Class in focus: National 12

Gerald New looks at what the movers and shakers are up for this season

Latest news in the National 12 class from among the movers-and-shakers at the front end of the fleet is that 2001 Burton winners Tom Stewart and Liz Ross will be campaigning a new boat - another one of the Feeling Foolish designs by Bim Daser.

Tom will be using a Super Spar carbon rig with the latest Pinnell and Bax sails, but they will not be defending their titles at the Burton this year due to a clash with the Merlin Rocket championships.

Tom will be a sailing the Merlin Championships in a Winder, Canterbury Tales design and using the latest P & B radial-head mainsail developed for the class, together with their latest jib which has now been released for the market after testing last year.

John and Katie Meadowcroft are another team with a new boat, they will be out in a Final Chapter which will be to the modified deck design with wider flare added to the existing hull lines.

Sailing Bim Baser's Numinous design this season will be both John Thorton and Graham Camm. This design is a refinement of Bims very successful Feeling Foolish design.

Something different is the build project of Mike Cooke, who is home building a Big Issue from the design of Phil Morrison which was influenced by Phil's design work on International 14s and has a double bottom with a raised shear line so you can nearly sit in it!

Mike has used a mould from original builder, Kevin Driver at Wrecked 'em boats down in Beer.

He has made a few small changes from the original mould: the bow is now narrower back as far as the shrouds/mast area with the intention of slightly better progress through waves.

The back few feet of the deck have been pushed out to maximum width for extra power in the breezy stuff, when he feels this design should be at its best.

Building has been going on apace and the decked hull saw daylight on the 12 January. You can see a full history of the build and follow the progress on Mike's regularly updated web site.

He commented on the build: "No major problems so far! fingers crossed but making sure everything is neat and fair is quite a time consuming task, as we do not have the practice that a major boatbuilder would have."

"If we have needed any info at any time, we have been talking to Kevin who has been very good with the advice on lay ups and other relevant bits."

Mike will be sailing with a very good 420 helm in Alison Martin, which makes them quite a light combination, so he has gone for a Superspar Carbon mast with Alverbank Sails, feeling that the Superspar, being one of the bendier masts, should suit them better.

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Graham Camm and Zoe Ballantyne put the new Numinous to the test