Noble Marine Supernova Travellers at Attenborough Sailing Club

Noble Marine Supernova Travellers at Attenborough © Sally Bleasdale

The second leg of the Midlands Double Header attracted a turnout of ten boats for the Noble Marine Traveller Series event at Attenborough SC, including six visitors.

Competitors were treated to sunny conditions initially but the cloud base thickened as the day wore on, accompanied by a fluctuating and gusty 13 gusting 26 knots of breeze, from the West North West, which made for the usual Attenborough challenge of 'island threading' combined with lots of fun 'power gybes'.

The Race Officer had been out early and a course had been set for the planned two back-to-back morning races. The Lead Boat was a much appreciated navigation aid on this particular lake.

Everyone got away cleanly for the first race start, with the starboard side proving advantageous initially to clear the island banks' influence. Matt Biggs from Bartley SC led at the windward mark followed by fellow Bartley sailor, Colin Anderson and Alex Reeve from Cotswold SC. These three held on to take the podium in that order, whilst behind one or two mishaps, capsizes, groundings and lee island wind hole marooning led to quite a few changes of position, and local sailor, Kevin Last led the pack home to take fourth.

Race 2 was a repeat of the first race up front with the slight variation of the battle for second saw Alex Reeve come out on top of Colin Anderson. Matt Biggs was clearly relishing the complexity of the pot and took his second bullet. The rest of the fleet were not all having quite as much fun, with Dana Church again racking up some disconcerting mishaps, although neither head nor hull sustained any physical damage.

Noble Marine Supernova Travellers at Attenborough - photo © Sally Bleasdale

After a break for a relaxing lunch overlooking the picturesque lake from the sheltered balcony terrace of the new clubhouse, the sailors went back out into a steady breeze, which had eased and shifted a little more to the West, for the event's final race.

The fleet started the third race cleanly and Dana Church showed great awareness to take advantage of the shift to gain a spectacular port end flyer that saw him round the windward mark in first with Matt Biggs chasing and Alex Reeve in third.

Dana put the Friday Class training to good use, and with his boat set up for flexible gust response on flat water and his sheeting and pointing technique honed by Alistair Goodwin's coaching, Dana was able to stay up front and was just pipped for the win by the masterly Matt. Alex Reeve took third place to secure a podium position. After a good start Tony Bleasdale also put the Class Pre-Nationals training into action and managed to hold onto fourth place after a two lap battle with Colin Anderson.

Overall Results: