10 Rater Open at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

10 Raters at Frensham Pond © Nick Royse

This is the first time Frensham Pond Sailing Club have run a 10 Rater Open Meeting. It was therefore very rewarding to have an entry of nine sailors making the journey to Frensham to take part in the event at our beautiful location.

A beautiful tankard had been donated by Paul Brook as the prize for the event. The whole day was sunny with a light, predominately easterly breeze and everyone had a great deal of fun sailing the 13 races that were completed in the four hours of racing time.

Nick Royse, as RO ably assisted by Peter Martin and Bryan Stitchbury set a simple windward leeward course with separate start and finish lines. Nick set an array of buoys at the windward end of the course to enable the windward leg to be varied in angle to accommodate the wind variations. There were plenty of these throughout the day, but generally this ploy was successful.

The breeze was light, perhaps no more than 7mph, but briefly some races became "drifters" as the wind tried to reverse in direction. Predominately the wind was from between the north east and an easterly directions. Regardless of what the wind was doing the same skippers seemed to show their skills to good effect.

Sailing his Defector consistently near the front of the fleet, Roger Pearce won the event. However equal on points and only separated on count back was Roger Stollery sailing his Marblehead Uproar, with an uprated 10 Rater rig. Colin Harper sailing his Blade IV sailed well for third place but could not find the consistency of the leaders.

Other notable aspects were the appearance of the prototype Frenetic design from the Peter Mitchell yard. Peter was sailing his first designed 10 Rater, Boubloon, and was a close fourth behind Colin. His new design showed great pace off-wind, but with sails that looked more like a pillow case, was unable to perform upwind.

The results and prize giving took place in the club house whilst tea and cakes were consumed. This midweek event was considered to be a success, and it is hoped that Frensham Pond Sailing Club Sailing Club MYG will repeat the event next year.

Overall Results: