ILCA/Laser open meeting at Frensham Pond Sailing Club

ILCA/Laser open meeting at Frensham Pond © FPSC

Frensham Pond Sailing Club held its ILCA (Laser) Open meeting on Sunday 11 September 2022. The event was part of the Thames Valley Grand Prix series.

After discussions within the General Committee and the class following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, it was decided that we should go ahead in the spirit of 'Keeping Calm and Carrying On'. This was very much on display in the face of low visibility and wind when the first sailors arrived and started rigging their boats.

However, as anyone who has sailed a few times at Frensham knows, the wind soon picked up a bit; enough to clear the fog anyway.

There were 28 entries, of which 21 were adults and 7 youths with 1 x ILCA 4, 9 x ILCA 6s and 18 x ILCA 7s. While there had been other ILCA 4 entries, those sailors mostly changed up to a 6 rig when they saw the day's forecast, leaving the dogged Oscar Bartlett of Hayling Island SC competing with himself!

Knowing the forecast predicted a little more later, our determined Race Officer, Bryan Taylor, delayed the first start by 20 minutes or so and we got off to racing in fairly light winds a little after 11am. The ILCA 7s went first followed by the 6s together with the solitary 4.

Amazingly we managed to get in two races before a slightly later lunch with the wind edging up in the second race.

It was very quickly realised that we had some serious young talent on the water with Giorgia Bonalana from Fraglia Vela Riva, Italy, stamping her authority on the ILCA 6 fleet with our own Thalya Ambroziak, and Giorgia's host for the year, pressing her hard with Edward Clifford in third place.

The ILCA 7 fleet was similarly dominated by youth with Rebecca Videlo easing out Tom Ahlheid, both of Frensham with Simon Hamment of Papercourt third.

After a restorative lunch and cuppa we headed out again to wind that had continued to lift and which saw some mild hiking later on! Normal service was resumed by the leading sailors and indeed Giorgia and Thalya maintained their 1st and second places for all four races as did Rebecca and Tom.

Oscar played the part in true style, sailing three races before coming in for an early tea. The excitement of the competition must have been too much for him!

Scoring was done quickly by Kate Hedley using Sailwave and trophies and prizes presented by our Commodore, Megan Pascoe during the traditional Frensham Tea. Andrew Hill-Smith presented some 'spot prizes' from the Grand Prix sponsors, Sailing Chandlery.

Thanks to all who came, competed and helped. Same again next year?

Final places were:

ILCA 7: Rebecca Videlo, Tom Ahlheid, Simon Hamment
ILCA 6: Giorgia Bonalana, Thalya Ambroziak, Edward Clifford
ILCA 4: Oscar Bartlett

ILCA/Laser open meeting at Frensham Pond - photo © FPSC