Breakages on final day

The 12ft Skiff fleet were out entertaining the crowds at the final round of their Bartercard Cup

The final round of the 2007 Bartercard Cup for 12ft Skiffs took place at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club in Torquay over the August Bank Holiday week in almost ideal sunbathing conditions. Crews were greeted with wall-to-wall sunshine and light winds, and the spectators turned up hoping to see these awesome speed machines hurtling around the bay like last year.

Day one saw the use of the number one rigs with Aquaskipper getting off the line cleanly and away to a clear lead, only then to suffer a capsize allowing Slug through, closely followed by Bestof. Over the following laps, Aquaskipper consistently closed the gap on Slug, and on the last downwind leg there was only a matter of feet between the boats, with Slug just sneaking across the finish first.

Day two saw Bestof losing it’s number two rig whilst twin-wiring with the kite up on it’s way out to the start, so had to go back in for a quick rig change, making them late for the start. Aquaskipper was guest-crewed by the Team Scotland crew for the day. Day two'a results saw Slug in first place, Bestof in second, and Aquaskipper (with guest crew) in third, and Team WB in fourth.

The third and final day dawned with the series pretty-much wrapped up, but the event was still to play for between Slug and Aquaskipper. A tight start between the two then saw the teams choose different sides of the racecourse for the first beat. Aquaskipper suffered a kicking strap failure (exploding Ronstan block) resulting in a swim and a bit of improvised jury-rigging, allowing Slug to be first around the windward mark. On the first downwind leg however, disaster struck on Slug when the kite halyard jammer failed resulting in the kite falling down followed by the inevitable capsize, allowing Aquaskipper to re-take the lead, which they then held and consolidated until the finish. Final places were first Aquaskipper, second, Slug, third Bestof and fourth Team WB.

The last 12 months have really given the crews time to master the boat handling skills needed to keep these boats upright and up to speed, so this was a great chance to really compare the differences in the Nash, Woof and Slug hull shapes. Alan Atterbury said, ”The Slug clearly is faster in certain conditions, but the Woof seems to be more consistent as the more moderate shape performs better in light winds or short chop, and provides the buoyancy to support the crew weight and the larger rigs.”

This spectacular event finished in style with champagne prize-giving followed by an amazing display from the Red Arrows over Torbay.

Event Results:

Team/Boat Design Helm/Crew
1-Slug Slug (mod) Iain Christie/Simon Roberts
2-Aquaskipper Woof Bob Clements/Alan Atterbury
3-Bestof Nash 4 Andy Lang/Tom Gruitt
4-Team WB Bistro (mod) Stu Tinner/Ollie Hobson
5-Team Scotland Slug (mod) Neil Cardno/Ken Scott-Brown

Bartercard 12ft Skiff Series Overall Results:

Pos Pts Team/Boat Design Skipper
1 21 Aquaskipper Woof Bob Clements
2 12 Bestof Nash 4 Andy Lang
3 11 Slug Slug (mod) Simon Roberts
4 9 Team WB Bistro (mod) Stu Tinner
5 5 Practicus Bistro (mod) Iain Christie
6 2 Team Scotland Slug (mod) Neil Cardno