GP14 Southern Travellers Venetian Trophy at Welsh Harp

by Dennis Adams, BTYC Sailsports 12 Apr 2011 07:11 BST 2 April 2011

South Staffs conquers the Venetian Trophy

The 2011 Southern Region Travellers Series for GP14 dinghies started with glorious weather at the Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir) on April 2nd.

The Harp is the traditional host to the Venetian Trophy, which always attracts a good fleet, and this year was no exception. Visiting boats were entered from South Staffs, Tollesbury, Frensham and Papercourt, as well as the local clubs of North Circular, Wembley, Seahorse and BTYC.

All in all, there were 33 entrants, beating last year’s event, and almost matching the record set in 2009. Some people had never raced at the Harp before, and they were welcomed with smiles, cups of tea, and the smell of bacon being cooked for breakfast.

The weather forecast of 10 knots, gusting 15 plus was true to form. Being predominantly South Westerly, the course could be set up with a chance of a long competitive beat almost the full length of the Harp, followed by a spinnaker run in the opposite direction.

Given the number of entrants, Race Officer Brian Jefferies (commodore of BTYC Sailsports) arranged a wide starting line across almost the width of the Harp. Nevertheless, there was some shouting at times, and the second race resulted in a general recall, followed by the subsequent start under the Black Flag rule.

The first race in the morning was a victory for the pair of boats from South Staffs; Mike Senior and Connie Hicklin being followed home by Sam Blocksidge and Chris Cook.

After the first race the contestants came off the water for lunch; One visitor was reportedly overheard saying that this was “the best lunch provided on any open meeting”, before the final two back-to-back races.

The challenge for the race team at lunchtime was to divide the 30 plus boats into three fleets, taking into account not only the positions at the end of the first race, but also people’s ability as recorded in the previous year. This resulted in a number of frantic discussions. In the end, the quality of the sailing in the mid fleet was so good that the silver fleet was the largest, with 15 boats. There were 6 boats designated as bronze.

The black flag for the second start of the second race unfortunately meant that one boat received a “BFD”.

The weather remained clear, and multi-coloured spinnakers were out in force, including rainbow patterns, and even a Welsh Dragon !

Yorkshire man Andy Wadsworth appropriately flew a white rose from the (Keighley-built) Winder Boat 14073, which was the newest addition to BTYC’s training fleet, and bore the no “1” designation.

Race 2 was won by Rob Janering from Wembley, assisted by Charlotte Cotter, who left both Staffordshire boats behind.

Race 3 also had it’s fair share of drama, with Rob and Charlotte being caught “OCS”. But the visitors were not let off lightly; Richard Lord and Lorna Davies won the third race ahead of Sam Blocksidge and Chris Cook. Frank Pearce and Richard Wang came in third.

When the points were awarded and discards taken into account, the final results of the Gold fleet were a first place to Mike Senior and Connie HIcklin, followed by Rob Janering and Charlotte Cotter (despite their final race OCS). Third place was awarded to Sam Blocksidge and Chris Cook.

The Silver fleet also saw the honours traded to and fro several times; Liz Hall and Sam Martin of BTYC gained a 6th place in the final race to win top prize in the Silver fleet.

The Bronze fleet prize was awarded to Edward Parks and Hannah Rose of Seahorse Sailing club.

The day also saw the awarding of the Jaldi cup for 2010. This is the “New Travellers” trophy, which is part of the initiative from the class association designed to encourage new boats to get involved in the Travellers series.

For 2010, the cup was awarded to Jim Faulkner and Steve Cooper / Ruslan Scutelnic of BTYC, followed by Andy Wadsworth and Dennis Adams/Helen Allen, also of BTYC. The third prize award was given to George Rogers and Jilly WIlkinson of Tollesbury. This will be awarded again in 2011 for those who have not qualified in a GP14 Travellers series before.

Summing up the day at the end, David Innes and Steve Browne of the GP14 Class International Association thanked the organisers, and looked forward to the next event of the Southern Travellers Series, and to the GP14 Masters and Grand Masters events which will also be held at the Welsh Harp later on in the year.

Special mention to the many club members including Ricardo, Agata, Helen, Wiebe, Richard, John and Mark, among others, who worked behind the scenes to ensure that this was a success.

Overall Results:

Pos	Fleet	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	Gold	13417	Mike Senior	Connie Hicklin	South Staffs	1	2	4	3
2nd	Gold	13922	Rob Janering	Charlotte Cotter	Wembley	3	1	ocs	4
3rd	Gold	13839	Sam Blocksidge	Chris Cook	South Staffs	2	3	2	4
4th	Gold	14030	Richard Lord	Lorna Davies	Seahorse	11	5	1	6
5th	Gold	13940	Frank Pearce	Richard Wang	BTYC	5	7	3	8
6th	Gold	14014	Mark Wolf	Alex Dotsch	BTYC	4	4	dnf	8
7th	Gold	14069	Chris Lomax	Peter Kay	SSC	dtc	10	5	15
8th	Gold	13674	James Stafford	Alain Renauld	BTYC	10	6	10	16
9th	Gold	13855	Ben Kaplan	Roberto Serra	Seahorse	7	9	18	16
10th	Gold	13944	Eric Janering	Ron Cruickshank	Seahorse	8	24	8	16
11th	Gold	13887	Jim Faulkner	Suzanne Williams	BTYC	6	16	11	17
12th	Silver	13787	Liz Hall	Sam Martin	BTYC	19	12	6	18
13th	Silver	13662	Lesley Kaye	Dennis Adams	BTYC	15	18	7	22
14th	Silver	14020	David Innes	Steve Browne	Frensham	21	14	9	23
15th	Gold	13316	James Ward	Richard Whitehill	Papercourt	9	15	15	24
16th	Silver	13594	Ruslan Scutelnic	Yvon Kalmeyer	BTYC	14	11	13	24
17th	Silver	13958	George Rogers	Jilly Wilkinson	Tollesbury	18	8	22	26
18th	Silver	13472	Keith Street	Eugene Shrimpton-Phoenix	BTYC	24	13	16	29
19th	Silver	1	Andy Wadsworth	Andy Shrimpton	BTYC	23	17	14	31
20th	Silver	10591	Craig Sanderson	Brian Garrard	NCSC	20	23	12	32
21st	Silver	13421	Helen Allen	Andy Lindinger	BTYC	12	bfd	20	32
22nd	Silver	13870	John Shepherd	Penny Abbott	Seahorse	13	21	dns	34
23rd	Silver	13578	Keith Toovey	Chris Higgs	Seahorse	17	20	dnf	37
24th	Silver	13523	Norman Brown	Catherine Breun	BTYC	26	19	19	38
25th	Silver	13136	Ricardo Chacon	Agata Bartoszcze	BTYC	25	dsq	17	42
26th	Silver	14060	Paul Reeves	Helen Beaney	Frensham	22	26	23	45
27th	Bronze	13543	Edward Parks	Hannah Rose	SSC	27	25	21	46
28th	Bronze	13640	Phillip Taylor	Chris Bell	BTYC	28	22	24	46
29th	Silver	13055	Charlie Sheppard	Mahmood Shamsuddin	SSC	16	dnf	ocs	50
30th	Bronze	14019	Brian Turgoose	Alan Jannering	SSC	DNC	28	25	53
31st	Bronze	13836	Bill Diamond	Luke Howard	NCSC	DNC	29	26	55
32nd	Bronze	13484	David Rose	Harvey Rose	Seahorse	29	27	dns	56
33rd	Bronze	14	Peter Dunton	Daphne Grey	Seahorse	30	dnf	dns	64