Hartley Boats 2026 Supernova National Championship at Filey Sailing Club

Fleet launching during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey © Nigel Osbourne

A great turnout of 60 Supernovas ventured to Filey Sailing Club for the 30th Anniversary National Championship. We were welcomed by warm 22 degrees sunshine, a welcome break for those who travelled up from the South, and the hosts did an amazing job of getting all the boats down the very steep access road to the beach either side of the high tide, setting up the weekend for three great days of racing.

Unfortunately, Friday racing was cancelled after launching and drifting around the bay into the early afternoon but with the forecast sea breeze not looking like it was going to arrive anytime soon, the fleet got sent back to shore. The main highlight was watching a past National Champion leading the way into the beach to be greeted by a surprisingly vicious beach break, and then promptly falling out backwards into the surf sending the boat onto the beach. Filey SC hosted a great Pie and Peas evening, and the Supernovas sailors attempted to repay the hospitality by trying to drink the club dry.

On a sunny Saturday Ian Kelly, the RO put on 5 races to get us back on track in what we all assumed would be a lovely f2/3 breeze, how wrong could we be...

Race 1

Light 8 knots and a persisted righthand shift meant Sam Knight and Cliff Milliner went overlapped around the windward mark and off down the triangle-sausage course. The trailing pack of Hawley and Young followed closely at the leeward mark and they all tacked away except Milliner who hung out further right looking for the same shift as the first leg. This move gave Milliner the win from Knight and Richard Lambert from the Gold fleet.

Reach during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Tony Bleasdale

Race 2

A sign of things to come the wind built rapidly to 15knts with big gusts rolling across the bay as the see breeze started to fill in. The bigger sailors started early and used their upwind speed to pull away up the first beat, with Tom White, Sean Ricketts, Chris Webber and Gavin Young all in the front bunch. Young snuck into second with some good downwind wave surfing and it was a drag race out to the right. Webber showed some great speed to take the lead from Tom White and Will Crocker.

Race 3

With the wind still building, the race was going very similar to the first, with Webber setting the pace as the first boat out of the gate start and Crocker punching out the middle. The first leg of the triangle was a lovely set reach to blast along and once the top few had gybed at the mark, the wind suddenly switched off. Young spotted it had turned into a beat and popped out into the lead and Milliner followed out to the left, with the early leaders Crocker, Webber, Knight, White left wallowing on the right. As the wind filled back in from the left Milliner benefitted most and reached into the bottom mark, and despite the RO moving the top mark it became a fetch and follow my leader to the finish with Milliner taking the win from Young and Webber.

Leeward mark rounding during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Tony Bleasdale

Race 4

As the wind continued to build it took 3 attempts to get the Gate start away successfully with boats capsizing in the way of the pathfinder as they tried to get under the line. Chris 'one arm' Hawley eventually got us away as stand in path finder and when released, continued directly to the beach for an early ice cream. The safety boat team was kept busy with boats capsizing all over the place, but for the most, there was some great reaches and hair-raising runs, to offset the slog up the beat in a building short, sharp chop. Ricketts pulled out upwind to win with White and Crocker following.

Race 5

Most were surprised that the RO went ahead with Race 5 as by now it was blowing dogs off chains, but the saving grace was the wind felt like a rocket propelled hair dryer as it blasted across the bay. The second reach was just epic as Young blasted past Milliner nose diving to join the front bunch of Sean, White, and Webber all trying not to turn into submarines in the sharp chop. The final run was survival conditions, and the gybe to the finish caused trouble at the front, as first Webber, then White capsized and Young struggled to get the bear away completed, leaving Ricketts with a comfortable lead to tiptoe to the finish ahead of Webber and Crocker.

Reach during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Tony Bleasdale

Only 2 points covered the top 4 sailors overnight showing how close the racing was. The age variety and weight range of the leaders is a testament to the versatility of the excellent Supernova One Design. Later Saturday evening the fleet had a wonderful meal at the Bay View Restaurant, with speeches from Class luminaries, and great raffle prizes, including a new mainsail, from sponsor and Supernova builder Hartley Boats.

Sunday was sunny and looked no less windy, but now blowing off shore creating many big shifts and holes. Luckily the wind dropped to a nice 10-14kts and the RO managed to squeeze in 3 short races, to ensure we could get off the beach before the tide came in.

Launching during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Tony Bleasdale

Race 6

A clean start from the fleet meant a tight first beat back towards the beach. Choosing the right shifts to tack on was key with Ricketts and White leading in from the left, with Knight and Milliner caught out on the wrong side of the final shift into the mark. Milliner turned on the downwind after burners to go from 8th to 2nd, but it was Ricketts who picked the beat correctly to take the lead at the top and hold onto the win from Knight and Milliner.

Race 7

Those early out of the gate struggled for pressure, with Ollie Crocker looking great in the middle of the course but a shift from the Gods blowing off the beach brought the late starters in from the righthand corner, reaching into the top mark with a big whoop of joy from Duncan Chesher. That shuffled the pack and produced lots of jostling for position at the marks, but it was Crocker who picked the left side of the beat to take the lead at the top and hold onto the win from Webber and Milliner.

Windward mark rounding during the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Tony Bleasdale

Race 8

With the scores now very tight at the front, it was all to play for in the last race of the event. With a building wind and Ricketts showing great upwind speed as gate boat, it meant a hard choice of go early to play the shifts or late to let Ricketts do some of the hard work for you. White and Thursfield lead the way to the left with most of the top contenders. A big right shift meant as Ricketts was released by the Gate boat he could fetch to the mark and a mistake by the guard boat left the late starters struggling to get around the pin end of the line, which left Milliner almost last at the windward mark. With White and Thursfield leading the fleet the chase was on and Milliner pulled back to 8th, Crocker capsized at the last gybe mark and the race win went to White from Thursfield and Mike Critchley. After an interesting protest against the Race committee for the Gate boat infringement, sportsmanship prevailed and the race results stood as scored and Milliner got redress. This gave Tom White the Championship win from Cliff Milliner by just 0.7 points with Will Crockler in 3rd.

After racing, Filey Sailing Club, nestled above the beach on the cliff, hosted a great prize-giving, and the Supernova Class Association and all the sailors thanked them for hosting such a welcoming event. Prizes were awarded to all the categories as below.

Tony Bleasdale (left) Class Chair and Tom White, Champion at the 2026 Supernova Nationals at Filey - photo © Sally Bleasdale

Platinum Fleet
1st Tom White - Olton Mere Sailing Club
2nd Cliff Milliner - Cotswold Sailing Club
3rd Will Crocker - North Lincs and Humberside Sailing Club
4th Chris Webber - Paignton Sailing Club
5th Sean Ricketts - Bartley Sailing Club

Gold Fleet
1st Richard Lambert - Bough Beech Sailing Club
2nd Ollie Crocker - Cotswold SC
3rd Corin Bamford - Bolton SC

Silver Fleet
1st Richard Brameld - Beaver Sailing Club
2nd David Batchelor - Isle of Man SC
3rd Andrew Gomm - Ogston SC

Bronze Fleet
1st Jon Aldhous - Beaver Sailing Club
2nd David Bartholomew - Bolton SC
3rd Martin Kirkham - Beaver SC

1st Lady Samantha Bunn Blithfield Sailing Club

Team Prize - Cotswold Sailing Club

Overall Results:
If you finished in the top ten at the Supernova nationals then enter your Gear Guide information