trying to squeeze round. Finally, in the fourth start the wind shifted to the left and Camm caught a lucky gust to accelerate away.

Camm and Ballantyne won the first three races to take the trophy, while Ibbotson and Hunter had a string of seconds and took the final race to claim second place overall.

First Admirals’ Cup boat was Matt Reid and Fi Cunningham.

Overall Results

1st Graham Camm and Zoë Ballantyne, Burghfield SC
2nd Jon Ibbotson and Clare Hunter, Royal Harwich YC
3rd Mike Day and Anne Murch, St Catherines YC