RS Tera Southern Travellers at Weston Sailing Club

A lovely sunny day with a very brisk westerly wind greeted the 17 sailors visiting Weston SC for the Andark sponsored RS Tera Open & the second event in the 2015 RS Tera Southern Travellers' series.

Tidal considerations resulted in a very civilised 13:00 start time, but with the start line just 75m from the launching area and the double high tide, there was no problem fitting in 4 excellent races with a much appreciated refreshment break at "half time".

The starts were combined for the two (sport & Pro) fleets and this, together with the building breeze and sizeable waves, spiced things up nicely for both the competitors and spectators.

The trapezoidal course gave a tough 700m beat, two screaming reaches and a rock & roll run with one "interesting" gybe to negotiate.

Race 1 of the Pro fleet saw Henry Jameson (Hayling Is. SC) first to the windward mark hotly pursued by Andrew Frost from Sutton Bingham SC. These two sailors flew across the first reach to then test their metal, bearing away for the roller coaster run and forthcoming first gybe. These positions stayed this way for the following laps with Henry eventually taking the win comfortably at the finish after Andrew decided to play safe and avoid the gybe at the end of the run on the last lap. Nathan Lomas (Oxford SC) & local sailor Ben Harris (Weston SC) took 3rd and 4th spots respectively. Race 2 again saw Andrew and Henry battling it out at the front, but this time it was Andrew who led at the windward mark & for the early laps however he was finally overhauled by Henry with a slicker gybe at the end of the final run. Henry held on across the bottom reach to take the win with Andrew 2nd and Nathan 3rd.

In the Sport fleet, race 1 saw Ralph Nevile from Frensham Pond SC giving the "Pro boys" a good run for their money for the first lap and half but by the end, Rupert Jameson (Hayling Island SC), who had been OCS (the result of an overly long practice first beat!), had powered through to take the win, with Ralph 2nd and Annabel Luxton (Royal Lymington YC) in 3rd. Sport race 2 saw Rupert take his second win followed by Annabel in 2nd and Archie Smoker from nearby Netley SC in 3rd. Ralph had to retire into a RIB from this race after receiving a nasty boom bang on the head.

Following the refreshment break, the fleet was clearly 'pumped' which was probably the main cause of the general recall required for the start of Race 3. The Race Officer immediately introduced the no nonsense Black flag, to keep things on schedule, and the fleets got away cleanly at the restart. Henry led at the windward mark with Nathan 2nd and Andrew 3rd. Henry held on to pole position but Andrew passed Nathan up the next beat to take 2nd and these positions remained for the balance of the race. This gave Henry his third straight race bullet & the "Pro event" win with Andrew second overall with one race still to be sailed. In the Sport fleet Race 3, Rupert sailed absolutely magnificently to win with Ralph in 2nd, Annabel in 3rd and Ben Harris (who had switched to the Sport rig at the break) in 4th. This meant that Rupert had sealed the Sport fleet event win with a race to spare, but the remaining Sport places were all still to be decided.

Race 4 saw some more great heavy weather sailing interspersed with a a couple of fundamental errors especially from the top two Pro boys. Henry J was caught OCS at the start, so had to put the hammer down to get back in the mix; and Andrew F inexplicably 'jumped ship' whilst tacking at the first windward mark, requiring him to fight really hard for the remainder of the race to catch up after much swimming to recover his woolly hat & boat which, un-capsized, had sailed off without him.

Nathan had a great first beat to lead the Pro fleet, hotly followed by Rupert who was again flying in his Sport, clearly relishing the conditions and that he was leading, on the water, his older brother who was in the bigger rig. However, after a gruelling 4 laps, Henry had recovered from his OCS to win the Pro fleet with Nathan 2nd and Andrew in 3rd. In the Sports, Rupert took his fourth win followed by Ralph then Archie with Ben Harris and PollySandison (Netley SC) in 4th and 5th respectively.

Great prizes of Andark vouchers and sailing kit were awarded to all the top placed sailors.

Weston SC was a new venue for the RS Tera class for 2015. The racing area, race management team, club and facilities all worked well to provide a great afternoon of sailing for both competitors and spectators alike. Ian Jameson, UK RS Tera Class association chairman, thanked everyone at Weston SC for putting on a terrific event and hoped that Tera's would be able to revisit in 2016.

Overall Results: