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Carey Olsen Jersey Regatta 2024

Comet Open at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

by Alan Bennett 16 Oct 2023 11:03 BST 14 October 2023
Staunton Harold Comet Open © Matt Smith

The final Comet Open of the year was held on a sunny, chilly day with good westerly wind forecast. It was a joint event with 7 Solos. As well as Midland based helms, it was good to see other visitors from South Wales, Reading, Bristol and Devon. There were seven home boats, twelve visitors and it was good to see four ladies on the water.

In race 1 the line had a heavily port biased line as the wind was shifting a lot and it was best to tack as soon as possible.This course had 3 beats, 2 reaches and a long run. Nigel Austin 875 (Cransley) was first to the windward mark closely followed by home sailor Alan Bennett 126. Close behind were Ben Palmer 597 (Baltic Wharf Bristol), Eddie Pope 377 (Ogston Derbyshire) and Dave Turtle 815 (Shustoke).

Alan managed to get past Nigel at the second windward mark going onto the long run. Dave worked his way through and was on the tail of Alan going down the run on the second lap, managing to get past him at the end. These two pulled away with Eddie managing a good 3rd and Nigel 4th. Nigel Fern (SHSC) got a great result in 7th with which he was highly delighted! The wind was a lovely F3 with F4 gusts so planing was occurring!

Race 2 after lunch had 2 beats, 2 reaches and a long run. The temperature had gone up as had the wind F3.2 and gusts F4.3 generally. Chris Robinson 867 (Burghfield) was first to the windward mark followed by Alan, and this held for the first half of the race. During the second half of the race what was a long beat turned into a fetch with a strength drop. Boats behind, more by luck than judgement, were able to sail around the 2 leaders. Chris held on to second, Eddie won with Dave third, then Ben, Nigel and Alan.

There were 4 boats who could win the event going into the last race. The wind went up a notch now to F3.2 to F4.7 with many sailors deciding to retire and pack up early for their trip home.

The course stayed the same with very close racing between Dave, Eddie and Chris with them finishing in that order, which happened to be the same as the overall result! Ben was 4th, Nigel 5th, Becky Priest 6th, and Alan 7th.

A good day was had by all so thanks to the club, race team, catering, safety and Matt Smith for the pictures.

Overall Results:

PosFleetSail NoHelmClubR1R2R3Pts
1stWhite Xtra815Dave TurtleShustoke SC1‑312
2ndWhite Xtra377Eddie PopeOgston SC‑3123
3rdStandard867Chris RobinsonBurghfield SC‑6235
4thWhite Xtra126Alan BennettStaunton Harold SC26‑78
5thStandard597Ben PalmerBaltic Wharf SC‑5448
6thWhite Xtra875Nigel AustinCransley SC4‑559
7thXtra683Becky PriestStaunton Harold SC‑108614
8thWhite Xtra311Steve BellamyWinsford Flash SC‑87815
9thWhite Xtra845Nigel FernStaunton Harold SC711(DNC)18
10thWhite Xtra864Peter MountfordStaunton Harold SC99‑1018
11thWhite Xtra694Alun BevanMerthyr Tydfil Sailing Club11‑13920
12thWhite Xtra705Martin LoudWinsford Flash SC12‑151123
13thWhite Xtra688Richard BarnettStaunton Harold SC‑14121224
14thWhite Xtra849Timothy HiggsBurghfield SC1610(DNC)26
15thWhite Xtra835Sue JonesNottingham SC1314(DNC)27
16thWhite Xtra527David WaymontStaunton Harold SC1517(DNC)32
17thWhite Xtra740Steve BoudStaunton Harold SC1716(DNC)33
18thWhite Xtra835TBANottingham SC(DNF)18DNC38
19thStandard351Ellie KirkwoodNottingham Sailing Club(DNF)DNCDNC40

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