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This weekend saw a little piece of sailing history made with Castle Cove Sailing Club hosting the first of a new 12 race series for International 14s for the Weymouth Challenge Cup.  Using some of the best sailing waters in the world combined with a beautifully situated and friendly club, the first weekend’s competition did not disappoint.

Day One

After an inspirational briefing from Woofy, 9 boats set out into Portland Harbour.  The sun was shining which hid the fact that it was gusting 28 knots.  Race one started with everyone concentrating on being upright and facing the right way rather than being on the line.  Doug Pattison and Mark Tait lead around the first mark.  Shortly after the kite hoist their rudder wing came off and they went home.  Sam Pascoe and Alex Knight briefly lead before over standing the leeward mark and letting Ben McGrane and James Hughes through.  Roger Gilbert and Adam Brushett banged hard right up the next beat to take the win closely followed by Ben and Sam. 

Race 2 started in the same breeze.  Sam, Roger and Ben went right up the first beat and came to the windward mark all square, with Glen Truswell and Chris Blackburn coming in from the left slightly in front.  Ben had a good run to pass Glen and went on to take a commanding win.  Glen capsized on a tack to let Roger and Sam through.

Day 2

Race 3 With the breeze forecast to build all day we started in single wiring conditions.  Glen flew up the first beat and was never seen again.  Ben and Doug were going well early on until the breeze picked up to comfortable twin wiring conditions, then Sam came through to take second with Ben a close third

Race 4 The breeze had now come into 12 knots.  Glen lead around the first mark with Ben hot on his heels and Julian Pearson and Nick Martin close behind.  Those 3 got away down the run.  Glen and Ben left Julian behind and Ben finally got past Glen when he overlaid the leeward mark.  Sam managed to chase down Julian slowly but surely over the next 3 laps to take third.

Congratulations should be given to the new crew combinations of Andy Peake & Graeme Oliver, Jon McGuire & Andrew Smith and Tom Hill & Tom Watkins who had a baptism of fire on Saturday but were rewarded by their persistence to gain valuable experience in what is a highly competitive fleet.

Final Standings: 1^st Ben McGrane  & James Hughes, 2^nd Sam Pascoe & Alex Knight, 3^rd Roger Gilbert & Adam Brushett

With another eight races to run and discards to kick in after the next event, it is all to play for and it would be a brave person who predicts the eventual winner.

Hope to see you all at the next event on 25 & 26 May.

More Photos here

A message from Martin Jones, Andy Fitzgerald, Andy Partington & Damon Roberts.

26 February 2013

Last autumn we announced our intention to build tooling to allow a UK builder to produce the new Paul Bieker designed 14 in the UK. We concluded an agreement to allow us to use the B6 designs, to build tooling generously sponsored by Magma, and to select and licence the production to a UK based builder. Our intention was simple, to make a high quality, highly competitive boat available at a price less than £20k inc. VAT and the designers royalty, to fuel growth of the class and to make the class more accessible.

Since making that announcement we have been working hard to make this plan a reality and we would like to share our progress and to invite those interested in purchasing one of these boats to make an initial commitment to secure a building slot. 

Production of the plug is complete (see image below) and the moulds and tooling are in progress, all the detailed drawings for the deck and all systems have been completed. The foil designs are being finalised, based upon successful designs already in use in the fleet, and all the final detailing is being concluded. The plan is to produce four pre-production boats at the Magma facility to fully prove all the tooling, specifications and build processes before the production assets are handed over the UK licensed builder for a full production run. The first pre-production boat will be completed in late March, ready for fitting out. The following three pre-production boats will be completed in April and May, with the expectation that production boats will be available in June or July.

The 2013 Calendar is now finalised. We will be sending version round in Gossip and will have the usual poster at the dinghy show - but you can find all the information here

More photos by Mary Pudney here