Supernova Open at Haversham Sailing Club

Haversham SC near Milton Keynes has the largest fleet of Supernovas in the country and 18 visitors joined 19 home boats to once again make this Open one of the big ones in the Supernova calendar. Two new Hartley MK2's had their 1st competitive outings.

It was a warm bright day with a gentle F2, but the direction meant a tricky day ahead for PRO John Butler.

Race 1 was a case in point. Paul Earnshaw started near the favoured end of the line, and while others tacked off, some clear wind and a favourable shift saw him lead to the 1st mark and the first six boats popped out from the mark before the inevitable melee – that was a recurring theme of the day - ensued at the mark. The wind refused to settle down, reaches became beats and beats became fetches. But clear air was king and breaking out of the peloton wasn't going to be easy all day. Paul held on as best he could but the the leading pack included current National champ Richard Pakes and his son – club Laser hot shot – Jonathan sailing his dads Nationals winning MK2 and they got past him with father taking line honours from son after much to-ing and fro-ing.

After a hearty lunch and sailing out to race 2 the wind seemed to have made a big shift but the PRO stuck with it and right on cue as the race was just about to start, the wind swung back to give the truest beat of the day. This had caught a few out but not Jonathan who got out in front and stayed out in front with Dad in 2nd. The practising that Phil East had been doing all week had paid off to good effect as he added a 3rd to a 5th in the 1st race. Chris Hawley in 6th was the 1st non-Haversham boat. Chris has been going well really well this year and was promoted to the Gold fleet at the Inland champs.

Race 3 was sailed back to back and the wind was less settled and had started to go down. There were quite a few pushing the line which saw the days 1st OCS. This was the discard race for a number of the leaders and Chris Hawley took his chance opening up an impressive lead that was never going to be caught. Current Inland champ, Mike Gibson at last managed to extricate himself from the pack to show his normal form to come in 2nd. Special mention to Mark Ellard (Mid-Warwickshire) who obviously found the even lighter stuff to his liking and showed some astonishing off-wind speed towards the end to finish 5th.

There was a good selection of prizes both to the winners and and with some generous spot prizes.

The class now moves onto Bolton SC on 18th September who kindly stepped in at the last minute after Combs SC had to withdraw because of lack of water.

Overall Results: