RS Tera Worlds at Associazione Nautica Sebina, Lake Iseo, Italy

by Brian Partington 20 Aug 2012 07:23 BST 5-10 August 2012

The Associazione Nautica Sebina, Sulazano on Lake Iseo, Italy were the hosts for 2012 RS Tera World Championships from 5th - 10th August. In the senior Pro class the 34 sailors from eight nations were largely dominated by GB squad sailors James Hutton-Penman (Burnham Sailing Club) and Greg Kelly (Isle of Man Yacht Club) in the early stages. However local star Margherita Porro (ANS) started on Monday with a great win and ended her series of ten races with 2, 1, 3 but unfortunately fell away in the middle section to come 6th overall. Another Italian sailor Edoardo Libri (SEF Stamura) also had a great finish with a third and a first – but all too late.

In the early stages James and Greg were very close and we came to Wednesday evening with James leading by 4. However Hutton-Penman had a disastrous final three races whilst Kelly kept his cool to finish with a win (giving four in the series) and two seconds to conclude a wonderful championship with 16pts winning by 19 pts from the UK champion and favourite. Greg was able to equal his brother James who won at Carnac, France in 2010. The next three places were also filled by GB sailors, Rebecca Lewis (Draycote Water Sailing Club) who also won the best girl sailor, Ffinlo Wright (Isle of Man Yacht Club) – who had a win in race 6 – and Luke Bailey (Royal Hospital School).

There was also fierce competition in the Sport class which contained several members of a strong South African team. However after a disappointing start Billy Vennis-Ozanne (Hill Head sailing Club) prevailed with a great series to finish on 19pts. The last reach of the last race was conclusive when he managed to squeeze by his competitors to take a third to beat South African Georgou Divaris (GLYC) by one point with fellow countryman James Hellstrom(GLYC) third. GB sailor Henry Jameson (Hayling Island Sailing Club) took fourth with club mate Alex Butler in fifth. RSA sailor Sam Lombard saved his best till last, winning the last race, but it was only good enough to get him sixth overall. The leading girl was Niamh Davies(Burnham Sailing Club) in the 55 strong fleet.

Lake Iseo was a perfect setting for this major junior championship with interesting winds and shifts backed up by a lovely hospitable club to make this a week the young sailors will never forget.