Sailservice Magic Marine RS Tera World Championships at Bruinisse

SPORT fleet podium at the Sailservice Magic Marine RS Tera World Championships © Silvia Jauma

PRO fleet podium at the Sailservice Magic Marine RS Tera World Championships © Silvia Jauma

107 young competitors from around the World headed over to the beautiful village of Bruinisse in Holland for the Sailservice and Magic Marine 2015 RS Tera World Championships and it promised to be a super event for all involved. The class enjoyed a top class team taking responsibility of all the race management with a highly professional race committee from the Royal Maas Yacht Club, led by Principal Race Officer Peter Anink and overall operations led by Gijs Pleyte. Other team members included Rene who led all on the water safety and of course all would not have happened without the support and shared vision of Marieke and Richard from Aquavitesse who not only shared their beautiful venue with us for the week but took responsibility alongside the International RS Tera Class association for the organisation of the event.

Friday afternoon and Saturday morning saw a slick team of fabulous volunteers get all boats through registration and scrutineering but sadly the Saturday afternoon practice race had to be cancelled due to the violent storms battering Holland! We later learnt that these storms had been the worse seen since 1901! In the evening the wind died enough for competitors, their families and support teams to experience a traditional Dutch brass band with its members dressed in colourful suits parade up to the venue followed but the Dutch team members carrying each attending Country national flag, these then handed to specially selected members of each country to hoist up the flag poles and so we saw the Championships officially open.

Sunday dawned and the wind abated and both fleets managed 4 races. GBR sailor Jack Lewis ended the day at the top of the leader board closely followed by fellow GBR sailors Harrison Pye and Matt Smith. The Sports fleet saw GBR sailor Roscoe Martin at the top of the leader board with 7 points but GBR sailors Tom Storey in 2nd and Freddy Wood in 3rd overall close behind.

Monday blew and so competitors saw the postponement flag fly due to the race team seeing gust of over 30knots on the race courses. A window of opportunity and a slight drop in the wind strength meant that the race team grabbed the opportunity to send out the Pro fleet. Spectators were treated to some spectacular racing close to the shore in the shelter of the land. Harrison Pye continued to show his real ability to excel in all weathers to finish in a very convincing 1st place followed by GBR Henry Jameson and RSA Michaela Robinson in 3rd. With the weather showing no sign of improving the race team sent the fleet in. Sports sailors seemed quite content with the decision to abandon all racing for the day in both fleets having watched their fellow Pro sailors battling their way around the course, cheering and whooping them all the way!

Tuesday saw more high winds but both fleets made it out. The beautiful Mothership proved to be a very useful resource to have with many children taking shelter after capsizing, later we were told by the children on board that bread and chocolate sprinkles accompanied by hot chocolate was quite delicious! The most experienced sailors revelled in the conditions and in the Pro fleet we saw the top 3 change, GBR Harrison Pye continued his superb racing with another two 1st places giving him 13 points, Matt Smith moved into 2nd place and Henry Jameson continued to recover from his shaky start to the week coming in 3rd and RSA Michaela Robinson hot on his heels in 4th. The Sports fleet got 2 races with GBR Roscoe Martin in the top spot followed by Hamish Morley with an impressive win in race one of the day, GBR Oliver Kent winning the other. GBR Freddy Wood keeping his 3rd place overall and GBR Rupert Jameson in 4th with two top 3 results for the day.

Wednesday, the penultimate day was yet another frustrating affair with the weather and the race team really feeling the pressure to get some more races in. The decision was made to hold the Sports fleet ashore while the Pro fleet tested the challenging conditions. The Pro fleet managed 2 races with the Sports completing 1. Harrison Pye continued his domination of the fleet and banked yet another 1st followed by a 16th in the second race, while Henry Jameson managed a 1st and 2nd climbing to 2nd place and Matt Smith moving to 3rd place on the leader board. Meanwhile in the Sports fleet Hamish Morley won his 2nd race of the week, Freddy Wood in 2nd and Rupert Jameson 3rd meant It was very tight at the top of the Sports fleet with everything to play for on the last day especially as we would see the 2nd discard come into play on the 9th race. The leader board was Roscoe Martin and Hamish Morley both on 18 joint points and Freddy Wood close behind on 21 with Rupert Jameson on 23 however there where some big discards to come into play so anything could happen!

Thursday proved to be a completely different weather story, this time we saw the postponement flag hoisted due to lack of wind! As the morning progressed the wind built just enough for the race team to send the fleets out. Each fleet managed 2 races with Harrison Pye accomplishing all he needed to do in order to become the 2015 RS Tera Pro World Champion with 1 race to spare. In the Sports fleet however it was less apparent who the winner was and so the celebrating was left for the prize giving! It all came to count back between GBR Tom Storey and Roscoe Martin and in the end it was Tom Storey who secured the RS Tera Sports World Championship title.

Special award was made to RSA Arin Long for Sportsmanship having sailed back to a sailor who had capsized.

All in all this was an incredibly challenging week for all sailors, they all sailed incredibly well throughout the fleet. The RS Tera World Championships is open to any under 18 in Pro Fleet and Under 16 in the Sports fleet with no requirement to qualify for a place and so we see all sailing ability's, as a class we pride ourselves as being inclusive to all and love to see the enjoyment and achievements all the children make in their journey through their RS Tera sailing.

Next year we head to Club de Vela Santoña in Northern Spain 29th July to 5th August for further details see www.rstera.org

Sailservice Magic Marine RS Tera World Championships - photo © Steve Greenwood

SPORT fleet results:

PRO fleet results:

Sailservice Magic Marine RS Tera World Championships - photo © Steve Greenwood