RS Tera Southern Travellers Open at Hill Head Sailing Club

by Andre Ozanne 3 Oct 2012 11:25 BST 30 September 2012

Big winds and waves test everyone

A not so favourable forecast of 20 knots and more didn't deter 24 Tera sports and 6 Tera pro rigs from launching. Three races, all to count, with a windward leeward course set on a Solent murky and churned form 8 hours of stiff breeze. The Pros were unleashed upon this fierce chop first and close racing set the scene with Joshua Boniface from HISC having to work hard to keep Grace Summers and Charlotte Bassett behind, Louis Giron also battled on until one too many waves knocked him over.

During the Sports start sequence a sharp spike up to 25 knots caught out some of the younger sailors and some closer investigation of the Solent was conducted by many, amongst them experienced champions! Ian Morgan PRO kept things rolling and race one started as planned. A four lap race with a particularly long beat gave the various champions of the fleet a very demanding physical workout. First at the top mark was Billy Vennis Ozanne RS Tera World Champion followed by Henry Jameson National Champion and Alex Butler Eastern and Southern Champion, and close on their transoms Robby Boyd from Lymington Town with no doubt some championships waiting in the wings. The world champion took a swim,Henry also checked the quality of the water, this left the door open for Robby with some fine downwind sailing in surging waves he showed all the Champs the way home but not without a fight from the three.

Race two for the sports saw numbers fall as the spikes of 29 knots took its toll on some sailor's strength. A well conducted start saw Alex, Henry, Robby and Billy out of the blocks first and a number of positional swaps up the first beat, Billy rounded first with Alex and Henry close, Alex with some superb downwind surfing rounded the leeward gate in front but again Billy rounded the top mark first, this ding dong continued apart from Billy on the final run controlled his lead and took the bullet with Alex close behind. The Pros had a much more straight forward goal in that whoever could keep the boat up was going to win and Charlotte with great determination and whoops of joy and fear surfed like she has never done before to take the bullet.

Race three for the sports was easily described as a carbon copy but keep in mind the physically testing conditions that these boats and young sailors had to fight with. Numbers were yet again reduced this was becoming a battle of attrition. This time Billy created a more comfortable lead over Alex on the final run to win the race and the event. Alex 2nd overall, Robby 3rd overall and Henry 4 th overall . Jonny Tait kept in touch with the leading 4 and presented a good account. A number of sailors who battled through all 3 races deserve a big pat Ben Sandison from Netley, Freya Grant from Emsworth, and Tom Goacher from RLYC and to all the other entrants who went out there and gave it a go.

With Hill Head running a Scorpion open in parallel to the Teras, a bench mark to ponder on is that out of 18 Scorpions starting only six remained in the final race. The Solent around Hill Head can be very testing and this was one of those days.

Many thanks to Hyde Sails who very kindly sponsored the traveller series of 5 events over the summer and Alex Butler from HISC secured the series with his second place at Hill Head.

The RS Tera class association is getting into full swing with the 2013 Worlds taking place in Weymouth, if you are a budding young sailor and wish to take part in a world event on your doorstep check out the website at www.rsteraworlds.com

Overall Results:

Sport Rig

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	2279	Billy Vennis ‑ Ozanne	HHSC	3	1	1	5
2	1985	Alex Butler	HISC	2	2	2	6
3	1880	Robby Boyd	RLYC	1	4	3	8
4	2233	Henry Jameson	HISC	7	3	4	14
5	2025	Jonathan Tait	RLYC	4	5	5	14
6	2246	Tom Goacher	RLYC/LTSC	8.5	6	6	20.5
7	2215	Matthew Caiger	Bewl Valley SC	5	DNC	DNC	53
8	2350	Ethan Miles	Emsworth	6	DNC	DNC	54
9	2214	Cameron Sey	Lymington Town SC	DNC	DNC	7	55
10	1649	Freya Grant	E.S.C	DNF	7	DNC	55
11	776	Ben Sandison	Netley SC	8.5	DNC	DNC	56.5
12	1886	Nathan Lomas	Oxford SC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
13	841	Alfie Dancer	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
14	2237	Tom Thorpe	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
15	2153	Ben Poe	Sutton Bingham SC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
16	2371	Rupert Jameson	HISC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
17	2213	William Rayner	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
18	412	Joseph Bradley	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
19	1989	Lucy Pennant	HISC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
20	2232	Miles Elvidge	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
21	269	Benjamin Savage	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
22	679	Daniel Shillaker	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72
23	1	Harrison Fry	HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	72

Pro Rig

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	798	Charlotte Bassett	RLYC	3	1	1	5
2	849	Joshua Boniface	HISC	1	DNC	DNC	13
3	1662	Grace Summers	Emsworth SC	2	DNC	DNC	14
4	2273	Flynn Luxton	RLYC/HHSC	DNC	DNC	DNC	18
5	461	Louis Giron	LTSC/RLYC	DNC	DNC	DNC	18