On the weekend of 29/30 July history was made at
North Lakes with the first Queensland Championship
for EC12’s for fifteen or so years when the North
Lakes One Metre Yacht Squadron hosted an EC12
Regatta on Lake Eden.
With an entry of ten boats it looked like being a
great competition and that is how it turned out with
racing conducted in a very friendly atmosphere under
the guidance of PRO Brian Lever and scorers David
Black and Warren Mitchell. A positive move for the
class in Queensland was the launching of two new
boats from Ian Gilmour (Gillies Yachts), one being
sailed by top IOM Skipper Tom Butler and the other
for Tom Robertson.
Clance and Chris Denman made the trip from Sydney
which brought a bit of colour to the regatta and was
appreciated. The other distance traveller was Yeoman
Sands who made the trip down from Gin Gin.
Saturday produced strong WSW conditions with gusts
of 25 knots measured at the nearby Redcliffe weather
station with B rigs mandatory for a large part of
the day. Unfortunately a number of boats including
the two NSW guys were not so equipped which saw them
sit out a number of races.
From the start it was a tight contest between
Malcolm Kampe and Graeme Turk which was to continue
for the whole weekend. Ian Gilmour, Ken Smith and
Yeoman Sands were close together scrapping for third
place. It was pleasing to see the performance of
these boats in B rigs under the strong conditions
prevailing and while there were a few anxious
moments at times off the wind generally they were
all well controlled.
Saturday evening saw Graeme holding the lead by a
solitary point from Malcolm with Ian in third place.
Sunday saw a complete reversal of the weather
conditions with drifter conditions early which made
it difficult to set a course. With all in A rigs Tom
Butler started to show some form to mix it with the
leaders and show that the new Gillies boat was
competitive. It was still a close contest between
the leaders with Ken Smith and later Yeoman Sands
putting in some good results.
When racing finished with 27 races completed it was
Graeme by four points from Malcolm with Ian taking
third on count back from Ken.
The event was well managed by PRO Brian Lever,
supported by David Black, Warren Mitchell, Bill
Butler and George Morphett and sailed in good spirit
by all competitors. A good spectator crowd was in
attendance on both days.
Commodore Brian Lever presented trophies to:
Graeme Turk (50 pts) 1st
Malcolm Kampe (54 pts) 2nd
Ian Gilmour (90 pts) 3rd
The large perpetual trophy was manufactured and
donated by Ken Smith and family.
