Laser Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

by Graham Howlett 16 Sep 2013 11:35 BST 15 September 2013

Lasers at Frensham Pond © www.clubsailor.co.uk

The clubhouse weather station was resolutely showing a "light breeze" for most of the day, whereas anyone out on the Pond would tell you it was distinctly "boisterous", a term which seems to have passed Mr Beaufort by. So there were plenty of thrills and spills throughout both fleets.

Standard Fleet

Race 1 got off to a clean start and everyone seemed to arrive at the windward mark together; so that was quite noisy. Nick Hudson and David Jessop broke away and stayed well ahead, despite testing each other to the finish, with Clive Eplett and Ian Stone leading the pack behind.

After a general recall the black flag meant Race 2 got off to an edgy re-start, during which Nick Hudson fouled Clive and they both ended up well down the fleet. David Jessop got away and sailed a great race, taking it from Andrew Kear, John Peck and Ian Stone.

In Race 3 Clive Eplett won the committee boat pole position and pulled out an impressive lead – in his words "showing glimpses of remembering how to sail a Laser". David Jessop and Nick Hudson were again locked in battle, with David prevailing for second place, over a minute behind Clive.

So Race 4 was the showdown, with David Jessop, Clive Eplett and Nick Hudson all in contention to win the day. But it was snakes and ladders, with ferocious gusts and insane headers challenging everyone. David led at the first mark, with Clive and Nick buried behind. Clive sailed through / past / over / round the fleet and was pressurising David for the lead when he rolled in to windward. So he had it all to do again. Ian Stone joined battle with David up the penultimate beat until Clive caught up. David tacked and got caught in irons; Clive tacked and promptly fell in to windward on a huge header again; and Ian sailed comfortably ahead of them to round the final windward mark. Sounds like what we do at the back, chaps... And so Race 4 went to Ian, with David fending off Clive (once he'd caught up again) for second place and a well deserved overall win.

Radial Fleet

In the Radial Fleet, George Beck and Harry Janes traded first and second places in Races 1 and 2. So this set up a tense Race 3, during which Harry's mast decided it had had enough – it really was that "boisterous" – leaving George clear to notch up a second win and dropping Harry down to fourth place overall behind Ian Cherrill and Nick Cherrill, who were level on 9 points. But that still left the door open to Harry if he could win Race 4. In the event, George kept his head and a comfortable lead; consistency always pays, never more so than when you notch up three wins and have to discard a second place.

Behind these two the father-and-son battle played out, with Ian Cherrill sailing calmly, even serenely (takes some doing in those conditions), through to take third place overall with a second and two thirds.

And a special mention has to go to Jack Hardie and Ben Shorrock, who have just graduated from Cadets to the Laser fleet. They were snapping at the heals of the guys in front – cracking stuff!

Overall Results: (top three)

Standard Rig
1st David Jessop (Papercourt)
2nd Clive Eplett (Frensham Pond)
3rd Ian Stone (Maidenhead)

Radial Rig
1st George Beck (Papercourt)
2nd Harry Janes (Stewartby)
3rd Ian Cherrill (Frensham Pond)