RS Tera Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

RS Teras at Frensham Pond © Jonathan Dakin

RS Teras at Frensham Pond © Jonathan Dakin

Thirty-six enthusiastic young competitors took to the Pond in light winds for the 2016 FPSC RS Tera open meeting, which was generously sponsored by Andark Diving & Watersports and RS Sailing.

In the small but competitive Pro fleet, Tim Hire set the early pace in the first race but was overhauled by Freddy Wood, who never looked back and took a clean sweep of firsts. Tim and Issy Taylor-Jones were always close behind, though, and traded places to take second and third overall.

The Sport fleet mustered a fantastic 29 entrants, with impressively close racing throughout the fleet.

In Race 1 Ralph Nevile took an early lead closely tailed by Tom Ahlheid. Tom was overhauled during the second lap by Luke Anstey and Alice Davis but Ralph had built an unassailable lead. Tom clawed his way back past Alice on the final run to take third place.

Alice won the start and first beat in R2, with Fergus Pye close behind. But with Ralph and Luke snapping at their heels there was close racing to the end. Ralph prevailed again, followed by Luke, Alice and Fergus.

RS Teras at Frensham Pond - photo © Jonathan Dakin

With Luke, Ralph and Tom Ahlheid clear ahead at the first mark in R3, there was an interesting battle behind between Jake Thompson, Alice, Tom Stratton-Brown and Fergus. Jake won the final beat of that contest and up front Ralph got the win by a boat length from Luke, so securing a series win with a race to spare.

The wind perked up for R4; Luke was first at the windward mark closely followed by Jake, and these two sparred for the remaining 3 laps, with Luke keeping ahead to the line. Behind them Alice and Fergus hotly contested 3rd and 4th, with Fergus just clinching it.

Overall Results:

RS Teras at Frensham Pond - photo © Jonathan Dakin