GP14 Southeast Travellers at Frensham Pond Sailing Club
by David Innes 13 Oct 2009 23:10 NZDT
11 October 2009
Contesting the last event in the London/Southeast travellers series © David Innes
Five visitors from the Welsh Harp, Tollesbury and local neighbours Papercourt SC joined nine local boats for the final event of the London and Southeast area traveller series at Frensham Pond SC on Sunday 11th October 2009 and were met by a grey overcast day with 10 to 12 knots of wind from the west.
Race officer Bob Castle got the fleet away with a clean start on a good length line. David Youll and Piotr Gieffert from Frensham lead up the first beat closely followed by Ben Kaplan and Chris Lomax from Seahorse SC with Tim Helmsley and Richard Harding closely following in third. The fleet split on the long run down the pond with Helmsley gybing off and gaining second place at the leeward mark with Kaplan third closely followed by Za and Libby Jelliffe from BTYC and Jeremy and Stuart Hudson from Frensham.
Helmsley briefly lost the lead after struggling to drop the spinnnaker on his borrowed boat but regained the lead on the next beat finishing ahead of Youll, Kaplan and Jelliffe.
Race 2 and 3 were run back to back after lunch with light drizzle and an improving breeze making the pond look and feel autumnal. Kaplan made an excellent start to Race 2 closely followed by Helmsley and Youll with Brian Taylor from Frensham, Hudson and James Ward from Papercourt also appearing in the front pack.
Kaplan held the lead to the end followed by Youll and Helmsley. With three boats on equal points going into race 3 it was close racing up the first beat. With Helmsley and Kaplan clashing in a port / starboard Youll capitalised by getting to the windward mark first and remaining in the lead to the end with Jelliffe second, Kaplan third and George and Jilly Rogers from Tollesbury finishing fourth.
Final positions
1st David Youll / Piotr Gieffert Frensham Pond SC
2nd Ben Kaplan / Chris Lomax Seahorse SC
3rd Tim Helmslry / Richard Harding Frensham Pond SC
4th Za Jelliffe / Libby Jelliffe BTYC