Supernova Inlands at Northampton Sailing Club

by Barry Winter 27 Aug 2010 09:02 BST 21-22 August 2010

Supernova Inlands at Northampton © Richard Craig / www.sailpics.co.uk

The Supernova Inland Championships supported by Hartley Laminates and Noble Marine Insurance were held at Northampton SC for the 2nd year running over the weekend of 21st/22nd August. Once again sharing the event with that other great Mark Giles boat the Lightning, holding their National Championships and enjoying a bumper turnout.

36 Supernova helms from 17 clubs turned out for what turned out to be a weekend of three halves. Race 1 was held in an excellent F3-F4 and current National Champion Richard Pakes (Haversham) – who isn’t always the best of starters - got a flyer, too good in fact and with the “I” flag flying all weekend it was off around the ends leaving ex-local Phil East (Haversham) to lead into the windward mark. That didn’t last too long as he was swallowed up by the off wind speed merchants. It was tight between Mike Gibson (Bartley), Cliff Milliner (Cotswold) and Ian Morgan (Weston - upgrading to the father-in-laws Supernova from a Laser for the weekend) who scrapped it out before Ian Morgan suddenly found another gear off-wind towards then end and won by a somewhat worrying margin.

Over lunch the weather aligned itself with the WindGuru forecast and it got windy. The gusts were big and during race 2 the shoreline resembled an F1 garage as gear failure caught some of the main contenders from Race 1 out. It was Phil East again 1st to the windward mark but it was staying in the boat rather than boat speed that was the problem this time. In these sort of conditions Richard Pakes and Mike Gibson excel and it was nip and tuck between these two before Richard won with Paul Undrell (Haversham) keeping it under control and finishing 3rd.

A somewhat depleted fleet (good news for those needing spares from race 2!) started race 3 and Richard Pakes took a fantastic port end flyer which despite hard chasing from Mike Gibson and a pit-stopped Ian Morgan never saw him headed.

A hard day's sailing, a hearty meal from Northampton SC and ample libation meant a sound nights sleep for most as the rain tumbled down, the wind flapped and the thunder rattled around.

A firm pinch was required waking up on Sunday morning to blue skies and no noise from the trees surrounding the camping enclave. The only resemblance to the day before was the location. Away with the wetsuits and spray jackets and on with the shorts, sun-cream and tee-shirts. It was a patchy F1-F2 and very very shifty.

Cliff Milliner likes the light tricky stuff he picked the right shifts, showed great downwind speed and tactics and won race one on Sunday from the versatile Mike Gibson with Ian Morgan in 3rd. Race 2 seemd to have general recall written all over if but that wasn't the way the ref saw it so off we went. By now it was even shiftier and streakier, left seem to be paying unless it was right. There was quite a lot of shuffling in the pack and big movements up and down the fleet could be had. Again though it was Cliff Millliner who found the right way through with the Hawley brothers (Chris and Steve – Severn) taking 2nd and 3rd.

Two helms had won two races, but it was consistency that counted and with no worse result that 4th the top two wre a repeat of last year – only with a little more daylight between them with Mike Gibson retaining the Inland Champs from Cliff Milliner with Ian Morgan in 3rd.

Many thanks to Northampton SC for once again hosting a well run event and understanding the simple needs of dinghy sailors and in particular thanks to the lovely lady in the galley (sorry I can't remember your name!) who gave up a day's holiday to ensure that weight loss was never going to be an issue.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1st	687	Mike Gibson	Bartley SC	2	2	2	2	-4	8
2nd	684	Cliff Milliner	Cotswold SC	3	(DNF)	7	1	1	12
3rd	704	Ian Morgan	Weston SC	1	(DNC)	3	3	5	12
4th	707	Chris Hawley	Severn	4	8	-13	4	2	18
5th	666	Richard Pakes	Haversham SC	7	1	1	12	(DNF)	21
6th	705	Stephen Hawley	Severn	-16	7	10	7	3	27
7th	525	Anthony Critchley	Bolton SC	8	4	-9	9	6	27
8th	528	Phil East	Haversham SC	5	5	8	11	-17	29
9th	690	Paul Undrell	Haversham SC	13	3	4	-15	13	33
10th	703	Paul Earnshaw	Haversham	6	6	(DNC)	10	12	34
11th	699	Ian Moodie	Bolton SC	10	13	-14	6	9	38
12th	578	Paul Thompson	Combs	18	9	5	-21	7	39
13th	686	Kerry Morgan	Weston SC	9	14	11	-24	10	44
14th	464	Barry Winter	Haversham SC	15	(DNF)	15	8	15	53
15th	557	Andy Gould	Cotswold SC	12	10	12	23	-24	57
16th	1014	David Everett	West Oxfordshire SC	17	11	6	26	-27	60
17th	1011	Sam Hood	Cotswold SC	-30	17	16	19	11	63
18th	569	Jeff Mountain	Cotswold SC	11	(DNC)	DNC	5	18	71
19th	576	Helen Brittan	Bolton SC	21	(DNF)	17	13	29	80
20th	483	Ian Casewell	Black Swan SC	24	(DNF)	DNF	14	8	83
21st	711	Chris Watts	Bough Beech SC	19	15	(DNF)	28	21	83
22nd	702	John Carrington	Papercourt SC	20	12	18	(DNC)	DNC	87
23rd	706	Mark Mason	West Oxfordshire SC	14	(DNF)	DNC	16	22	89
24th	539	R Pyett	Combs	22	(DNF)	DNC	18	16	93
25th	639	Patrick Rohart	Haversham SC	23	19	(DNF)	30	25	97
26th	478	Mike Malcolm	HSC	25	16	(DNF)	29	28	98
27th	641	Keith Rix	Chipstead SC	27	(DNF)	DNC	27	14	105
28th	618	Phil Davies	Scammonden Water SC	31	18	(DNF)	34	23	106
29th	457	Ray Goult	Northampton SC	32	(DNF)	DNC	22	20	111
30th	1007	Steve Swain	Haversham SC	29	(DNF)	DNC	20	26	112
31st	581	Mark Ellard	Mid Warks YC	26	(DNF)	DNC	31	19	113
32nd	536	Lesley Jeanes	CSC	28	(DNF)	DNC	17	DNF	119
33rd	696	Keith Roberts	Bolton SC	34	(DNF)	DNC	25	31	127
34th	682	Janet Thompson	Haversham SC	35	(DNF)	DNC	32	30	134
35th	597	Don Appleton	Wigan SC	33	(DNF)	DNF	33	32	135
36th	422	Mike Hall	Draycote	(DNF)	DNC	DNC	35	DNF	146