Portchester Sailing Club Supercup - Overall
by Alex Powell 1 Oct 2014 14:49 BST
28 September 2014
Sunday 28th Sept saw the conclusion of the PSC Supercup series sponsored by Flew Sails. The Supercup comprises of racing over 4 Sundays during the season with 2 short races per day.
The forecast was set to be warm and sunny and fortunately for the fleet the wind there was also a pleasant force 2 which allowed for some fun racing.
A short windward/leeward course was set and the first warning signal was sounded at 1325 from the committee boat. With a slight pin end bias, there was a good spread of boats along the line. Ivan Burden and Alex Lester in their RS400 got to the windward mark in first position, closely followed by the 3 other RS400. Unusually Paul Oakey was at the back of the bunch but could the others keep him there? Some extremely tight and entertaining racing ensued with lots of place changes, only being resolved after a lapse in concentration by I. Burden, almost resulted in a collision with a very startled Brian Beavis who was leading the race at the time. This allowed team Oakey to slip past and take the lead, which they held until the end. Further back there was an equally tight battle between the 3 leading Solos with Roger Kenchington revelling in the conditions and finally stamping his authority on the others. The final result was team Oakey 1st, Kenchington 2nd and Neil Burden in his Solo 3rd.
After a quick course adjustment the second race got underway. I Burden got a fantastic Port hand start and looked set to take an impressive lead on the race but the whirly team Oakey used their joker card and headed for the far shore and came out in the lead giving them a relatively comfortable race win. Mark Flew in his Solo was up and down the fleet more times than a brides nightie and made some impressive tactical recoveries but after a controversial leeward mark rounding with N. Burdent wards the end fo the race, was forced to do turns dropping him back down the fleet. This allowed Kenchington to take the lead and with only a lap to go and a wind shift that turned the beat into a fetch, was able to take his second Solo 1st and another 2nd overall. Third place went to I. Burden.
In the overall standings, the strong performance from Kenchington allowed him to move up the leader board to take 2nd overall, but it wasn't quite enough to get 1st which went to Alex Powell sailing his Solo. 3rd place went to N. Burden.
Full results can be found on the results page of the Portchester Sailing Club website.
Our thanks go to Flew Sails for their continued support of this great event.
Prize giving will follow after the last race of the season, the Rum Run, in 2 weeks time.