Snettisham Beach Sailing Club Sea Championships

The 2019 Sea Championships were held at Snettisham Beach SC as a joint event with the RS700 class. Nine keen Supernova sailors turned out on Saturday (a very low turn out for our class probably due to the weather forecast and the bank holiday weekend).

Due to the tide times the first race was due to start at 5:40pm on the Saturday evening with 3 races back-to-back and followed by the second day starting at 7:05am on Sunday for the remaining 3 races for the 6 race series.

After much discussion between the two fleets, Saturday evenings races were postponed until Sunday due to the average wind exceeding 30 knots with gusts of over 40, the sea state was rough making launching the boats more than a challenge.

The club was incredibly welcoming and the facilities were excellent, with an evening meal, folk band and well stocked bar we settled in for a cracking evening and early night in anticipation of the early Sunday start time.

Steve Johnson was still alive in the morning despite spending the night in his tent which the fleet had helped him to tie down to almost everything in the dinghy park.

Sunday greeted us with a cold northerly F4 wind gusting F5+, with a really big chop mixed with steep waves and deep troughs. The Supernova fleet launched without too many mishaps, Tom Baldwin kindly helped us all afloat having got kitted up to sail but deciding after a closer look that the conditions were not for him. Tony Bleasdale set sail towards the start but decided better of it leaving seven starters for the first race, with approximately thirteen accompanying RS700s.

After two laps of the trapeziod course we had 6 Supernova finishers with Andy Goodman deciding to head in before the end due to the challenging conditions. The first race was initially led by Ben Charnley an 18 year old Aero 9 sailor from Snettisham Beach closely followed by Gavin Young until Young's downwind speed allowed him to take the lead by the leeward mark. At the end of the first race the conditions proved too much and most of the fleet returned to the shore, leaving three remaining Supernova sailors. The RS700s also struggled with all but 3 sailors returning to the shore.

Race two was started in big messy waves with Charnley followed by Young and Paul Bloom, a Supernova sailor from Snettisham. Charnley rounded the windward mark in first place but was soon taken on the downwind leg by Young who was sailing much deeper.

Race three started with Charnley, Young and Bloom making a clean start. Young and Charnley fought up the first beat with Charnley picking Young off near the windward mark. Young decided to drop behind rather than get luffed head to wind; Charnley sailed deep to the leeward mark keeping a small lead and rounding the second windward mark just in front of Young. With both boats sailing deep to the final leeward mark Young was determined to play the waves taking the lead for a third time.

Everyone returned to the shore for a well earned bacon roll and cuppa.

The Supernova fleet would like to thank Snettisham for their hospitality; it was a great venue and worth considering for future events. A great big thank you to everyone that turned up for your support for this event, which was much appreciated given the forecast and holiday weekend.

Overall Results: