Enterprise Open at Frampton on Severn Sailing Club

Enterprises at Frampton on Severn © Stephen Brooks

Three visitors from BCYC joined 5 home boats for the annual Enterprise Open Meeting, on Sunday 9th October, held once again in conjunction with the Byte CII and Mirror Opens. The format of the event was 2 short back-to-back races in the morning, followed by lunch then a further 2 brisk back-to-back races in the afternoon.

As now seems to be the norm, the morning breeze was a light & shifty northerly F1-2 (as it has been for at least the last couple of years) which created challenges for competitors and the race team alike. Again the "snakes & ladders" approach appeared to be key – to not necessarily find the ladders but to definitely avoid the many snakes across the course.

In Race 1, Phil Kirk crewed by 11 year-old Harry Palmer soon got well ahead and went on to win by a "country mile" with Geoff Coxe and Sue Beynon, also from FoSSC taking 2nd and Ian Wakeling crewed by Jackie Franklin from Bristol Corinthian picking up a useful 3rd. The start of the 2nd race looked like a bt of a "roadblock" at the pin end with Phil/Harry, Ian/Jackie and Ioan Lavery /Chris Keatley(Penarth) all together and suffering a combination of hitting the mark/each other or not making the mark etc. Last year's winner Andy Smith, this time crewed by his 13 year-old daughter Erin, took full advantage by tacking immediately onto port and then took another couple of good shifts to hold a healthy first mark lead. They continued to lead throughout despite a late charge from Phil/Harry, once they'd recovered from their start line misdemeanours with Ioan/Chris finishing in 3rd.

During the lunch break, the OOD Ken Elsey altered the course slightly to avoid the worst of the weed and to give a 3rd beat to test the patience and concentration of all the competitors.

Again Phil & Harry made the best of the first beat with Andy & Erin not far behind. Over the course of the next couple of laps, Phil stretched out a bit, only to be reeled in by Andy. Then on what became the final lap of a shortened course, Phil/Harry held on for literally 10 boat lengths at the first leeward mark, but as Andy/Erin rounded the mark and immediately tacked, the killer move had been taken. In new breeze Andy was able to sail away and took the shortened course gun with Phil/Harry a safe second with Ioan/Chris again picking up 3rd place.

A swarm of Bytes close in on an Enterprise at Frampton on Severn - photo © Stephen Brooks

So once again for the third year running it was a last race "shoot-out" between Phil & Andy. They started side by side on the port biased line with Phil/Harry just managing to make the better of the shifts to lead by half a dozen or so lengths at the first mark from Andy/Erin. On the 2nd or 3rd lap, Ian/Jackie again joined the leading two and briefly took the lead as the other 2 primarily battled with the Frampton weed and the "snakes" that this involves. The wind then disappeared almost completely and Andy/Erin's more effective roll-tacking came to the fore and they held on for what was in the end a reasonably comfortable victory with Phil/Harry 2nd with Ian/Jackie in the end a distant 3rd.

So for the 3rd year running, Andy won the event with Phil second. The prize giving also incorporated the award of the Severnside Travellers Trophy to Ioan/Chris and the visiting sailors thanked OOD Ken Elsey and his race team for the good courses and in particular Phil and his wife Sarah (who was Byte CII sailing) and Christine Latham were thanked respectively for their efforts in organising the event and for their efforts in the Galley during the course of the day. Everyone agreed that once gain the multi fleet event had worked well and looked forward to repeating the format next year.

Overall Results: