Comet Open at Severn Sailing Club
by Keith Tunstill 9 Sep 2015 16:48 AEST
5 September 2015
Comets at Severn © Keith Tunstill
On Saturday 5th September Severn Sailing Club hosted their annual Comet Open meeting. 10 visitors joined a home fleet of 8 to make a busy day on the River Avon. Race Officer Alan Utteridge devised a cunning plan of dividing the fleet between two different start lines (red and green fleets) on the same course so all boats could start at the same time without an overcrowded startline.
For race 1 the fleet were greeted with a pleasant F2, on the 'red fleet' start line local junior sailor Chris Hatton (Severn SC) lead the way closely followed by Ian Coppenhall (Hunts SC). The red fleet lead throughout and by the end experience won through as the race was won by Ian Coppenhall with Chris Hatton in second and Bob Dodds (Crawley Mariners SC) in third.
Following an excellent lunch the wind had dropped to a gentle F1 but at least the sun had come out! Race 2 was again closely fought, Mark Coppenhall (Severn SC) took first place just a few seconds ahead of his brother Ian Coppenhall, Eddie Pope (Ogston SC) was third.
For Race 3, with the winds still very light, the fleets were re-ordered so the top 9 sailors were racing directly against each other. However due to missing the morning race this left Dave Harris (Severn SC) in the unusual position of being in the slow fleet, he was able to make the best of the clear winds this gave him to win race 3, followed by Ian Coppenhall (Hunts SC) in second and Bob Dodds (Crawley Mariners SC) in third.
Overall Results:
1st Ian Coppenhall (Hunts SC)
2nd Mark Coppenhall (Severn SC)
3rd Chris Hatton (Severn SC)