International 14 Championships at Restronguet Sailing Club - Preview
by Andrew Handasyde Dick and Helen Farr 28 May 2013 07:57 BST
22-28 June 2013
2009 International 14 Prince of Wales Cup Race at Restronguet © Ian Roman /
www.ianroman.com
The International 14 championships are to be held from the 22nd to the 28th June this year from Restronguet Sailing Club, and supported by Duchy Contracts. As ever all the focus will be on the one race national championship on the Tuesday for the Prince of Wales Cup and Torpoint Mosquito Trophy awarded to the helm and crew of the winning boat respectively.
The International 14 is a class with a huge amount of history through many generations of dinghy design since 1923, and this year the championships have something for everyone. There will be a dedicated series held for classic International 14s (conforming to the pre 1983 rules, with single trapeze and symmetric spinnaker) from the 22nd to 24th of June, as well as the Prince of Wales race, for the Buccaneer Trophy, on the following day. For the first time in the UK, after testing in Sardinia last year, there will also be a 2 race handicap series for the Island Commemorative Trophy using multiple windward marks to handicap boats according to their position in the series to that point.
Among the boats already entered are a plethora of previous National, European and the current 3 time World Champion, as well as past Olympians and a host of up and coming sailors in the class. We have confirmed entries from French and Italian boats, and are hoping that some of our German friends will join us as well.
As ever the sailing isn't everything, with a host of evening activities being planned to distract the competitors from their boatwork and repairs (hopefully few and far between!). The class hopes to be able to offer free beer to all the competitors every day after sailing, and as a special request the chef is perfecting his Pasty making skills prior to the arrival of hungry 14 sailors.
Once again we have managed to secure a very special venue for the Prince of Wales Cup dinner, and series prizegiving, at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, home to a key piece of i14ing history: Uffa Fox's Thunder and Lightning.
Whilst dining at the Museum's famous waterfront location, digesting and deliberating the pros and cons of Dyneema cap shrouds, and celebrating the successes and lucky shifts in this year's Prince of Wales Cup, we could perhaps turn our thoughts to another POW held in Falmouth 75 years ago....
Thunder and Lightning (sail number 409) was launched a mere week before the 1938 POW, fresh out of Uffa's capable hands, a year before Germany marched into Poland, or to further contextualise it, two years after the inaugural Gallon trophy. The hull was a super light double skin of veneer, strengthened by rock elm frames and fastened with copper nails; she employed the lightest and most innovative technology of the day.
In addition to this, working secretly behind the scenes, Charles Currey and Uffa Fox together with Peter Scott (son of the famous Antarctic explorer, founder of the WWF, and Olympic sailor) and his fellow helm/crew John Winter (fellow Olympian and Society member), developed what was known as the 'King George's Jubilee Truss', now fondly known as the 'Trapeze'.
With these technological developments, a new boat and a good measure of skill, Scott and Winter went on to victory in the POW that year. I am, however, unsure as to whether they were presented with the Prince of Wales Cup because the King George's Jubilee Truss was instantly banned as being unsporting. One can only imagine the 'chat' and the Crew's Union penalties at the prize giving dinner that evening... In penance, the pair was made to write the rule banning the trapeze in racing; a rule that stuck for a further 15 years.
Later that year, Thunder and Lightning was shipped to Toronto, Canada (history repeating itself?). Whilst aboard the trans-Atlantic liner, the ship's carpenter took on her repair work (she was after all, an i14) and on completion gave Scott and Winter a pair of wooden black cats for luck. The pair fixed these inside the stem of the boat where they can still be seen today, along with the original leather trapeze, in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.
I have been promised that Thunder and Lightning will be on public display during POW this year and those of you who would like a 'special' tour of the museum collections should let me know. Seventy five years on and another Falmouth based Prince of Wales Cup... let us hope that this year's racing and technological developments will go down in class legend and be similarly chronicled in years to come.
For anyone wishing to join us for what will surely be an amazing week sailing the notice of race is available, with online entry via the Restronguet Sailing Club website. Standard entry is until the 1st of June (the end of this week), with a late entry fee applying after this.
There are currently 4 modern boats for sale on the class website, if you are looking to join the class. Otherwise there are several boat owners who are looking for regular crews, with the class facebook page being the best point of contact.
We look forward to sailing with you in Restronguet.