I was looking for some info last week and I came across this photo (apologies for the quality), and I wondered if any of my readers would be able to figure out who any of the guys in the photo are. So…
- Can you name any of these happy young chaps?
- Do you know where the photo was taken?
- Or when it was taken?
- Why is it relevant this coming week (from Wednesday onwards)?
- Why might it have been even more relevant on May 7th and 8th?
- Who was the handsomest guy sailing at the regatta?
This post was originally published on 5th June 2016
1. Damian, Jack, Jack, Jack and Jack.
2. Rutland SC
3. 1990
4. Because it was posted on Final Beat this week
5. Eric Twiname
6. Damian
Tillerman:
1. All incorrect I’m sad to say
2. Right country but otherwise incorrect .
3. Very, very close.
4. Nope
5. Nope
6. Absolutely correct .
So I have #6 , have the right country on #2 and am close on the date #3.
Paul Goodison won the Moth Worlds this week. Is he the curly-haired kid on the right end of the back row?
Apologies – I think my question 4 might be misleading. When I say “this week” I’m referring to the coming week, not last week.
And to be a even more helpful, it’ll be relevant from Wednesday on, this coming week. I’ve amended the question to be a bit less misleading.
As for Paul Goodison – nice guess given how I’d phrased the question. But it isn’t right.
May 7/8 was the weekend of the LV ACS World Series in NYC.
Sailing in that were Iain Percy and Ben Ainslie. Are they two of the kids in the photo?
Good work Tillerman.
Ben Ainslie is one of the sailors – want to guess which one?
Iain Percy isn’t in the picture, but was at the event – I have another picture which I’ll post later with him in it.
Tough to get the other sailors, but one other is just about get-able. But it would be very, very tricky.
So including Twitter guesses, the correct answers so far are that Ben Ainslie and Robin Vincent are two of the sailors, and that I was the handsomest guy at the regatta.
We’ve still got three sailors to get (one of whom is just about get-able), the year of the photo, and where it was taken.
Was the photo taken at the 1992 Optimist Nationals?
And is Ainslie the boy on the front left?
No – it wasn’t at the Nationals in 1992, but you’re right – Ainslie was the boy at the front left.
So it’s not 1992 and you said 1991 was very very close.
How about the 1991 Optimist Nationals at Weston SC?
Nope.
Could the kid at the right on the front be Andrew Simpson?
No – it’s even tougher than that. I might have to give some clues for the other sailors.
One sailor will be pretty much impossible to get (he’s the one you thought might be Andrew Simpson), and the remaining two aren’t much easier.
Date and location are possible to get, though!
1989
Bingo! So:
1. Back Row – Unknown 1, Rob Vincent, Unknown 2; Front Row – Ben Ainslie, Unknown 3
2. Not got yet
3. 1989
4. Not got yet – but will help with the location
5. America’s Cup World Series – this would also help with Unknown 2 in the back row…
6. Damian.
Rob will know who the crest are,
The ISAF Sailing World Cup Weymouth and Portland starts this Wednesday. So I am guessing Weymouth as the location for the photo.
And the 1989 UK Optimist Selection Trials were held at Weymouth so I am guessing that was the event.
Lesley – Rob will definitely know who the rest of the guys are.
Tillerman – that’s some impressive deducing – it was the 1989 Weymouth Optimist Selection Trials.
The only things that haven’t been got are the three remaining sailors.
Unknown 1 gets mentioned in Ben Ainslie’s biography, and I believe he also worked/works as a sailmaker for North Sails
Unknown 2 relates to the America’s Cup World Series because he works for Ben Ainslie’s team
Unknown 3 is virtually impossible to get, but he won the event, and then won it again in 1990 (I think (99% sure…))
Will attempt without reading the other answers…
1 – Rob Vincent (3243), Rob Wilson (3126), Johnny Gorrod (3016), Ben Ainslie, David Lent (can’t remember the sail numbers, dammit)
2 – Weymouth sailing club
3 – may 1989… 29th?
4 – it’s the world optimist championship
5 – that’s when the qualifiers were?
6 – trick question – I didn’t sail that year.
*lenz, not Lent. I have a particularly devout autocorrect.
Nearly out to lunch (or my brother) has filled in the gaps, and showed admirable restraint in not answering before now.
He is also shockingly accurate – I only know where he’s gone wrong because I have the results in front of me.
But, as he’s my brother, I still take great pleasure in pointing out where he is wrong.
1. Johnny Gorrod’s sail number is incorrect – fancy another guess? Ainslie was 3359, and David Lenz (not Lent, but i’m guessing that was a typo) was 3280.
2. Yep
3. I’m pretty shocked to say that he was one day out – the event was from 27th to 30th May, and the photo was taken at the end of the championship.
4. No, but good guess. See Tillerman above for the correct answer
5. Ditto
6. Whatever.
Was Gorrod 3059? Am guessing really.
Re the date, I vividly remember those championships started the day after Liverpool lost to arsenal on the last day of the 1989 season… Must have got the length of the event wrong. Why I can remember that, while frequently forgetting why I went upstairs, is another story.
Fair play to tillerman on the others.
Johnny Gorrod was 3360.
They say people tend to remember traumatic experiences more clearly – and that Liverpool-Arsenal result was pretty traumatic alright.
Just to confirm the answers:
1. Front Row – Ben Ainslie, Jon Gorrod; Back Row – David Lenz, Rob Vincent, Robert Wilson
2. Weymouth Sailing Club
3. 1989
4. It’s relevant because the Olympic Classes are sailing at the same venue this coming week
5. It might have been more relevant because Ben Ainslie was sailing at the LVACWS that weekend, and Rob Wilson is a coach for Land Rover BAR
6. I was sailing in that regatta, so the answer is obvious.