25 Supernovas entered the 2007 Sea Championships, hosted by Fishguard Bay Yacht Club. Much preparation had gone into planning this year’s event.

The majority of competitors met on the Friday evening for a meal at a local hotel, several had already acquainted themselves with various local hostelries.

On the Saturday morning with registrations done by10.30am, the Commodore welcomed the fleet and the race officer carried the briefing.

The Supernova’s went afloat together with a small fleet of Lightenings to the sailing area. Conditions were fairly light, although there was quite a bit of swell. The course was set as an inverted P, which was then used for all races.

Flags went up, sound signals were made and the first race seemed to start in some confusion as the boats appeared to cross the line early. Pauline Buzzard thought she had made the perfect start, however a general recall was declared and the boats slowly returned to re-start. At the second time of asking the first race started. There were plenty of shifts in the breeze to test everyone on the first beat. The lead seemed to be changing all the time, but it was Adrian Hollier and sea sailor Geoff Richards who took control. Paul Ernshaw, Mark Hartley and Geoff Birch were also making good progress. It was Adrian Hollier who finished first, Paul Ernshaw and Geoff Richards third.

The second race saw Mark Giles, Neil Boneham and Mike Gibson at the front together with Adrian Hollier. This group were closely followed by Bruce(Ian) Howett, Geoff Richards and Geoff Birch. Hollier, Giles and Gibson opened up a bit of a lead and finished in that order just squeezing out Neil Bonham.

The third of the back to back races for the day started at the same time as the Lightenings were finishing which caused some Supernova some difficulty in clearing the start line. Mike Gibson lead, hotly pursued by Richard Pakes. Again Bruce Howett was consistently in the leading group. Mike Gibson managed to get clear of Richard Pakes only for Mark Hartley to make a challenge for the lead. On the final run in to the finishing line Mark Hartley took and maintained the lead. Mike Gibson was second and Bruce Howett third.

Three races sailed out of the planned five and the leaders were closely grouped, with no discards taken into account.

The Saturday evening in the club house gave everyone a chance to relax and talk about the day’s events and the forecasts for the following day.

Sunday morning saw totally different conditions; strong northerly winds, heavy rain and a very rough sea. It was doubtful if racing would take place, even if launching was possible.

Unfortunately a decision had to be made and that was that it wasn’t safe to go out and racing was abandoned.

This meant that with regards to the results that all three racing results would have to count, rewarding the consistent competitors who had not necessarily won any of the individual races.

Overall Results:

Full Results