RS Tera Southern Areas & RS Feva Open at Royal Lymington Yacht Club
by Vicky Leen 19 May 2017 08:16 BST
6-7 May 2017
RS Tera Southern Areas & RS Feva Open in Lymington © Liam Willis /
www.lw-media.co.uk
Over the weekend of 6th and 7th of May, the Royal Lymington Yacht Club hosted the RS Tera Southern Championship and Lymington RS Feva Open, sponsored by Sway Butchers and Gemini Marine. Some 40 entrants, including many Lymington sailors, some of whom were competing in their first open event, took the opportunity to test themselves against some of the top Tera and Feva sailors in the South.
The winds on Saturday provided ideal sailing conditions, with both sun and wind in plentiful supply, however it was not all plain sailing for everyone – Harry Stembridge's Tera Pro started taking on water on the way to the start line due to a faulty bung! Thankfully the safety team managed to bail him out in time for the start of the first race.
In the Tera Pros, Ralph Neville from Frensham Pond dominated, winning every race, but there were some close battles in the rest of the fleet. After the first day of racing, Ben Millard, Josh Roberts and Kate Wharmby all had 9 points apiece in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place, while Lymington sailors Theo Bell, Alice Wood and George Overton were also on equal points in 6th, 7th and 8th place. The conditions were not so kind on Sunday. The rather cold wind only allowed 2 races to be completed before becoming too weak to allow racing against the worst of the day's ebb tide. Racing was eventually abandoned in the early afternoon by Race Officers Roger Wilson and Jenny Wilson. This cemented Ben and Joshua's 2nd and 3rd places, with Kate finishing as top Lymington Pro sailor in 4th place overall. Harry finished 11th and Morgan Horn, another Lymington sailor finished 12th.
The winner of the RS Tera Sport fleet was Tom Ahlheid, also from Frensham Pond, who had 4 firsts, with Freddie Fishor finishing 2nd and Max Sydenham 3rd. Findlay Bignold-Kyles finished as Lymington's top sailor in the Sport Fleet in 6th place, with Henry Patten in 7th and Cameron Bignold-Kyles in 9th.
In the Fevas, the races were closely matched and the lead often changed throughout the races. Tim and Abby Hire, from Royal Lymington Yacht Club, secured 5 firsts and took first place overall, followed by Ollie Jenkins and Josh Hobbs from Hayling Island Sailing Club in 2nd and Emma Hutchings and Eliza South from Pagham Yacht Club in 3rd place. Lymington's William Homewood with Ted Ward, George Bell, sailing with Hugo Cartwright, and Isobel Roche with Minnie Rogers came home in 4th, 5th and 6th place.
The RS Tera Regatta fleet, coached by George Richards, was won by Oliver Phillips from Mudeford Sailing Club with Lymington sailors Harry West, Violet Edwards, Jack Stewart and Marcus Edwards following close behind.
Full results can be found here.