Despite a forecast of light winds, twelve Supernovas entered the Supernova Open at Severn Sailing Club.
Haversham Sailing Club, near Milton Keynes, made up the largest entry, with 5 boats, Severn Sailing entered 3 boats, one each from Bartley (SSC ex-member, Steve Hawley), Reading and Cotswolds SC and a “freelancer” – Ex SSC member Chris Hawley.
After a race briefing at 11am and some helpful advice about river sailing to new visitors, racing commenced at 11.30 with the wind NE, force 2. The start was split into two randomly selected flights for the first two races. The start flights of the last race was decided by the results of the first two.
The first flight included both Chris and Steve Hawley, with their local knowledge they dominated their start.
Richard Pakes (Sail No. 666), the national champion, showed early dominance in the second flight leading from the start to finish. Richard also beat Chris Hawley (707), the winner of the first flight, by about 2mins on aggregated time.
After an excellent lunch of chilli and fruit salad, racing recommenced shortly after 1pm. The starts were reversed for each flight. Once again Richard Pakes lead from the start to finish.
The second flight started with a bit of controversy as three boats came together on the start-line; only Chris Hawley was called over by the OOD, and had to re-cross the line. Not to be deterred Chris made it back to 3rd in the flight behind brother Steve (705).
The flights were re-shuffled into the leading 6 and trailing 6 for the third race. With 2 out of 3 races to count, the overall winner had already been claimed by Richard Pakes.
Grant Brown (607) had just missed the cut, putting him into the second flight, which he then won.
Final positions:
1st Richard Pakes
2nd Steve Hawley
3rd Grant Brown
4th Chris Hawley (on the same number of points as Grant)
The prizes were awarded to the winners by SSC’s Vice Commodore, Mary Dupree. The final word goes to Mary – “No Comet!”