Enterprise Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

The final SE Area Enterprise meeting on 11th October found Frensham again with its best wind direction from the north east and light cloud promised a lovely day. The fleet consisted of 3 visitors being greeted by 9 home boats with the water shared by a similar number of GP14s.

With the fine conditions Frensham's Katrina Gilbert and Jenny Rust quickly gained the lead at the start of the 1st race, but on the 2nd lap they were forced to retire after the main halyard broke. Ann Jackson and Alan Skeens assumed the lead with David Beaney and Sarah Hirst-Malin freeing themselves from the pack to give chase and close the gap. Ann and Alan held the lead to the finish. After a lot of place changing, home sailors Alex Johnson and Ian Johnson took 3rd followed by Justin Philipps and Tom Bridge.

After lunch the wind had increased slightly, the records suggest 11mph but it certainly felt stronger in the middle of the pond, and started to shift more. After some close jostling on the start line the early lead was taken by Ann Jackson with David Beaney again needing to free himself from the pack. For the last two laps there was very close racing with the leaders swapping places repeatedly. David held the lead at the final leeward mark and maintained a narrow advantage to the line. Meanwhile Justin Philipps was flying the flag for the home fleet and held 3rd place with the Dick Lankester and David Wylde from Weirwood working their way through to 4th place.

The final race saw Alex Johnson and Ian Johnson go high on the first reach to overtake David Beaney and take the lead.. This time it was Ann Jackson who needed to extricate herself from the pack which took her most of the first lap. Experienced Frensham men John Haine and David Farmer held 4th place at this point in one of the older boats but they suffered a capsize when they found a big header, exposing a lifeboat coloured orange hull! Towards the end of the 2nd lap David Beaney followed by Ann Jackson finally overtook Alex and Ian. For two laps David covered Ann, but then sailed too high on a reach and sat in a calm patch while Ann slid past barely a boat length to leeward. David took a while to find momentum again and Ann held a comfortable lead to the finish

Winning the last race gave Ann Jackson and Alan Skeens' the Open meeting victory, winning the Frensham Packard Cup. Frensham was the last race in the Enterprise Thames Valley aggregate series and David Beaney and Sarah Hirst-Malin had done enough to take the Thames Valley Bowl trophy for another year.

After the race all were happy to chat in the clubhouse for a convivial tea with the prize giving by the Commodore, Keith Videlo.

Overall Results:

On a technical footnote David Beaney was experimenting with a flyaway pole for the first time, having previously used a rather cumbersome 1.8+metre long conventional jib-stick. David and Sarah concluded that while launch and particularly retrieval was easier, more practice on optimum sail setting in lighter airs was needed in comparison to Ann and Alan.