GP14 Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

GP14s at Frensham Pond © Stephanie Videlo

The annual GP14 Open meeting was held at Frensham on Sunday 11th October in a fairly steady Force 3-4 Northerly. Because of cancelled events earlier in the year the event was shared with Enterprises and Larks.

Eleven GP14s attended with 33 boats overall all of whom had to pre-book on the event website page, which also included the club's Covid plan, Risk Assessment, video briefings and other event information. The club carefully managed risks with Meet & Greet briefings, separate launching areas with Marshalls monitoring launching and rigging. The club appointed an Event Safety Officer for the day who worked together with the club's Duty Officer Jon Denyer to manage all aspects of risk.

GP14s at Frensham Pond - photo © Stephanie Videlo

Race Officer Keith Videlo, supported by Rebecca and Charlotte Videlo, ran three races back to back to remove the risks of people congregating on shore over lunch. With a northerly Keith set a standard Frensham course with two beats, a run and two reaches and the buoys set as carefully as possible to minimize interactions between the fleets.

All three races used committee boat starts with a well-set line to spread the fleet. The first race was led by Bryan Taylor and Andrew Todd from Frensham pursued by Richard Harding and Simon Lomas Clarke (Frensham), Richard Ham and Charlie Cotter (Tollesbury / Welsh Harp) and Paul Trubridge & Robert Harmer (Frensham). Ham & Cotter came through to take second behind Taylor and Toddy with Harding & Lomas-Clarke taking third.

GP14s at Frensham Pond - photo © Stephanie Videlo

In the second race Harding led all the way in his first GP14 open since 2007 pursued by Andy Wadsworth & Cathy Howard from Welsh Harp in second. Ham & Cotter came through to take second with Taylor & Toddy taking fourth. With the lead finely balanced with three boas in the hunt Harding & Lomas Clarke got of to a bad start hitting the Committee Boat letting Taylor and Toddy away to lead the race and take first overall.

Special mention to Hannah Carruthers(15) taking 7th overall in her first GP14 Open Meeting.

Overall Results: