Supernova Open at Dalgety Bay Sailing Club

Dalgety Bay Supernova Open © Dalgety Bay SC

A fleet of eight Supernovas converged on Dalgety Bay Sailing Club, Fife, in the shadow of the Forth Road Bridge for the final stage in the Optimal Scottish Supernova Cup.

Plenty of wind was coming in from the South on day 1, accompanied by a reasonable swell. Unfortunately, catastrophic boat failure (rudder fell off) between the slipway and the race course ended Jonny Archer's hopes on day 1, but a quick trip off to buy some epoxy and a Saturday night garage session left him ready to race on day 2.

Jonny wasn't the only sailor to miss the start of race one, but he was the only one with a decent excuse - failure to read the SIs meant that a few boats crossed the line very late!

Andy MacDonald was one, but then set to work chasing down Calum Robertson and Walter McDonald, who had read the SIs. Chasing Calum proved a bad choice, as they both subsequently went the wrong way allowing Walter to claim the win.

A long pause before race 2, whilst the course was reset, allowed all sailors to familiarise themselves with the starting sequence resulting in a much busier start line for race 2.

Little separated the fleet on the first beat, with Calum and Andy again fighting it out at the front. A mistake whilst tacking from Andy let Calum get away, and he finished with the win. Further back, the rest of the fleet were never far from one another, with Gordon Dickson demonstrating that the old style small rig can still be very competitive when the wind picks up.

Calum and Andy set the standard at the front of the fleet again in race 3, but this time Andy came out on top.

Simon McGillvray had a great start, making gains out to the right hand side of the course on the first beat. David van Rooyen and Simon Rogers were neck and neck before they both made errors on the final beat, and David sneaked through for another third place (his third of the day).

After a wet night, day 2 saw lighter winds and glorious Scottish sunshine for a further three races. Andy and Calum dominated the leaderboard again with one and two wins respectively and not much more than a boat length between them in any of the races.

Jonny Archer made up for lost time with some competitive racing in his first Supernova event, and a very tight battle ensued between Jonny, Simon M, and Gordon with no more than seconds between them at the end of race 4.

Race 5 saw very close racing between Walter, Simon R and David until a penalty took Simon R out of the mix and Walter got the better of David to take third.

In the final race, Orlagh MacDonald took Simon R's boat for a spin and there was a very close battle between the mark 1 Supernovas. After not noticing the start of race 4, Jonny had a point to prove and got away fast, leading a very close Mark 1 fleet at the windward mark. Orlagh got back into the lead on the downwind leg but Jonny was able to surf past on the reach, with Simon M, Gordon, and Walter in hot pursuit. Unfortunately for Jonny, Orlagh did a better job of the final mark rounding and sneaked in for fourth.

Final results over the six races was another event victory for Calum, second for Andy and third for David.

All that was left was to tot up the series results - after 17 races (13 to count) across four locations the Optimal Scottish Supernova cup was won by Calum Robertson, with a very impressive total of 17, including 10 wins!

Overall Results: