RS Tera Southern Traveller Series at Sutton Bingham Sailing Club

by Andy Roxburgh 18 Jul 2015 08:08 BST 12 July 2015

RS Teras Southern Travellers at Sutton Bingham © Saffron Gallagher

A swinging South Westerly Force 3-4 all day with juicy gusts, light drizzle and heavy cloud cover made it a challenge for the less experienced sailors but allowed the top helms to show off their skills.

Four races were run by the Race Management team (Andy Roxburgh and Howard Frear) for the small combined fleet of 7 boats (4 Pros and 3 Sports) comprising three very welcome guests.

Race 1

Pro fleet: A Committee Boat squeeze due to a slightly starboard biased line saw Toby Dawkins (BCYC) doing turns allowing the rest of the fleet to get up the first beat. At the first gybe mark Nathan Lomas (Oxford Sailing Club) was in the lead with Andrew Frost (SBSC) on his heels. By lap 2 they rounded together and on the final lap Andrew broke free to win by a comfortable margin. The battle for third and fourth saw Max Robertson(SBSC) and Toby battling it out with Max finally getting the better of Toby on lap 2 to clinch third place.

Sport fleet: Ralph Nevile got an excellent start and split the Pro fleet in two all the way to the finish in some style to take the Sport win. Raffi Maxwell (SBSC) capsized in a big gust at the first gybe mark allowing Dougal Drummond (SBSC) through but Dougal then suffered an involuntary gybe and took a knock on the head for his pains. Raffi caught and overtook Dougal to take second place.

Race 2

Pro fleet: After a close fought beat Andrew had a slim lead which he maintained throughout the race although Nathan kept threatening to catch Andrew and exploited some nice gusts on fast reaches to narrow the gap. Toby and Max once again battled for third place with Toby making best use of the gusty reaches and grabbing third but with Max starting to work the gusts to his favour.

Sport fleet: Once again Ralph Nevile was mixing it with the Pros but this time up front and only losing out to the leaders in the second half of the race. Raffi battled his way round the course and finished without incident meanwhile Dougal sat this one out in the club house to get checked over. Thankfully he was ok.

After a superb hot lunch provided by the Galley team (Wendy Jackson and Alison Frost) the full fleet ventured out again on a shorter course.

Race 3

Pro fleet: Andrew took full advantage of the slight pin end bias and established a comfortable lead for the whole race finishing an impressive 3 minutes ahead of the next competitor (a Sport) after 40 minutes. Nathan capsized downwind on lap 2 allowing Max and Toby to pass but he recovered extremely well to regain second place on lap 3 and hold on until the lap 5 finish. Max just managed to retain third place by 7 seconds over Toby.

Sport fleet: Ralph stamped his authority on this race winning outright and following the Pro winner over the line. Raffi got the better of Dougal and both coped well as the wind temporarily decreased.

Race 4

The wind picked up to reveal regular white horses down the Halstock leg.

Pro fleet: With the winners trophy in the bag after 3 straight wins, Andrew took a port end flyer with Toby and both were almost immediately sent packing by Max on starboard and bang on the line. Andrew fought his way through the pack to take the lead by the end of lap 2 leaving Max, Toby and Nathan scrapping until Nathan broke away to go after Andrew and just missing out on first place by 8 seconds. Toby was flicked through 360 degrees by a big gust which took him aback but Max was thrown out of his Tera in a spectacular downwind capsize on lap three from which he retired leaving Toby to clinch third place in the race and overall.

Sport fleet: As the sole remaining Sport, Ralph was guaranteed a win in the race and overall. Although he couldn't match his earlier performances against the Pros he was still impressive, handling his boat with great skill.

RS Teras Southern Travellers at Sutton Bingham - photo © Saffron Gallagher

Whilst it was a disappointing turnout on a wet and relatively cold day, this was more than made up by the wind strength and warm welcome in the clubhouse.

PRO Results: