This year’s Olton Mere and Earlswood Lake National 12 events attracted nearly 20 boats over the weekend of the 14-15 September. The weather on both days provided glimpses of sun with a reasonable amount of breeze for these sheltered venues, giving close racing despite the wide variation of ages and designs of the competing 12s.

At Olton, the main running was made up of national champion Graham Camm sailing the Numinous design, brother Geoff Camm in the borrowed Aardvark Issues and Matt French in a Paper Dart. Graham and Geoff shared wins in the three races with Geoff ultimately coming out on top. However, it was usually Matt French leading in the early stages of each race, good starting and local knowledge paying off with an old design that was well suited to the shifty conditions.

The fleet moved on to Earlswood for Sunday, seeing as steady a breeze as is possible on this small venue with the wind from the north. With Aardvark Issues now sailed by Terry and Angela Cooke (The Camm brothers having headed off to Henley to try and score more Consistency Trophy points) again showing good speed in the conditions, the first race saw the Cookes leading for much of the race, however, they were eventually overhauled by Jimmy Whitehead and Mike Cooke in a Feeling Foolish and briefly by Gerry and Margaret Garner in their Design 8. It was Jimmy who went on to win this and the following race, so keeping the trophy in the family for another year. The Garners took second overall with a win in the final race, but not without some close tussles with the Cookes and notably Brian Herring in a Proctor 4a who led at some points, the short courses keeping the well-sailed old (and in this case Vintage) boats in the running.

Overall Results

Olton

1st Geoff and Julia Camm

2nd Graham Camm and Kathryn Ingham

3rd Matt French

4th Jimmy Whitehead and Mike Cooke

Earlswood

1: Jimmy Whitehead and Mike Cooke

2: Jerry and Margaret Garner

3: Terry and Angela Cooke

4: Brian Herring and Ros Steavenson