GP14 Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

by David Innes 14 Oct 2020 16:22 BST 11 October 2020

The annual GP14 Open meeting was held at Frensham on Sunday 11th October in a fairly steady Force 3-4 Northerly. Because of cancelled events earlier in the year the event was shared with Enterprises and Larks.

Eleven GP14s attended with 33 boats overall all of whom had to pre-book on the event website page, which also included the club's Covid plan, Risk Assessment, video briefings and other event information. The club carefully managed risks with Meet & Greet briefings, separate launching areas with Marshalls monitoring launching and rigging. The club appointed an Event Safety Officer for the day who worked together with the club's Duty Officer Jon Denyer to manage all aspects of risk.

Race Officer Keith Videlo, supported by Rebecca and Charlotte Videlo, ran three races back to back to remove the risks of people congregating on shore over lunch. With a northerly Keith set a standard Frensham course with two beats, a run and two reaches and the buoys set as carefully as possible to minimize interactions between the fleets.

All three races used committee boat starts with a well-set line to spread the fleet. The first race was led by Bryan Taylor and Andrew Todd from Frensham pursued by Richard Harding and Simon Lomas Clarke (Frensham), Richard Ham and Charlie Cotter (Tollesbury / Welsh Harp) and Paul Trubridge & Robert Harmer (Frensham). Ham & Cotter came through to take second behind Taylor and Toddy with Harding & Lomas-Clarke taking third.

In the second race Harding led all the way in his first GP14 open since 2007 pursued by Andy Wadsworth & Cathy Howard from Welsh Harp in second. Ham & Cotter came through to take second with Taylor & Toddy taking fourth. With the lead finely balanced with three boas in the hunt Harding & Lomas Clarke got of to a bad start hitting the Committee Boat letting Taylor and Toddy away to lead the race and take first overall.

Special mention to Hannah Carruthers(15) taking 7th overall in her first GP14 Open Meeting.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	13864	Bryan Taylor	Andrew Todd	FPSC	1	‑4	1	2
2nd	14020	Richard Harding	Simon Lomas Clarke	FPSC	3	1	‑4	4
3rd	14166	Richard Ham	Charlie Cotter	Welsh Harp	‑2	2	2	4
4th	14157	Paul Trubridge	Robert Harmer	FPSC	4	‑8	3	7
5th	14234	David Innes	Wendy Innes	FPSC	5	5	(DNC)	10
6th	14014	Andy Wadsworth	Cathy Howard	Welsh Harp SC	‑10	3	8	11
7th	13502	Hannah Carruthers	Neil Carruthers	FPSC	‑7	6	5	11
8th	14180	David Youll	Kathryn Youll	FPSC	‑8	7	7	14
9th	14163	Bruce Craven	Tim Farnell‑Watson	FPSC	‑9	9	6	15
10th	55	Nicholas Morgan	Jas Mudhar	FPSC	6	11	(DNF)	17
11th	14265	Kate Whyatt	John McGuinness	FPSC	‑11	10	9	19