GP14 Southern Travellers Series concludes at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

Close racing during the GP14 Southern Travellers at Frensham © Barney Hall

On Sunday 9th October six visiting teams from Wembley SC, Welsh Harp SC and Papercourt SC joined six local boats at Frensham Pond SC for the traditional end to the GP14 Southern Travellers series which includes ten different opens in varying conditions and locations around the south and east of the UK.

The 24 GP sailors were met by bacon butties, blue skies and a flat calm but with a forecast of a developing breeze boats were rigged and bang on cue Race Officer Paul Schroder got the fleet away in a 6 to 10 knot southerly which is always a challenging wind direction at Frensham with wind tending to swing SSW or SSE. First to the Mark was Maurice Cheal and Adeel Khan (Wembley/Welsh Harp) closely followed by James Ward/Richard Whitehill from Papercourt and Charlie Cotter/Sue Tompkins (Welsh Harp). These three got away from the chasing pack led by Tomasz Szakola/Lucy Street (Welsh Harp), David Innes/John McGuinness (Frensham), Magic M/Roger Jeffs and Jamie Isles/Quentin Drain (All Welsh Harp). With Magic and Roger coming through to take fourth from Tomasz and Lucy and Jamie and Quentin the fleet finished the first race in a stuttering breeze and headed in for lunch.

Concentration during the GP14 Southern Travellers at Frensham - photo © Barney Hall

After sarcastic comments from the club race and safety team, Frensham Class captain Jon Denyer gave the Frensham sailors a good talking to, pointing out that the current score was Visitors 6 Frensham 0 and that sailing socks needed to be picked up quickly. David and John were clearly listening as they hit the Committee boat end cleanly in the second race and taking advantage of a SSE shift, got to the windward mark first with Maurice/Adeel second with a large gap to the chasing pack. Maurice/Adeel hunted hard and took the lead on the short windward hitch and covered David and John to the finish to secure first place overall. Magic and Roger came through to take third on the line from Charlie and Sue who were clearly enjoying the lightish conditions with equal second position overall after two races.

Head out of the boat during the GP14 Southern Travellers at Frensham - photo © Barney Hall

In a carbon copy of the second race David and John came through a shifty first beat to reach the windward mark first closely followed by Maurice and Adeel but this time with the chasing pack much closer. The racing remained tight through the race with Bruce Craven/Stuart Duckworth and David Youll/John Harley (All Frensham) showing at the front of the chasing pack. With Maurice and Adeel coming through again to take their third bullet of the day David and John took second overall with Magic and Roger just taking third from Charlie and Sue with David Youll and John Hartley taking 5th overall in their new Butler Composites boat to bring the final scores to Visitors 4 Frensham 2.

Overall Results:

The 2022 prizes for the Southern Travellers were awarded as follows:

• 1st Maurice Cheal / Adeel Khan et al (Wembley and Welsh Harp SC)
• 2nd Steve Cooper and Lucy Barrie (Welsh Harp SC)
• 3rd David Innes and John McGuinness (Frensham Pond SC)
• Jaldi Cup for New Travellers: Charlie Cotter and Sue Tompkins (Welsh Harp SC)

The silverware during the GP14 Southern Travellers at Frensham - photo © Barney Hall