Kinver’s Spirit sees off Redwing rivals


When a yachtsman arrives at the scorer’s table with a ‘bullet’ to discard, his rivals know that the time to pack their sail bags is long overdue.


And so it was with a perfect six that master carpenter Pete Kinver became the newest National Redwing champion when the week-long series ended on the Isles of Scilly.


The Looe Sailing Club man won every Championship event in his new Clifford Adams-built dinghy, Spirit of Bald Eagle.


It meant that Kinver, who now owns South East Cornwall’s Wanless building firm, and his young crew, Joe Palfrey, from the town’s baking and pasty dynasty, had an impeccable net score of five, leaving them nine points clear of the chasing pack.


Veteran Redwinger Colin Crabb, and his crew, Adam Hayler, in Bearded Tit– another clinker-built boat constructed by that canny craftsman Adams in his ‘back-street’ yard – finished second with Welsh raiders Mike Stace and Dianne Morton, scoring 17 points for third


by JOHN COLLINGS Sunday Independent


place in the Tenby-based 14-footer, Sweet Song, which used to sail off the South Devon coast.


Although based on the Scillies, the race organisation was very much Looe-led, with the club’s Dominic Lozynski and Callum Dingle in charge of the safety boats and club stalwart and utility officer Paul Sedgbeer, a man who has more posts than the entire Trago Mills gardening department, proving an excellent assistant race officer as Brian Carvey’s right-hand man.


The red sails of these distinctive little varnished dinghies have their spiritual home in Looe Bay – the legendary Uffa Fox designed them specifically for ‘around the cans’ racing in the Bay back in the 1930s.


But it was the fourth time that the championships have been held on the Isles of Scilly since 2004 and they are certain to be back there again before too long.


Although the majority of boats came from Looe and the Scillies, there


Protests on solar farms


Protests are growing over the widespread plans for new solar farms and wind turbines in South East Cornwall.


A meeting held recently heard that the spread of alternative energy developments has prompted ‘disempowerment and dissatisfaction’ with Cornwall Council planning processes.


Around 60 residents gathered in Trewidland Village Hall recently for the meeting at which the Trewidland Community Energy Group (TCEG), a pressure group, presented a display of information.


This related to recent planning applications for solar farms at Pensipple and Lowertown Farm, Trewidland – where a wind turbine is also planned – and to the cluster of similar applications in the wider Liskeard, Looe and St Germans area.


The meeting began with discussion of a number of issues including the provisional approval of the solar scheme at Pensipple, the application for a wind turbine and solar farm at Lowertown Farm, and about 30 other applications in the Trewidland, Duloe, Menheniot, Morval, St Germans and St Cleer areas.


Those present expressed a strong sense of disempowerment and dissatisfaction with the planning


process – especially the difficulty of obtaining information on which applications have been made and where.


The meeting heard that local posting of notices about specific applications does not cater for the developments’ capacity to affect people over a much wider area.


It was pointed out that wind turbines and solar farms do not just affect single communities, but are visible over wide areas – and that there was an urgent need to develop an inter-parish view of the whole planning process.


The pressure group has already formed links with other groups in Morval and Duloe, and has sent information to St Keyne and St Cleer.


It has also raised this issue with the Liskeard and Looe Community Network, a forum for councillors.


As a result of the meeting at Trewidland Village Hall, it was decided that the possibility of an appeal against the approval of the Pensipple solar farm should be investigated and that Cornwall Council should be lobbied as to why such applications are being dealt with on a piecemeal basis.


A petition is to be set up to request that the council should not consider any further applications until they can all be evaluated as part of a cluster.


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TOAST OFTHETOWN:New National Redwing champion Peter Kinver,(right),from Looe Sailing Club,and his crew Joe Palfrey,receive their trophy from Carol Kinver,wife of the Association’s chairman,Arthur Kinver,after the week-long series on the Isles of Scilly


were also entries from Pembrokeshire, Oxford and Poole.


Class Association secretary Bill Dowell, from the Tenby club which will host the championships next summer, said that Scilly managed to produce ‘perfect conditions’ for the races.


His chairman, Arthur Kinver, from Looe, and treasurer, Helen Williams, from Barbourne, in Worcester, were in complete agreement.


Tradition dictates that the Redwings’ annual meeting is held during Championship week and there can have been few more idyllic settings ever than Porthcressa Beach when


the assembled gathering was told that there were now Redwing pockets of interest at Appledore, Bideford, Chelmarsh (Shropshire), Dittisham (South Devon), Fishguard Bay (North Pembrokeshire), Looe, Maldon (Essex), Tees (Hartlepool) and Tenby.


There was even talk of an international National championship in coming summers, with France as the potential suitor.


But, as renowned as our Celtic cousins are for hosting sailing regattas, they will have to go some to match this year’s island hop.


‘Quite simply, it was absolutely superb,’ said Carvey.


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