Comet Open at Staunton Harold Sailing Club
by Alan Bennett, SHSC 24 Oct 2011 08:05 BST
22 October 2011
Comets at Staunton Harold © Alan Bennett
Nine SHSC boats and 15 visitors from as far afield as Littleton, Beer, Tewkesbury and Winsford met for the final Comet Open of 2011.
The forecast was for southerly 14-15 mph which is what they got by launch time.
In race one it was very close at the first windward mark between the first four boats being Eddie Pope, Jonathan Latham, Nigel Pepperdine and Alan Bennett. Eddie and Jonathan went wide at the second mark not sure where mark three was. Nigel went high on the reach but capsized when he tacked after rounding mark three.
Eddie then lead for the rest of the race extending to a comfortable gap. Mark Coppenhall made his way into fourth later in the race but did a death roll on the final run to the finish losing two places to come in sixth.
Jonathan Latham was second, new National Champion Chris Robinson third, and Nigel fourth.
After lunch the wind was still up and with a port biased line Alan tacked off and led for nearly two laps. His pursuers closed in and passed him by the end with Jonathan getting the win this time followed by Mark and then Eddie.
With the winner still to be decided the final race was very crowded at the first mark but Alan made his way into the lead holding on for two laps. This time he was only passed by Mark with Eddie again third.
Mark and Jonathan each had a first and a second but as Mark won the last race this made him the winner.
There followed presentation of the event prizes and also the regional travellers trophies organised by the Comet Class Association.
Overall Results:
1st Mark Coppenhall, 427 (Hunts SC)
2nd Jonathan Latham, 349 (Winsford Flash SC)
3rd Eddie Pope, 804 (Ogston SC)
1st Lady, Hellen Leivers, 857 (Severn SC)