Spitfire Premium Ale Concours dElegance Trophy 2010

Stephen Beresford, winner of the Spitfire Premium Ale Concours d’Elegance trophy, together with Steve Gray, RYA Marketing Manager © Mark Jardine / Y&Y

Judging for the Spitfire Premium Ale Concours d’Elegance trophy took place on Saturday 6th March during the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show. All boats that had been sailing at least once were eligible. The judging panel was made up of David Townshend of Shepherd Neame, Mark Jardine of Y&Y, Steve Gray of the RYA and Alex Geddes.

The presentation and standard of all the boats on show this year was exceptional. Clearly the inaugural presentation of the trophy last year had made people put that extra bit in to make their boats shine.

After two hours of looking over all boats, the judging panel had a shortlist of five boats (GP14 ‘Sniper’, International 14 1541, Merlin Rocket 3626, National Redwing 249 & National 12 341) to choose a winner from. A second inspection of these resulted in the unanimous decision to award the 2010 Spitfire Premium Ale Concours d’Elegance trophy was awarded to Stephen Beresford’s National Redwing sail number R249.

On winning the trophy Stephen Beresford said, “We're thrilled and delighted to win the Concours d'Elegance trophy. It's a real confirmation of Good Wood Boats intent to build beautiful and eye catching classic racing dinghies that not only race successfully, but also win the admiration of others both on and off the water.”

The boat was completed just prior to the Redwing nationals in August 2009. Construction took just over a thousand man-hours and includes 1,782 hand crafted copper rivets.

Steve Gray, RYA Marketing Manager said, “The variety of classes and their standard of presentation was outstanding this year, making the ultimate decision extremely difficult.”

As well as claiming the coveted trophy the lucky winner will also have the choice of either one night’s stay for two people (dinner, bed and breakfast) at a Shepherd Neame Managed House or ten cases of Spitfire Premium Ale.