Design Source wins Bartercard Cup

It came down to the last race at the final uk 12ft Skiff event of the series

Last Saturday (11 October), saw the UK 12ft Skiff fleet rock-up to Draycote Water for the final round of this year’s Bartercard Cup series. With Design Source and Nice Action both going into the event on equal points, it was going to be close.

With the wind forecast was for eight to ten knots, decreasing during the afternoon, with even less on Sunday, the fleet got out onto the water for a relatively early start (early for the 12 fleet is about noon!) The plan for the day was to have two races back-to-back, come in for a lunch break (and rig change if needed), and then to have a further two back-to-back races after lunch. The course was small and with each three lap race only lasting about 40 minutes, a swim could mean the difference between first and last place.

Number one rigs were the order of the day for all, except on Simon Roberts’ Team Bartercard Slug design, who’s boat is designed to be easily-driven and hence require less power, so they were sporting their number two rig.

The first race saw Design Source and Bartercard take a successful port-end flyer off the start, crossing the rest of the fleet to be first and second respectively at the windward mark, with Aquaskipper, Nice Action, and CST in persuit. Design Source then proceeded to do a complete 'horizon job' on the rest of the fleet, finishing almost half a lap ahead of Bartercard, with Nice Action in third, Aquaskipper fourth, and CST Composites fifth.

Race two saw a very close start line, but with a notable lack of Team Bartercard, who had decided to go for a blast down the lake between races, and were still making their way back to the line. This race again saw Design Source taking the lead at an early stage, but this time they were unable to break-away from Nice Action. To the complete surprise of the entire fleet, Simon Roberts and Richard Butler on Bartercard, caught the fleet up, overtaking Nice Action into second place at the final top mark rounding. The race was looking set for the same line honours as in race one. However, at the final leeward mark, Design Source snapped a trapeze wire ending in a swim, allowing Bartercard to take the gun, with Nice Action in second, Design Source third and Aquaskipper fourth.

As the fleet went back out after lunch, it became clear the wind was starting to drop, and that there was not going to be a fourth race, so with Design Source only one point ahead of Nice Action and no discards, Design Source only had to beat Nice Action to win the series.

So, race three pre-start saw Design Source hunting-down Nice Action in classic match racing style. At the gun, Design Source sat on Nice Action all the way up the first beat, before breaking away. This allowed Aquaskipper to blast away at the front of the fleet, before losing their lead on the fist downwind leg due to a wine-glass in their kite. This allowed Design Source to take the lead, which they held to the finish, with Bartercard second, and Nice Action just pipping Aquaskipper on the line for third.

So after another really exciting year of 12ft Skiff racing, Team Design Source took the win for the event, which also secured them the Bartercard Cup by two points over Nice Action.

The 12ft Skiff Class would like to thank Bartercard plc for their continued support, Draycote Water for their usually warm welcome, Iain Christie for acting as PRO, Predator Technology for the loan of the “headcams” and “boatcams”, and all of the contributors of photos of the day.

Results:

Pos	Boat	Helm/Crew	Tot
1	Design Source	Chris Ghandi & Tom Vian	5
2	Bartercard	Simon Roberts & Richard Butler	5
3	Nice Action	Bob Clements & Alan Atterbury	8
4	Aquaskipper	Neil Cardno & Ken Scott-Brown	13
5	CST Composites	Andy Lang & Tom Gruitt	15