22 Comets competed in the
2010 Staunton Harold SC Open meeting, 9 of the boats being from the host club.
3 races were run during the day, the first in a moderate breeze in sunny conditions where SHSC’s Alan Bennett moved into an unassailable lead from
start to the finish with Eddie Pope from
The lengthy second race was
run under overcast skies with less wind at times, sharing the course with the
SHSC club fleet who went away first but in these
conditions the Comet is fast and the leaders caught the back of the Club
fleets. Nigel Pepperdine from SHSC romped home to win
from Alan Bennett in second and although Brian Welham
held a solid third until the last beat,
a favourable wind shift took Eddie Pope into third and Henry Jaggers into forth relegating Brian to fifth place.
The third race saw
conditions lighten with the four possible event winners in the leading
group. The race was lead by Brian Welham with Eddie Pope and Alan Bennett nipping at his
heals. Nigel Pepperdine was fifth at this time. At
the second mark, the leading Comets caught some club racers and in the melee
Eddie passed Brian with Alan very close behind him. However, by the time they reached this mark
on the next lap Brian had regained the lead and Alan had overtaken Eddie. Unfortunately as on the previous lap these
three Comets caught another group of Club racers but this time both Alan and Addie had passed Brian.
The wind was dropping and it was getting late so the race officer
decided to finish the race on the final downwind leg of the lap. All three
leading boats were within 5 boat-lengths and although Brian had passed Eddie
again Alan crossed the line first followed by Brian and then Eddie The forth place was hotly contended to the
last by John Coppenhall and Nigel Pepperdine
with Nigel coming in ahead.
This put Alan Bennett
clearly in first place with 2 wins but left three others all with 5
points. Nigel was placed second with his
1st and 4th but both Eddie and Brian had a 2nd
and a 3rd so it had to be decided on the last race they counted to
decide and as Brian beat Eddie he was awarded 3rd place.
This event attracted eleven Xtra rigged boats (half the fleet) but in the wind
condition experienced this year at SHSC Open the Standard rig proved king by
taking the first nine places. We
normally get much stronger winds for this Open.
David Waymont C527